Alison Vincent is the CTO of Cisco UK&I. In this article, she discusses the importance of encouraging the next generation of women to join the tech world.
It has never been a more exciting time to be working in the technology sector. Today, technology is changing our lives in so many ways that we couldn’t have predicted, particularly when I started out in my career, at a point when computers were just beginning to come on to the scene.
As soon as I recognised the potential for computing to transform the world, I knew I wanted to be part of it. I wanted to catch it early and be involved in something I knew would change the way we operate on a social, professional and even economic level.
I’ve already had a very rewarding career and landing my role as chief technology officer (CTO) for Cisco UK&I, means I get to work with organisations of all sizes, from the tech startups we mentor through Cisco’s BIG Awards programme, to the large organisations we work with every day on wide-scale transformation projects.
Today as digitisation and the Internet of Things (IoT) gains pace, the tech scene is opening up as a career destination to so many more talented individuals.
In my opinion, this is incredibly important. I’m equally as passionate about people and technology, which is why I’m also an ambassador for women in STEM.
Figures out this week, that reveal women still only occupy just 17% of tech jobs in the UK, with fewer than one in 10 of these women in leadership positions in the sector, really concern me.
Regardless of the cause, this to me seems a great shame. Technology is a hugely broad and diverse industry and we need an equally broad and diverse talent pool in which to further develop the technology of tomorrow.
Initiatives such as the 30% club — in which I play an active role — are spearheading campaigns to readdress the gender balance and further empower women into tech careers. Yet the very existence of these initiatives reveals that there is still work to do.
Finding your inspiration
On the face of it, there should be no reason why women still face challenges in rising to the top in the tech industry.
Yet the fact is we still don’t have as many strong and inspirational women leading the technology sector that are visible from the outside, to inspire a young female generation to get involved.
My tech hero has always been Grace Hopper, one of the first computer programmers. I love her upheld belief that programming should be as easy to read as English, and it’s thanks to her that we write in ‘Ifs and Thens’ as opposed to in 1s and 0s.
Grace was a pioneer of the COBOL language, and I spent part of my early career working for a company whose business was based on COBOL. Although this language is now quite ‘ancient’, it still drives most of the major banks and financial transactions that are around today.
Working in the industry, I am increasingly inspired by those I collaborate with, from all genders and backgrounds. It’s an industry that attracts passionate and motivated individuals with a desire to innovate and drive change.
Just last year when I was working on the Cisco BIG awards programme, I got to spend time with Jenny Griffiths the founder and CEO of SnapFashion and previous winner of the Cisco BIG awards, who has just recently been awarded an MBE. She is a great example of women in technology making their mark and being successful in the industry. She should be inspiring our next generation.
Technology as a driver for change
Technology, ever a driver for change, is playing a fundamental role in readdressing the gender balance.
BYOD, flexible working and collaboration tools such as telepresence and video conferencing, have all begun to be introduced by businesses and enable an innovative and creative work environment regardless of location.
This has given control back to employees, both men and women, and helped to provide greater opportunity to establish a work life balance and focus on their career progression.
Seek training to develop skills to get you ahead
For those in the industry who are looking to progress to the next level, training can give you the final push you need.
I believe that investing in training is vital, especially in relation to the softer skills, such as your demeanor at work.
By ensuring that training is continual, women can continue to develop the skills that will help them be heard, ensure they are respected, and reinforce that they deserve that career progression into the boardroom just as much as the next person with the right skills and expertise for the role.
I also believe there needs to be stricter guidelines on hiring, not necessarily in relation to gender, but across the board in terms of ensuring diversity in business.
An example of this is making sure that the interview panel has the right mix of experience and diversity from across the company. At Cisco, we are encouraging this approach at the early stages of interview, in order to make sure that we employ the most talented people and bring together diverse groups that can drive the creativity and innovation that we are proud of.
This is a tactic that other organisations must follow in order to achieve that business agility.
Encouraging the next generation
To have any impact on improving the gender ratio in the tech industry, we have to find ways of inspiring a next generation into the industry without gender being a consideration. We should be championing the importance of STEM subjects from an early age regardless of a child’s background or gender.
Inspiring the next generation of women and young professionals is something that I am incredibly passionate about and see as vital to the future of the tech industry – as a reflection of this, I was recently honoured to be shortlisted in the Inspire category for the everywomen in Technology Awards.
But, it has to begin in the classroom, with the introduction of coding programmes and an emphasis on STEM subjects, such as science and maths.
The Cisco Little BIG Awards are a great example of a practical way to get school age children to engage in thinking about the opportunities in an increasingly connected world. By approaching the tech industry as one that is all about solving problems, we have found that those who wouldn’t usually consider applying have risen above the stigma that can often be unfairly attached to jobs in maths or engineering and looked at the wider opportunities the industry has to offer.
There is no denying that a career in technology today is a truly fantastic one; with those entering it now playing a pivotal role in transforming our world in ways we can hardly imagine. With ever-developing wearable technology, and the arrival of big data, the meaning of a job in IT has fundamentally changed.
I urge business, government and educators to help us all to continue to challenge these stereotypes, both about the industry and the gender bias, to encourage the brightest talent of tomorrow into our industry and the amazing opportunities a career in technology brings.