The future’s bright for women in tech

It is no secret that the tech industry is severely male dominated, with women making up just 16.4% of the IT workforce. That’s something we’re pushing to change here at Atomic. Our latest Software Engineering recruit is Kitty; a talented young Software Engineer with a very bright future. As a strong supporter of Women in Tech and of encouraging more women into the tech industry, we wanted to talk to Kitty to see what her experience had been like so far and what she would say to others looking to enter the tech industry. This is what Kitty had to say:

Throughout my education and university experience, I’ve seen that there aren’t many women in tech at the moment – I was the only girl to sit Computer Science A-level in a year of 400 students!. The gender difference has never held me back though; if anything, it has motivated me to succeed.

When I found out I had secured a role at a reputable company like Atomic, I was over the moon (and extremely nervous!). Like any new job, I was worried about fitting in and living up to their expectations, doubting that my knowledge for the role would be enough. Looking back, I realise that I had no reason to be worried at all.

Joining Atomic was the best decision I have made career wise, as I already feel as though I have already learnt more in my time here than in all my years at university. Not only have I learnt so much, I have also been supported from the very beginning by my new colleagues and seniors!

I was assigned a ‘buddy’ of sorts, Nick Brown, who would guide me through this transitional phase. Honestly, Nick deserves an award for answering ALL the questions I had when I started; trust me there were a lot of them. Nick is the all-knowing friend I have at work, and while we are rarely in the office together, it does not inhibit our working environment.

Something I did not expect from Atomic was the social aspect that I found, both in and out of the office. While a portion of people choose to work remotely at Atomic, a good number of people fill out the office every day, especially on Friday for the free breakfast! I personally work better in the office environment, where I can chat with people throughout the day (who I ask all my technical questions to). I must admit however, my favourite part of coming in is that I get to see Barney and Milo, the most gorgeous dogs that belong to various people in the office.

My role as Software Engineering has introduced me to multiple new projects, one which is at a scale I can barely comprehend. This has given me the opportunity to discover that I prefer front-end development, despite Nicks best efforts to get me to understand the back-end development! Being introduced to Angular and Blazor was definitely a change to what I am used to, but I finally feel as though I am learning something useful. I am so lucky that the people I am surrounded with at work are so knowledgeable and driven, they continue to inspire me daily.

If you are considering a role in Software development, I would 100% recommend Atomic in a heartbeat. There is not a day where I question if I made the right decision. I think that my advice would be try not to be nervous and draw as much knowledge as you can from the more senior developers you work with. You learn best by asking questions in coding, asking why something is done a certain way etc, you never regret asking a question.