So this happened on Wednesday… Delivered a solo keynote talk on Transforming Tech Careers at J.P. Morgan in Blackfriars for the Black Tech Achievement Awards Finalists networking event they were headline sponsoring. The room was packed with key leaders and employees from J.P. Morgan and other organisations so as a women in tech keynote speaker it was the ideal opportunity to highlight this problem…
that there is a serious problem in tech…
That out of 3 million tech professionals in the UK, only 26% are women, and to my shock and disbelief the lowest representation of underrepresented groups are black women at 0.7%…
0.7% ya know. The stats are ridiculous.
Seems crazy when women are heavy consumers of digital products and 79% of in-app purchasing decisions are made by women… you’d think they’d want to have more of us involved in the design, development and delivery of digital products to make sure needs of diverse customer user base are met.
After debating with many people over the years about why women in general, and especially black women, are so underrepresented in tech, during the talk I highlighted a number of viewpoints from these debates (the attitudes on women in tech from individuals and senior leaders at organisations), and highlighted what I’ve uncovered and experienced during my own tech career journey, and how I’ve helped women build inner confidence to make a career change into tech or progress their existing career in tech through my tech career coaching company Techfidence.
It was important to highlight my own struggles with getting people at organisations to take me seriously as a software developer since it was a regularly held shock view that a black woman could possibly be interested in tech and actually made a success of achieving her goal. Also highlighted my first key project at the start of my career and the most recent project when I decided to pivot my career into the Mobile space as a senior Android Developer then transitioning into leadership of the same development team. A rollercoaster of a journey.
Great to share a real example of one of my coaching clients who transition from Teacher to Associate Solutions Architect within 5 months of completing my coaching programme, achieving her dream job and role that matches her personality, values and desired lifestyle.
Shared some strategies for those transitioning into tech or wanting to progress their career, and ended with a bit of advice.
The talk was well received and resonated with a lot of people and inspired a lot of further deeper conversation about the issues of lack of women in tech and what can be done about it.
Really enjoyed the event and enjoyed delivering the talk as a women in tech keynote speaker. It was great to chat to many key leaders at J.P. Morgan after the talk, and meet some of the other BTA Awards finalists.
If your organisation needs a women in tech keynote speaker to inspire your employees or audience direct message me about public speaking services.
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