Driving WinTech Community Conversation Recap in Calgary
By Shahbano Zaman
The Driving WinTech Community Conversation in Calgary was held at the Global Business Centre and made possible by its sponsors: Volition, District Ventures and Startup Calgary. Moderator Jenn Delconte, Community Manager at Startup Canada, had the panelists introduce themselves with two minute pitches on why their story is compelling and what they hoped the audience takes away from their stories. Additional questions to the panel included:
What experiences led you to your career today?
How do you ensure your voice is heard in the tech community?
What keeps you up at night as you develop your career?
What support did you have growing your career in the tech industry?
What’s one thing you know today that you wish you’d known earlier?
Katie Peterson, Software Developer at AimSio, started as a chemical engineer in the US who relocated after marrying her Canadian husband. While looking for employment in Calgary she quickly discovered she would have to retrain. After a period of exploration, she chose to learn coding which then led to her current job. She stated that presently there is much focus on Calgary’s tech sector, which creates an exciting opportunity for those involved to drive and shape its culture. More personally, she wants to help steer it to a future where it works for women. As one driven to make a difference, she takes on opportunities that come her way. She advised those transitioning between careers that the effort they put into their self-exploration defines them more than where they end up.
Kylie Woods, Founder and Executive Director of Chic Geek, describes herself as a nontechnical person building a community with and for women in tech and entrepreneurship. She hopes that people view Calgary as a place where “you can do whatever you want.” Upon stumbling into the tech ecosystem she was drawn to its energy and talent. Navigating the field as a young woman was intimidating, and she felt that there must be other women who shared her experience, which lead her to start her nonprofit organization. She remarked that it took four years for her to feel like she belonged in the field. Developing confidence has been a personal challenge for her although her supportive husband, team and community partners helped her tremendously. As a recovering perfectionist she worries about the details of her work. She advised to “Take someone else along for the ride.” as lending a hand to elevate others creates amazing culture and community.
Chett Matchett, Director of Business Innovation ATB Financial, has strong ambitions including transforming the banking industry and empowering her team to achieve great goals.
Having always loved building, creating and solving complex problems she was led to entrepreneurship and continues to push herself to grow every day. She made it a point to surround herself with a supportive network including her partner, influencers and mentors who listen to and elevated her. She encouraged the audience to embrace their vulnerability as openness and honesty allowed her to empower others.
Recommendations:
Katie:
Quit her chemical engineer at a semiconductor manufacturer in the US. Semiconducting and manufacturing is very different from Calgary’s oil and gas. Long period of unemployment – identity crises and personal struggle
Tried networking and skill crossover options. Realized that if she was going to retrain anyway, may as well do so for something that she is passionate about – not oil and gas!
Driven by opportunities to make a difference. So if people ask for her opinion or her voice – she will come and speak. Grateful for having to begin a new career path – this identity as a beginner brought clear perspective what she knows and doesn’t know. Feels comfortable talking about the things she has a grasp on and very open to taking in feedback on areas she is new at.
A ‘controlling’, ‘hands on’ person. Is up thinking about decisions OTHERS are making – wants to know that they are the best for the company. No doubts about her own drive.
Was involved in Chic Geek during her exploration period. Very supportive and allowed her to explore and discover her interests. Helped her get a job. The relationship continues.
Your successes and failures in your career only tell a small story about you. Don’t define yourself by your difficulties and the challenges you face. Difficult period of unemployment and didn’t know who she was or explain who she was to people if she wasn’t an engineer. Your identity is not tied to one thing. Enjoyed technical work that’s why she was drawn to engineering. Still doing that in her new job though. Poignant message for those who need a change and are doing some exploring.
Chett:
Started with a contract with ATB Financial and now obsessed with her work there!
Not shy to share her opinions – fueled by a passion to solve problems and build and create.
Ambitious and hard on herself. Questions that keep her up at night: how can I do more? How can I do better? How can I solved even more complex problems? How can I continue to grow, grow, grow grow grow grow ..
On vulnerability: Had a difficult time asking for help earlier in her career, felt she had to do everything on her own. Felt she was weak or lacking if she could not do it herself. Being vulnerable, open and honest allowed her to help and empower other people.
Kylie:
Education background in public relations and PR and self-taught graphic designer/web designer. Experienced major imposter syndrome being a nontechnical. Leadership and confidence issues – several women can relate to.
Noticed the gap in the community serving women who wanted to be more technical – if I’m struggling with this problem – there must be other women (personal to public). Started as an experiment and now a nonprofit!
Was invited to an event earlier where community leaders shared their ideas – one of the only women there – for the first time felt like she belonged and acknowledged her own value add. Realizes she asks permission to do something rather than doing it and asking for forgiveness later – that has been a personal challenge for her.
Rations the time she allows herself to worry about things at night and then visualises plucking them out of her head – the little things keep her up that don’t really matter in the grand scheme.
A supportive group of champions (husband) who completely supported her quitting her job in the middle of a recession and spend a year working for free on her company. Her team at Chic Geek is amazing. Community partners helped them connect and collaborate with other organisations.
Theme of helping and/or serving others: Take someone else along for the ride’ – you are never too young, smart, old, inexperienced to help someone out. Introduce them to people, lend advice, help them out – that is what made the difference in her company and allowed it to grow. Lend a hand to elevate another woman – service to others.
TURNS OUT everyone on the panel was connected before through mutual support, networking and Chic Geek. They met at a book club when Katie was new and exploring and they were reading this book called: Your Body of Work – piecing together your personal story and your strengths and packaging it to sell yourself.
Questions from the audience:
Question 1: How do you go about exploring yourself – realizing that you have unlimited potential/space? How do you overcome ‘maybe that’s not who I am?’ few women entrepreneurs and role models. How to you overcome self-doubt?
Katie: Knowing you have unlimited space and potential and you can do anything can be very daunting (she was personally forced into it because she had no job –necessarily choose it). What she did was try different things without much direction and see what happens. Then you have a piece of data: I tried this, this is what happened and you move on from there.
Recounts someone else’s similar story (Debbie) who wanted a career change and there were so many options – she just started going to things. Meetups and talking to people. Was able to narrow into what it was that she wanted to pursue. Try things, and take the data that you get from failures and things that didn’t work as valuable steps and use that to guide you.
Chett: challenged the audience: men apply to jobs they are 50% qualified for and women for those they are 110% qualified for. Find a career/job you aspire to: and pursue it regardless. Do something to help you stand out and go for it! You’ll be surprised at how many doors open for you.
Jenn: there are good (confident) days and days you question yourself. She quit her job to work on her company. Chett mentioned the strengths finder 2.0 to her at some point – you think you know yourself but you try this and it tells you your 5 keys strengths – it helped give her confidence about her own unique strengths. Also a mentor and a business coach to air out concerns and vulnerabilities too. Often she ends up answering her own questions – but it really helps to have someone listen to you.
Question 2: As a woman, how do you advertise your soft skills (e.g. people skills, perceptive, noticing what motivates people) – especially during the resume process
Chett: finds resumes boring – never hires based on resumes alone. Interested in people who are creative and set themselves apart in some way. E.g. putting a video together, putting a deck together, sending a care package, asking the leader out to coffee – anything to highlight your passions and ability to connect with people on a human level
Jenn: calls her female intuition her ‘secret sauce’. Can be applied in a business setting and requires knowing when and how to recognize and point out something your peers wouldn’t. In her own experience in a male dominated culture she felt she had to do much in order to be noticed and heard. Her power move was to speak up during one on one conversations and highlight personal and behavioral nuances and perceptions (‘person xyz didn’t seem to pick up on this point so perhaps we could …’) that women are particularly adept at noticing – and make suggestions accordingly. Later on people relied on this skill of hers and consulted her regarding their manner (‘was that ok? Should I have said/done that differently’?).
During a resume process get noticed by use networking and connections
Katie: volunteer for something that’s going to demonstrate the skillset that you are trying to showcase and then put it on your resume.
Question 3: What to do once you hit a plateau? What to do next?
Katie: Was worried about becoming too specialized because that happened when she was an engineer so now actively looks into entering other domains. Currently an iOS developer but also volunteers in other aspects of the software for breadth and diversity of knowledge.
Kylie: Annual summit coming up, looking into expansion, reviewing revenue model.
Chett: Loves leading people and wants to grow in that area and lead more people! Excited to see ATB Financial expand.