For somebody who started as a commerce law student, Adel Smee’s knowledge of coding languages is seriously impressive.
She says her tech career has been a “happy accident”, one she describes as an extremely positive experience. Indeed, even after being made redundant from her lead developer position at Lonely Planet, along with her team of eight, she kept the group together and went shopping for an employer that would take them on.
They were hired by Zendesk, a customer service software company where Smee is the lead engineer, and the team still works together.
Smee wants women to know the money in tech is excellent, especially as a developer.
“I’m not sure why more people don’t mention that, but the start salary is one of the highest around and it is reasonable to expect a six-figure salary or close to it within five years.”
Below, she shares how she established her career in tech, why we need more diversity in the sector, why she doesn’t do the ‘juggle’, and the many benefits of getting involved in the sector.
Has your tech career been planned or did it just happen? Tell us about how you got started in tech.
My entire career has been one happy accident. I started out studying Commerce/Law at The Australian National University, didn’t finish the Law part and ended up as an accounting recruitment consultant. This was not at all the career I saw myself in, although by that point neither was accountancy (I have a strong aversion to wearing pantyhose and at the time it seemed to be a prerequisite) so I went back to TAFE to study Information Technology at RMIT. When I was done they offered me a job teaching programming, which I had loved from the first class, and I’m so glad I said yes. It had never occurred to me to teach but it is still my favourite job and I look to incorporate aspects of it into everything I do.
After teaching programming for seven or eight years it became obvious to me that I had come as far as I could without actually working as a coder. At this point I had enough connections in industry to step into a developer role and have worked as a developer and team lead for the last several years in a variety of companies.
What qualifications (if any) do you have that support you in this role?
My favourite statistic at the moment is that 47% of all computer programmers don’t have a formal tertiary qualification in IT. Although I’m not one of them! I ended up with an Advanced Diploma of IT and then added a Graduate Certificate of Web Programming.
Do you know any coding languages, is this relevant to your career?
Yes, lots. Currently I work in Ruby and Javascript when I get the time to code. There is an expectation from both myself and the team that I stay conversant with the technologies we are working with so I can appreciate what isn’t working well or call them out when they get too myopic. I love being a builder, part of a team that can point to a tangible product and say “we made that”.
What’s your proudest achievement so far in tech?
I was Team Lead of the developers at Lonely Planet that worked on the book publishing software used by authors and editors to produce the guides. We were made redundant last year and decided to look for work as a team, all eight of us. The process wasn’t entirely smooth, but I’m so proud of us for having each other’s backs in a situation that could have torn us apart but instead brought out the best in everyone. The full story is on my blog at chocolatetin.org if you are thinking of trying it out yourself.
Why is diversity so important in the tech sector?
From a business perspective there are an increasing number of studies that show the most significant factor in team success is psychological safety. Women generally score higher in social sensitivity, which is a key element in creating psychological safety in teams. Studies also show that teams with more diverse members make software for more diverse consumers which leads to increased revenue.
But I’m a person, not a company, and I can’t imagine how technology is going to change our lives over the coming decades but I think it is critical that as many women, LGBTI folks, people with disabilities, people from diverse cultures and any other minority group should have as much input in shaping that technology and its impact as possible. Examples such as facial recognition software that can’t see people with darker skin, or recommended dosages of medicine that are only appropriate for men, or forms that force people to choose a binary gender category are just tip of the iceberg as to why we need to have diversity in the makers that will be creating the technology that we integrate more deeply with every year.
What do you want all girls and young women to know about careers in tech?
The money is great! I’m not sure why more people don’t mention that, but the start salary is one of the highest around and it is reasonable to expect a six-figure salary or close to it within five years. The supply (especially of developers) is lower and continuing to drop, despite increased demand. In the USA by 2020 they are predicting one million more computer programming jobs than programmers so that’s not going to change anytime soon.
You can travel almost anywhere to do it, or work from home – I’m writing this from bed. A lot of tech companies are creating flexible working hours and strongly encourage no more than a seven and a half hour workday in order to get the highest quality output. There are also a lot of great initiatives around parental leave – for example at Zendesk we pay four months leave for either parent. While I hope such practices will become standard until then I want to encourage women to vote with their feet and work for companies that will support them as mothers and employees.
All the men I’ve worked with have been wonderful human beings that are a delight to spend time with. There are also a number of really supportive women’s tech groups, with more springing up all the time. Even though you are likely to be in the minority as a woman in tech there is a strong focus on supporting and encouraging each other and you won’t find it hard to make friends and meet mentors in the industry.
Also, pantyhose are optional.
What do you personally do to raise your profile and voice as a woman in tech?
I’ve spoken at conferences, participated in panels on gender diversity in tech and I talk at schools as often as they’ll let me. One of my goals for this year is to get better at one-on-one mentoring as I believe small, personal connections can have a large ripple effect. Software development can be a challenge, but the most important quality in a developer is persistence and sometimes a supportive word at the right time can make all the difference. I think a lot of the blame for gender disparity in tech arises out of cultural norms that aren’t in fact normal. I hope that by increasing my visibility I can add to the momentum that is changing what people think of when they think “engineer”.
How can we get more women speaking at technology-related events?
Speaking in public is a daunting challenge for a lot of people but with familiarity almost anything can become less scary. At Zendesk we have Lightning Lunch and Learns and Engineering Show and Tells where developers can present a topic to the engineering team (about 40 people) of any length. It gives people the chance to talk for as little as five minutes and to become more comfortable with the spotlight. Developing the skill of public speaking in a supportive way like this is a good place to start.
Organisers of technology-related events need to put in the work to develop networks within the female tech community. There are plenty of meetups out there and by hosting, sponsoring and attending organisers can make the connections they need to in order to identify more women who are keen to contribute.
What does your ‘daily juggle’ look like? Can you run us through an average day in your life?
I’m incredibly fortunate to have constructed a life in which I don’t have to juggle. I have chosen to have a Labrador instead of a baby and I work a four day week. For me work is a part of my life and it is critical that I enjoy that part, but I value time and space much more than busyness.
On a perfect weekday I would wake up around 7am after a good eight hours sleep, meditate and then head into work by about 9am. I spend most of my day talking to people, managing work in progress, creating connections and looking ahead to anticipate any blockers. I also spend a fair bit of time focused on hiring as I believe it is the most important thing I do and the most critical to get right.
The biggest challenge I face at work is finding enough time to stay technically relevant. I try to keep my hand in with reviewing code and occasionally even picking up small tasks but find if I go more than two weeks without writing some code I start to feel stressed out. I try not to do that, but it still happens more regularly than I’d like.
By about five o’clock it’s time to head home, walk the dog and cook some tasty food. I’m an obsessive cook and can spend hours planning my next meal and am very fortunate my partner is a big eater. Then there’ll be some reading, maybe some Netflix and certainly too much Twitter consumption then off to bed.
What more would you like to see the tech industry doing to better support women in the field?
Publishing more positive stories about women’s experience. There are so many negative stories that should be heard and learned from, but I’d like to see more balance. My experiences have been overwhelmingly positive as have those of the women I’ve worked with. I’d like women to come into this industry expecting to be treated with respect and equality and not concerned for the opposite.
I also think we as an industry need to exert more pressure on the education system to teach programming in primary schools. There are so many amazing and free tools online, the hard work has already been done. Let’s get little girls, and boys, exposed to the fun of coding before cultural conditioning kicks in.
