Women in Tech: “No one is born with all their knowledge”

A study by the National Center for Women & Information Technology found that “gender diversity has specific advantages in tech environments,” which may explain why tech companies have begun investing in initiatives to increase the number of female candidates. , to recruit them in a more effective way, to retain them longer and to give them the possibility of evolving. But is it enough?

Four years ago, we launched a diversity series aimed at bringing your attention to the most inspiring and powerful women in the tech scene. Today we invite you to meet Mey Beisaron, infrastructure developer at Forter.

Today’s Woman in Tech: Mey Beisaron, Infrastructure Developer at Forter

Mey is a software engineer, backend developer and speaker.

When she’s not spending her weekends at Hackathons, she speaks at tech conferences on functional programming, Clojure, game development, oraAlgorithms. (She has spoken at over 12 technical conferences in the past year). Mey enjoys developing games and learning languages ​​such as Russian, Italian and Scala.

Mey is also a sworn Star Wars fan.

May the force be with you.

When did you start getting interested in technology? What first got you interested in technology?

It was while taking the wrong course in college that I fell in love with coding.

In my first semester in college, I enrolled in the wrong course and ended up taking a C language course that was part of the software engineering program, even though I was in materials engineering. It was love at first sight even though I had NO coding experience. At the end of that semester, I joined software engineering and graduated 4.5 years later.

Let’s talk about your journey. How did you find yourself in your professional career? What obstacles did you have to overcome?

Landing my first job was the most difficult step.

At tech job interviews, I’ve gotten comments like “You’re too funny for a programmer” or “Why don’t you go work in styling or teach something you’re so colorful and talkative ? »

I thought these comments were because I was wearing the “wrong” outfit, so I bought black pants, a black t-shirt, and fake glasses. (I even posted it on my Instagram page).

It didn’t help. Eventually, I landed my first job when I interviewed wearing a pink dress. What really helped was being 100% ready for the technical part and not giving up.

Do you have a model?

My role model is Michal Braverman-Blumensty. She is Vice President of Microsoft Corporation, General Manager of the Israel R&D Center and CTO, Cloud & AI Security.

What really helped was being 100% ready for the technical part and not giving up.

I appreciate her perspective on being a woman in the tech industry. In this interview, she talks about how, early in her career, she ignored the fact that she’s a woman because (in her own words): “You want to be recognized as a technology or business leader. No one records a man’s sex and I always thought that if I made it a problem, it would become a problem. Later, she shares how she changed her mind and started helping other women get ahead. I admire her honesty and the fact that she does so well and doesn’t apologize for it.

A day in the life of May

I’m an infrastructure developer at Forter. I write code in several different programming languages ​​such as Python, Groovy and in my spare time I develop personal projects in Clojure.

My working day starts with a huge cup of coffee. Then we have a team meeting where each of us shares with the others what we are currently working on and what we plan to work on next. Then I have a few hours of coding-coffee-coding-coffee until the end of the day.

Every time I go on stage to share my knowledge about functional programming or algorithms or game development, that’s when I feel most proud of myself.

What are you most proud of in your career?

I had the honor of speaking at several major coding conferences in different countries. Every time I go on stage to share my knowledge about functional programming or algorithms or game development, that’s when I feel most proud of myself.

What advice (and tips) would you give to women who want to pursue a career in tech? What should they know about this industry?

Over the past few years, I’ve mentored many women to land their first/second job as developers. I help them improve their CV, guide them in the development of personal projects and prepare for technical interviews.

Here is what I learned:

• Nobody was born with all their knowledge – everyone had to start from scratch.
• Focus on your goal, believe in yourself and don’t give up.
• Be aware of inequalities. Yes, it still exists. No company wants to be surprised by saying they didn’t hire someone based on their gender/color/religion…. However, the numbers show that it still happens – the tech industry is still a male-dominated industry. So where is this inequality? This can take the form of disrespectful comments during job interviews or tougher questions in the interview process simply because you came in looking “different” or receiving a lower salary offer than you did. other male colleagues. My suggestion for dealing with this is to stay strong, keep working hard, invest your time in expanding your knowledge, and don’t let anyone discourage you.

To remember! You are always, ALWAYS welcome to contact me if you want help, advice or just a virtual hug 🙂

More women in tech:

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