Women in Tech: “No one was born with all their knowledge”

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  • March 16, 2022
Technology

A research study by The National Center for Women & Information Technology showed that “gender diversity has specific benefits in technology settings,” which could explain why tech companies have started to invest in initiatives that aim to boost the number of female applicants, recruit them in a more effective way, retain them for longer, and give them the opportunity to advance. But is it enough?

Four years ago, we launched a diversity series aimed at bringing the most inspirational and powerful women in the tech scene to your attention. Today, we’d like you to meet Mey Beisaron, infrastructure developer at Forter.

Today’s Woman in Tech: Mey Beisaron, infrastructure developer at Forter

Mey is a Software Engineer, a Backend Developer and a public speaker.

When she is not spending her weekends at Hackathons she talks at tech conferences about Functional Programming, Clojure, game development, oraAlgorithms. (She has talked at more than 12 tech conferences over the past year). Mey loves to develop games and learn languages such as Russian, Italian & Scala.

Mey is also a sworn Star Wars fan.

May the force be with you.

When did you become interested in technology? What first got you interested in tech?

Taking the wrong course in college is how I fell in love with coding.

In my first semester in college, I registered myself to the wrong course and ended up going to a C language course that was part of the Software Engineering curriculum, although I was in Material Engineering. It was love at first sight although I had NO background in coding. By the end of that semester, I joined Software Engineering and graduated 4.5 years later.

Let’s talk about your background. How did you end up in your career path? What obstacles did you have to overcome?

Landing my first job was the hardest step.

During technical job interviews, I got comments like “You’re too funny for a programmer “ or “Why don’t you go work in styling or teach something you’re so colorful and chatty.”

I thought these comments were because I wore the “wrong” outfit so I bought a pair of black pants, a black t-shirt and fake glasses. (I even posted it on my Instagram page).

That did not help. Eventually, I landed my first job when I interviewed wearing a pink dress. What actually helped was being 100% ready for the technical questions part and not giving up.

Do you have a role model?

My role model is Michal Braverman-Blumensty. She’s Corporate Vice President at Microsoft Corporation, General Manager of Israel R&D Center and CTO, Cloud & AI Security.

What actually helped was being 100% ready for the technical questions part and not giving up.

I appreciate her point of view regarding being a woman in the tech industry. In this interview, she talks about how in the early days of her career she ignored the fact that she’s a woman because (in her words): “You want to be recognized as a technological or business leader. Nobody notes on a man’s gender and I always thought that if I made it an issue, it would become an issue.” Later on, she talks about how she changed her mind and started to help advance other women. I admire her honesty and the fact that she’s so successful and not being apologetic about it.

A day in Mey’s life

I am an infrastructure developer at Forter. I write code in several different programming languages such as Python, Groovy and in my free time I develop some personal projects in Clojure.

My workday starts with a huge cup of coffee. Then we have a team meeting where each of us shares with the others what they currently work on and what they plan to work on next. Then I have a few hours of coding-coffee-coding-coffee until the day ends.

Every time I go up on stage to share my knowledge about Functional Programming or algorithms or game development is when I feel the most proud of myself.

What are you most proud of in your career?

I had the honor of talking at several big coding conferences in different countries. Every time I go up on stage to share my knowledge about Functional Programming or algorithms or game development is when I feel the most proud of myself.

What advice (and tips) would you give to women who want a tech career? What should they know about this industry?

Over the past few years, I’ve been mentoring many women in landing their first/second job as developers. I help them go through the process of improving their resume, guiding them in the development of personal projects, and preparing for tech interviews.

Here’s what I learned:

  • No one was born with all their knowledge – everyone had to start from scratch.
  • Focus on your goal, believe in yourself, and don’t give up.
  • Be aware of inequality. Yes, it still exists. No company wants to be caught saying they didn’t hire someone based on their gender/color/religion…. However, the numbers show that it is still happening – the tech industry is still a male-dominated industry. So where is this inequality happening? It could be in the form of getting disrespectful comments during job interviews or getting asked harder questions in the interview process just because you walked in looking “different” or getting a lower salary offer than other male colleagues. My suggestion for dealing with that is to stay strong, keep working hard, invest your time in expanding your knowledge, and don’t let anyone discourage you.

Remember! You’re always, ALWAYS welcome to reach out to me if you want help, advice, or just a virtual hug 🙂

More Women in Tech:

For even more Women in Tech, click here

The post Women in Tech: “No one was born with all their knowledge” appeared first on JAXenter.

Source : JAXenter

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