Three female senior leaders at Dorset-based tech firm Talk Think Do have offered their advice to other women on how to thrive in the “male dominated” tech industry.
The Wimborne-based software development firm’s managing director Louise Clayton, delivery manager Mel Fountain and PMO analyst Amy St Louis, spoke to BusinessLive about their experiences of joining the sector, why they love working in it and how they feel it has changed over time.
Louise Clayton, managing director
Ms Clayton has worked in the tech industry for 18 years and has helped Talk Think Do grow its team exponentially during her four years with the firm.
Within this time, the company has achieved revenue growth of more than 750% from £267,000 in 2018 to £2.3m in 2022.
Louise was previously chief operations officer at Talk Think Do and now in her role as managing director, Ms Clayton continues to lead its team of tech professionals.
Ms Clayton said: “The gender split in tech has certainly changed over the past 18 years, but it still firmly remains male dominated. Women in the tech industry tend to be in non-technical roles focused on analysis or management, whereas you’ll find the majority of technical roles, like engineering or architecture, are fulfilled by men.
“In this scenario, it’s easy to feel like you don’t know enough when you can’t fully understand a detailed technical conversation. The trick is to remember that everybody brings their own set of skills, and it takes all the roles with all the skills to successfully deliver expert services.”
Ms Clayton said her advice for looking to enter the tech industry would be to think about their existing skills and what they would get the most enjoyment from.
“You may have a general interest in tech, but with a variety of roles available, you’re better focusing in a specific area that you have a natural talent for. If you love getting into the detail and really understanding how business processes work and intertwine with software, then a Business Analyst role could be suitable.
“Whereas, if you enjoy learning about programming languages and databases, you’re likely to lean towards backend engineering. If in doubt, see if you can get involved in a few different projects covering multiple roles until you’ve worked out what you love and what you’re good at. Once you know, you can research the best practice qualifications to support your career progression.”
Ms Clayton added she expected to see “even more dramatic change” over the next five years.
“We’re already seeing more women in senior leadership tech roles, but with the shift to working from home through the pandemic opening up new roles that would have previously been unsuitable due to geography or flexibility around family life, I predict that many more female leaders will come to the forefront and hopefully start to balance out the boardrooms!"
Mel Fountain, delivery manager
Mel recently joined Talk Think Do and has already been involved in a number of organisation-wide transformation projects.
Ms Fountain cited the fast-moving pace of tech as a reason why she decided to join the industry.
She said: “The possibilities are endless and there’s always something new and exciting on the horizon. My advice to someone just starting their career in tech is to try everything! From support to project roles, it will give you the most rounded view of the industry and help you see things from every perspective.”
Ms Fountain added that those interested in a career in the sector did not have to a “techie” in order to succeed.
“Remember that your team are there to support you. You’ll often be the only woman in the room, but this does not make you any less skilled, experienced or valued.
“The tech community, whilst still very male dominated, is supportive and truly embraces inclusion and diversity. We have huge respect for each other’s skills and knowledge, and I’ve always found that people are keen to help those less experienced to thrive and learn. Never be afraid to ask for help and let your creativity shine!”
Amy St Louis, PMO analyst
After graduating from Bournemouth University, Ms St Louis began her career at Talk Think Do as a marketing executive and was responsible for producing social media content and writing engaging content for the company blog.
She has since been promoted to Project Management Office analyst, which involves reporting for both internal senior managers and for client stakeholders.
Ms St Louis attributes a PR & Comms internship she had at global tech firm Microsoft as the moment she realised she wanted to work within the sector.
She said: “After that year, I knew I wanted to stay. I enjoy working with and researching the latest technologies, and since starting with Talk Think Do, I’ve contributed to new app updates for our clients, as well as implemented new processes and ways of working.
“Everything in a small tech company moves fast. We’re constantly learning new methods and looking to improve, so being a 'learn it all' as coined by Satya Nadella, CEO at Microsoft, really appeals to me.”
Ms St Louis said that working within tech had allowed her to make “real world changes”, adding: “Our entire team works with our clients to show them the best ways to solve their problems. If the entire team looked, thought, and had the same life experiences, the suggestions they provided would be limited due to a lack of diversity.
“I think looking back, it’s difficult when you’re in school to truly contextualise what working in tech means. While the false assumption can be made that you’ll just be staring at spreadsheets all day, there’s creativity in trying to make something visually appealing and easily digestible to senior members of a team or client stakeholders or trying to figure out the best way to collect statistics and have them be truly reflective of what you’re trying to measure and assess its success.”
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