Before you jump down my throat and accuse me of seeking attention as women often do, please hear me out and consider my side of the story. I recall my university days when my friends and I would discuss our careers and life goals. As laboratory scientists, we were passionate about our profession, but many of the female students, including myself, yearned for time with our families in the future. One of my male friends would often suggest that teaching was the best job for women, likely due to his mother’s profession. While I agreed with him to an extent, I also loved money and believed that teaching would not befit my status.
After graduating, I obtained a lecturing position at a federal university, which I thought was fitting for me. However, things were not as I had hoped when, in 2019, I had two children and had to juggle my office work, teaching, studying for a higher degree, writing journals, and daycare. Time was scarce, money was tight, and the struggle was real.
My Journey to Tech
Before I bore you with my life story, let me tell you how I got into tech. We all have those friends who were not academically gifted in school, but when you meet them again after several years, you can hardly believe what they’ve accomplished. I had one such friend who spent a lot of time at home with his children, had money, and was not as stressed as I was. When I asked him what he did for a living, he replied that he was a DevOps engineer who worked remotely. These terms were foreign to me at the time. It wasn’t until the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2019 that I begged him to show me how he did it, and he suggested that I learn AWS. That’s how my tech journey began.
Was It Easy?
To be honest, changing careers to tech was not an easy journey. I had many limiting beliefs, such as “How will I cope?”, “Tech is for men,” “I need to know a lot of programming,” “I’m already too old,” “I can’t understand what they’re saying,” “No one will employ me,” “The market is already too saturated,” “They only want young people,” “What if I fail?” and all manner of negativity. Nevertheless, I persevered, and after a year, I landed a junior DevOps role that was fully remote and paid much more than I could have imagined.
It’s now been four years, and I’m a full-fledged DevOps engineer. I work remotely, which allows me to attend to my family’s needs. We relocated to Europe as a family, and I work without borders. I am grateful for the opportunities that being in tech has given me.
A huge influence on my persistence to learn was my experience teaching at the university for five years. I knew that learning and IQ were not gender-biased. In most cases, female students outperformed their male counterparts. Learning was not age-dependent; it was determined by an individual’s inner drive.
As a woman, mother, and wife, being in tech has altered my perspective on life and relationships. It’s a field of continuous learning, and I’m always learning, which means that I’m not relegated to the background, as is the fate of many women who keep the home or raise children. Women in tech are intelligent, and they continually face the challenge of male colleagues who attempt to belittle them. They must also balance their home and work lives. I’m frequently the only woman on the tech team, and the struggle is real, but it inspires me to want to learn more.
It takes a smart woman to thrive in the tech space, being a smart woman rubs off on the children and the entire home, smart women build smart families and smart families build a smarter world. Hence my argument; the world benefits more from women in tech.
Happy Women’s Month!
Your story is an inspiration 🙏