Women in Tech — Dream It, Do It, And Don’t Let Anything Stop You!
ShieldSquare commemorates International Women’s Day on March 8, 2018 with a salute to women in tech. Jyoti Kakatkar, our VP of Technology, writes about her insights and experiences as a woman in the largely male-dominated tech industry, along with her advice for women who wish to pursue a career in the tech industry.
I have been working in the IT industry for the last 17 years, mostly with technologies related to Internet security, credit card payments and authentication, in companies such as VeriFone, HP, and Arcot. I have been involved in building products — both large and small — all of which have seen huge successes in the market. It’s good to see the major successes achieved by online wallets, payment gateways, and quick payment mechanisms in recent years, but now when I look back, I had opportunities to build some similar products which were probably ahead of their time. Working with VeriFone was great — excellent colleagues, lots of learning, and good mentorship. With Arcot, which was a startup, life was on a constant roll, with constant effort towards making it big in the secure authentication market.
My career progression
It has been a great journey — like a roller coaster with a lot of ups and downs, but a very satisfactory one indeed. In the initial years, I was on the tech side of things, gaining mastery over the basic concepts and building blocks on which great products are made. There is no end to acquiring knowledge, of course. And especially in recent years, the need to acquire knowledge on new areas of technology has been even greater and more urgent.
I always felt that I could look at a product from various aspects and figure out what combination of factors would make that product successful. In large companies, the scope and elbow room to take bigger and swifter decisions (and get them to fruition) tends to be slightly lower. My work at ArrayShield helped me in discovering that side of myself.
I had to take a maternity break, and I decided to extend it for two years to make sure that I could spend quality time with my son. After that hiatus, I was ready to jump back into my second innings, and was looking for opportunities to work from home. I had the good fortune to meet the team that founded ShieldSquare. Right from the start, I saw the energy, the hunger to build successful products, and the appetite for risk-taking and confronting challenges. I worked as a core team member developing their first product, ArrayShield, and as we pivoted to ShieldSquare, I assumed a leadership role. It has been an absolutely great experience for me in this role!
Although I did not have any pure management experience, the startup leadership experience teaches you things pretty fast. It asks you to be nimble, take quick decisions, have a keen eye for expenses, and forces you to think long-term — and fight fires whenever tactically needed. Most of all, it teaches you to deal with people. In the absence of large budgets, managing teams, keeping them motivated, and gaining their trust has been the most important aspect. My past experience in technology has greatly helped in developing my intuition for the right kinds of people to hire.
My thoughts on women in the tech industry
On the technology front, I think that women can learn many things and deliver great results, both in theoretical or research-oriented roles as well as in practical and execution-oriented roles. There have been great examples of successful women of high achievement in just about every field, although I must concede that statistically they are fewer in number. It might have to do with their personal priorities and other circumstances (in my case, becoming a mother). This is probably the reason you do not find many women at very senior levels in the tech industry.
In my opinion, though, women should persist in their careers, since technology is an area where the physical demands are not that high. I have tremendous respect for women in strenuous professions such as architecture, construction, engineering, space exploration, and professional sports, to name a few.
Women typically tend to be very quality-conscious, and very attentive to detail. More than anything, I think it is her empathy for people that shines through in a working woman. They have an innate understanding of people problems, and are able to make decisions while keeping an individual’s personal circumstances in mind. In a highly result-oriented industry like ours, there needs to be a fine balance — which women are typically good at managing.
My advice for women building their careers
My pet peeve is about women dropping out of their careers for various reasons. I think that if one has the passion and inclination for technology and work in general, things that tend to hinder rejoining the workforce can be easily managed. If it’s about concerns such as household and familial duties, I have no hesitation in advising women to hire helpers, if family members are not available to help. Hire helpers as much as possible, but get back to your passion — whether it’s a job or an entrepreneurial role.
I have also seen people worrying about being out of touch with the latest technologies after a long hiatus from work, which may make them hesitate to attend job interviews. In my opinion, good engineers have strong analytical abilities, and are basically problem solvers. Knowledge of a new language, tool, or even a new technology can be easily picked up on the job. Dedicated engineers can be very forthright about their problem solving abilities and desire to learn new things. These days, with so much information available on the internet, there is no reason whatsoever to hesitate to learn new things.
I think that everyone has the right to pursue her dreams and aspirations, and women should not lose out on their careers for any reason.
