Young Women in Engineering

August-2019

Mark Roulo

Summary

You probably know more than you give yourself credit for and you are probably more talented than you think you are. You will be more successful as an engineer if you:
  1. Build confidence in your own skills and knowledge, and
  2. Be more assertive than is natural for you:
In short, become knowledgable enough about your area of expertise to take a stand ("this is how it works" vs. "I think this is how it works") and then take that stand. Don't wait until you have a perfect understanding of the problem, or totally master some domain. And don't over-estimate how much knowledge is enough. Just don't.

Believe in Your Own Skills and Knowledge

If you don't know something it is fine to either say that you don't know or to just not claim expertise.

But if you do know something or have expertise you need to say that, too. And you can't wait until your knowledge is total and your expertise is perfect.
Annecdote
I was about thirty years old when a software project I had been working on for five years was nearing first release and was going to ship with brand new (very expensive) hardware. The company president had believed that the new software was not going to ship until the NEXT tool and when he realized that the new software was going out soon he wanted a project review to get current.

I was at that meeting and was responsible for a (very) brief part of the presentation. At the end, the company president asked me one question:

"Is it (the new software) going to work?"

My answer was:

"Yes."

Part of what I was being paid for was making the software work, but that was only part of my job. Another part was (a) having an opinion on whether the software was going to work, but also (b) taking ownership of that opinion. The company president isn't going to have his own opinion on this sort of question. He isn't a programmer, isn't familiar with the code and doesn't have time anyway. Part of what he is paying the (more senior) engineers to do is to have these opinions and provide those opinions to him. He does not want to hear:

"I think so."
or:

"Probably."

I had been working on that software for five years and was one of the original developers. Of course it was going to work! Was there some chance that we had missed something critical? In theory, yes, of course. But life is rarely 100% and I didn't know of any un-retired risks.

Sell Your Accomplishments

It is easy to undersell yourself. You may have worked on a project with a long wish list of requirements and you (or you and your team) may have delivered most, but not all, of them. You CAN focus on the ones you missed. Or you can focus on the eight out of ten that you delivered.

The successful engineers are going to tend to focus on the eight not the two. You should also.

You may find that there is some job you want (internal or external) with a set of "requirements" that you almost, but not quite, meet. Apply anyway. The "required" list is often a wish list. If you otherwise look like a fit the hiring manager may interview you anyway. Be ready with a story about how you will close the gap on the missing requirements ("I learn quickly and I've started this on-line course that ..."). The same advice applies to getting to work on a specific task in your current job. If you are close and want to do it, ask.
Annecdote
My first job out of college was at a VERY small startup and after seven months I started looking for a new job with more stability. I found a job posting that sounded interesting and that I thought I could do, but the job required at least two years of experience. I had seven months.

Or maybe I had two years? I had been working a lot of overtime and in tiny startups everyone tends to wear multiple hats ...

So I applied for the job, explaining that I DID have two years experience but that I had acquired the two years experience in seven months. And my resume had enough accomplishments on it that the claim was plausible.

So the hiring manager brought me in for an interview and eventually offered me the job.

Note that I did not lie about having two calendar years of experience. I just claimed two years worth of actual experience accomplishing things.

Be ready, however, for the person handing out the job to ask you if you think you can do it.

You should expect this question and you should have thought about the answer ahead of time.

The correct answer, by the way, if you are asked if you can do some job or task you have asked for is:

"Yes."

Be Visible

Other (male) people will be willing to stand up and ask for what they want. Or to ask questions they want answered. Or to volunteer for some job or task that they want to do. You need to be willing to stand up and be visible.
Annecdote
I went to the 2016 SciPy conference held at the University of Texas as Austin and at the end of one of the talks the presenter took questions. The room held about 200 people and was maybe ½ full. Folks were raising their hands with questions they wanted answered. I had no questions, but sitting directly in front of me was a young woman with a question. Her hand went up, then, hesitatingly down, then back up a bit, then down a bit. Other people were getting their questions answered.

Impulsively, I reached forward, put my hand under her elbow and grasping it (lightly) pushed her arm up high. Then, holding her elbow, I waved her arm back and forth a bit.

The speaker called on her and I let go.

The speaker was perfectly willing to answer her question(s), but needed to know that she had some!

So be visible!