International Women's Day: Showcasing women in technology
To celebrate International Women’s Day and as part of our Data Matters theme, we caught up with Systems and Process Analyst Kiran Mahmood to talk about the benefits of working in the technology sector, and inspiring inclusion to encourage more women into STEM.
I initially enrolled in university to study computer science, but I felt the course just wasn’t for me, being one of two women on the programme was quite isolating so I made the decision to switch to computing, I was much more comfortable on this course and graduated with my degree in computing and embarked on my career.
I joined NOE CPC in 2020 as Technical Support Officer, when I joined there was only one other female in the team and now there are three of us. I definitely think the tide is beginning to shift with more women taking an interest in STEM subjects and looking at the technology field as a career option, I feel that there are a lot of women who are interested in STEM subjects, but they may be holding back because they don’t see many other women in those fields, things have moved on a bit and perceptions have changed, but not nearly enough.
There are a lot of benefits to having a career in technology, I really enjoy it because technology is moving at such a fast pace, every day is different and there is always something new to learn, whether its faults and problems we need to work through, or new software and techniques to apply to our systems and processes.
During my time at NOE CPC, I have progressed from technical support to Systems and Process Analyst, it’s been a big shift from my previous role, but I’ve been really lucky, and that’s down to being part of a really supportive team. They have been really encouraging whenever there was an opportunity to learn something new or taking on a project. Creating a partnership portal to facilitate collaboration with our partners was my most independent project so far. I didn’t have much skill with Sharepoint when I undertook the project, but I spent time learning and accessing resources to build up my knowledge. It was a really interesting project with a lot of complexities, and it took a lot of headspace to figure it out, but I was happy with the final outcome, and it’s nice to be able to sit back and look at a piece of work and own it. But technology is constantly shifting so once you become comfortable with something it’s on to the next thing.
My role has also opened up opportunities for me to develop my skills sets in other areas. I have recently created an asset management app to keep track of physical office items such as laptops stored in one place where it can be kept up to date and visible. It was a new experience and required learning a new set of skills, but I found it interesting.
The theme of International Women’s Day for 2024 is to inspire inclusion and I think we can do that in the tech field by simply being visible, the more we get out there at events and the more we put the word out about careers in STEM fields, seeing women in those roles will become the norm.