Overcoming Obstacles to Success: Surviving and Thriving in the High Tech World

1
Overcoming Obstacles to Success Surviving and
Thriving in the High Tech World

• Kelly Lopez File
• Sr. Competitive Strategy Manager
• Microsoft Corporation
• kellyfi_at_microsoft.com

2
Agenda

• Introduction
• How are women doing in high tech?
• Obstacles to success
• How to survive
• How to thrive
• Personal highs and lows
• Resources

3
Introduction

• 37 years old
• Hispanic
• Mother of 7 month old baby girl
• BS in Computer Engineering from U of W
• 20 years of experience
• 8 software test and design
• 9 software development
• 3 competitive marketing

4
In the grand scheme of things
5
How are women doing in high tech?

• Better in pay equity
• Non high tech .73 on the dollar
• Tech .92 on the dollar

40 of Computer Science degrees awarded to women
in 1994
National Science Foundation 1998 US Census
Data 2001 survey from techie.com of 106,000
workers across 39 U.S. job markets, all levels
6
Top 50 Fortune Most Powerful Women

• 1. Carly Fiorina Chairman CEO,
  Hewlett-Packard
• 2. Meg Whitman President CEO, eBAY
• 6. Anne Mulcahy President CEO, Xerox
• 23. Betsy Bernard President CEO, ATT
  Consumer
• 28. Ann Livermore EVP, HP Services
• 30. Linda Sandford SVP Group Exec, IBM
  Storage Systems
• 32. Donna Dubinsky CEO, Handspring
• 47. Janet Davidson Group President, Lucent
  Integrated Networks
• 49. Louise Francesconi VP GM, Missile
  Systems, Raytheon
• 9 out of 50 are at technology-related companies

7
Common obstacles

• Attraction to technical education
• Getting through the door
• Retaining women long enough for them to move up
• Individual obstacles

8
Education issues

• Qualified female students dont choose scientific
  majors
• OTA report of 2,000 9th grade students
• End of high school 280 male, 220 females have
  sufficient math for scientific degree
• But only 16 of qualified females vs. 50 of
  males choose scientific majors
• College can reduce self esteem of women
• 80 high school valedictorians 20 of both men
  and women ranked selves as highly intelligent
• During college, women outperformed in GPA
• But only 3 of women vs. 20 of men ranked selves
  high after sophomore year!
• Personal experience
• The other two women in my program quit during 1st
  quarter!
• Issues with a prof that wanted to flunk me out of
  Analog Electronics
• Lab partners scarce, had to be creative

9
Filling the pipeline

• UMass College of Engineering great work!
• Minority Engineering Program
• Engineering Exploration Program (SWE, Girl
  Scouts, College of Engineering effort)
• Women in Engineering Program
• TWIST great way to retain women!
• Corporate sponsorship
• IBM, Ford, Raytheon, Texas Instruments, Microsoft
• Take Your Daughters to Work Day

10
Getting through the employers door

• Hiring processes can be um, biased
• Women often disqualify themselves
• Men 20 job knowledge is enough
• Women 80!
• Not negotiating well starts you at a disadvantage
• Learn to sell your qualities to prospective
  employers
• On the other hand
• Education pipeline problems mean fewer female
  candidates available they need you
• NETWORK, NETWORK, NETWORK

Networking is the 1 success factor for women in
high tech
11
Retention

• Women are highest turnover group
• Work-life balance
• Lack of mentoring and networking
• Cant fulfill ambitions, lack of professional
  development
• No matter how hard I try, I wont win
• Lack of visibility to upper management
• Turnover makes it hard to find qualified female
  candidates for leadership roles

Mentoring is key to retention
12
Individual obstacles

• The imposter syndrome
• Stanford study shows men more confident
• Men more confident that they can handle the
  workload (2x)
• Women half as comfortable speaking up in class
• 33 of women (vs 9 men) fear that speaking up
  will expose them as imposters
• Women tend to downgrade their capabilities
• Success attributed to lots of hard work vs. men
  who claim innate ability
• Competing can be uncomfortable
• Fear of the unknown, aversion to changes

13
How to survive

• Fake it until you feel more confident!!
• Everybody messes up
• Everybody feels insecure about their job
  performance
• The most successful people are not those who mess
  up the least
• Learn to speak up in many different situations
• Ask the right questions
• Kaitlin Duck Sherwood, 1994

14
How to thrive

• Get more comfortable with risks, change
• My switch to sales and marketing
• Stepped down from manager to individual contrib
  role
• Can do attitude helps ensure success
• Mentor and be mentored
• 46.8 of women of color cite lack of mentoring as
  major barrier to advancement (Catalyst Survey)
• 44 of women of color cite mentoring as a
  critical success factor
• UMass participates in MentorNet program use it!
• Enjoy working with men
• They say what they think
• They make great mentors
• They have wives and daughters, too
• NETWORK, NETWORK, NETWORK

15
My experiences

• Just like the Olympics the thrill of victory
  and the agony of defeat!

16
The Agony of Defeat

• Wanted to quit many times while working 30 hours
  and FT college
• Couldnt break into the mens club at last
  company
• Had to fire someone for sexual harassment
• Presentation to German Bankers 1st 6 months on
  the job at Microsoft
• Car and luggage stolen in Malaysia
• Literally 100s of dumb questions asked
• In front of SVP realized I was not prepared
  enough

Motto always make it to the nearest bathroom
before you start crying
17
The Thrill of Victory

• Overcame fear of public speaking!
• Presentation to 1500 peers at Moscone within 5
  months on the job
• Denmark 4 hour E-Commerce seminar
• Bangkok followed SVP to present to 1000 on
  E-Commerce
• 1 rated speaker in the Executive Briefing Center
• Making a difference
• Conference Board conference, sharing results with
  MS management
• Most Influential Women of Color in Technology
  award
• Included live radio interview
• Mentoring and being mentored
• Technical accomplishments
• Kernel mode driver development in C of an NFS
  Server
• Designed and implemented an API for a customer
  resulted in 1M sale
• Promoted to manage a team within a year at
  Microsoft

18
Working mommy moments

• Missing my moment in the spotlight
• Code word for pumping maintenance
• Never leave your pump unattended
• How to turn down international travel
  opportunity
• Never underestimate the effects of sleep
  deprivation

19
Resources

• Contact me
• Kellyfi_at_microsoft.com
• MentorNet www.mentornet.net
• National Engineers Week www.eweek.org
• UMass Women in Engineering Program (WEP)
  http//www.ecs.umass.edu/wep.html
• Women in Technology International (WITI)
  www.witi.org
• Society of Women Engineers (SWE) www.swe.org
• IEEE Women in Engineering (WIE)
  www.ieee.org/organizations/committee/women
• Toastmasters International www.toastmasters.com
• Positive Politics at Work by McKenna and McHenry
• Why So Slow The Advancement of Women by Virginia
  Valian

20
Congratulations!

• Enjoy the new Microsoft Center for Women in
  Engineering and Science
• Questions/Comments?