Women in tech – a topic that has lost none of its pertinence in 2024, with men still far outnumbering women in the sector. We strive to create a working environment where everyone is able to realise their full potential. This spurs us to tackle the question of how to inspire girls and women to work in tech. This series aims at giving positive role models a stage, spotlighting women from our Tech & Product department. This time we have Vicky and Lia joining us.
Lia found her way into tech through a data protection officer position at a rehabilitation and recovery centre. She followed that up with work as a data protection consultant and customer success manager for awareness training courses. Today, she is the Team Lead for Information Security at Kaufland e-commerce.
Vicky shifted gears in her career, moving from the management sector into tech and bringing more than 15 years of professional experience in management, IT and security along with her. She is currently the Chief Information Security Officer at Kaufland e-commerce.
Lia, Vicky, what do you find particularly exciting about your work?
Lia: I love just how varied my tasks and responsibilities are. Every day is different and it never gets boring. Some situations need me to get creative, while others demand my communication skills and some days are all about my technical expertise. There’s a huge range of topics covered by information security.
However, they all have the same goal: To help make things a little safer every day.
Personally, as a practising Buddhist, I also like to draw parallels between information security and certain Buddhist principles which have helped me feel particularly comfortable in this environment. In my eyes, we are always looking at the middle way: The Middle Way is an experience-based principle of life and judgement that focusses on how we respond to our experiences, rather than a statement about how things ultimately are. The Middle Way is a metaphor for a holistic way of life that renounces all metaphysical absolutisations and truths. Similarly, in information security there’s rarely one single right approach. It is often a matter of balancing things out to find a workable solution that is acceptable for everyone. (Source: The Buddha’s Middle Way by Robert. M. Ellis, 2019). We support our customers, our employees and our company in implementing legal regulations and security standards and in generating the necessary knowledge to protect themselves by behaving in a security-aware way. We pay particular attention to designing measures and processes in ways that ensure they are not an obstacle, but rather can be seamlessly integrated into our employees’ daily work processes.
Vicky: No two days are the same – we face new challenges with new colleagues every day, whether that’s within Kaufland e-commerce or the Schwarz Group. With every challenge, it’s important to keep questioning your knowledge base so that you can continue expanding it and find solutions that precisely address the various problems.
Women very much remain a minority in tech, but you both chose a career in the field. How do you think we can encourage more women and girls to forge a path in tech?
Lia: I think many women and girls haven’t been provided with a proper picture of just how diverse the range of careers in tech is. Whenever I get asked about my work in information security and start talking about it, lots of people seem amazed at just how extensive and varied the topics are.
For example, not many people know the difference between cyber security, IT security and information security. So if we already have such clear differences within security, yet not that much is known about them, the situation in the tech world as a whole becomes even harder to comprehend.
When I was 18, for example, I thought that working in tech had a lot to do with maths and logical thinking. However, the tech world needs every kind of skill and character trait to thrive. We need innovative thinking, but we also need creativity, communication skills and so much more, which means there’s a place for everyone.
So my answer to this question is: Education and visibility. One way to approach this would be through less cryptically worded job postings. Sometimes you see real buzzword battles going on here.
Vicky: First off, we need to stop gendering topics – there simply is no such thing as typically female or male these days. This also means that we have to keep the barriers to entry as low as possible for everyone involved and we have to meet people where they are, which includes speaking their language from the get-go.
Of course, we still need role models. We all remember the feeling of trying to emulate someone from our childhood, and being able to identify with someone of the same gender certainly helps. In the end, though, it is probably more about the feeling that a person triggers within us that makes us follow them and celebrate them.
What do you think companies need to pay attention to in order to promote gender equality in tech?
Lia: There are a number of studies that look at various different aspects of the application process from the perspective of gender. Among other things, studies evaluated at which level of qualification men or women apply to a job. Male applicants apply when they fulfil 60 percent of the requirements, while women will only apply for a position when their qualifications meet every single point listed in the job description – meaning, at 100 percent.
Since I don’t believe any statistics I haven’t falsified myself, I don’t assume that this is always the case. However, I’m pretty sure that women do tend to seek out jobs that are most suited to their profile in order to reduce the rejection rate and structure their application management more effectively.
One option would therefore be to make the requirement profiles for tech positions more flexible or clearer. Sometimes job postings get unnecessarily puffed up with qualifications and requirements that aren’t needed for the job in question.
Another possibility would be to support applicants as they navigate through the jungle of buzzwords to help them identify a suitable position before applying.
As a company, we know what qualifications, soft skills and hard skills we are looking for. So why not do away with the tedium of reading job postings and instead offer a kind of quiz that suggests the ideal position for an applicant or a selection of suitable positions based on the data they have entered.
This would not only give women the opportunity to search for their own buzzwords, but could also motivate them to take a different direction in their careers through surprising suggestions that match their qualifications.
Note
Vicky: Balance is a strange goal – in the end, we want to fill all positions with the person who is best suited for them, regardless of gender. Characteristics that have been thought of as “typically female”, such as empathy or organisational skills, can be brought to the table by anyone. The conclusion that I think should be drawn here is on the subject of barriers to entry – only the people who understand what the company does and what the job posting is communicating will apply. My recommendation: Have job postings proofread by different genders or people from outside the sector.