Alice Cheung @ Ravelin
How can we proactively make a change to achieve equality and inclusion in tech? It was International Women's Day in March and Orbis dedicated the entire month to celebrating the womxn of Tech and Design. Now, we’re continuing this series. If we want more women in tech, we have to do more than want. Our team felt we needed to share stories from the industry, told by voices with first-hand experience. All of the exposure International Women's Day kicks up is critical, not just for our own education as a business, but also to support the exposure of gender equality and inclusion in tech. These stories are not told by a company or PR, or any other bias perspective. These are the real women of tech shaking up the industry.
Alice Cheung
Engineering Manager
Ravelin
What has your personal career journey in tech been like?
I switched careers from Fin to FinTech. I started out as an investment consultant helping pension schemes make sure they had enough money to pay their pensioners. However, after 10 years in the industry, I realised I wouldn’t be happy if I was doing the same thing in 10 years’ time.
So I had to figure out what I was good at, what I enjoyed and what would pay the bills. I’d always admired my friends and colleagues who were engineers - they had the ability to bring their ideas to life and/or make lives easier. To see if this might be the career for me, I decided to immerse myself; I spoke to friends to ask them what they actually did and even shadowed one of them at their start-up office for half a day.
I went to meetups to get a wider sense of the type of people I’d be working with - everyone was super friendly. I taught myself to code to make sure I wasn’t just enamoured with the IDEA of coding, but that I actually enjoyed doing it.
As I was teaching myself to code, at night, after long hours in the office, I realised I hadn’t had that much fun in a really long time and knew I was onto something. Handing in my notice was one of the most terrifying moments of my life. However, once it was done, it was time to dive in.
I’d gained entry into finance by getting a maths degree but going back to university wasn’t an option for me (based on time and money). Around this time, there had been a rise in coding “boot camps” which specialised in training people, from all backgrounds, for a career in tech in a matter of months rather than years. I went to the graduation / open day of one called Makers academy where I saw a cohort of students demo-ing their projects after just 4 months of learning to code.
The projects were so inspiring that I thought, if I could go from zero to building any one of those applications in just 4 months, I would be super happy. So I signed up. The course was a lot of work, but also a lot of fun.
It was a wonderful experience. I got a job within 3 weeks of graduating and the rest is history.
I’m now also an organiser of the Women Who Go London meetup. I wanted to pay it forward for all the positive meetup experiences I had which made me realise this was the place for me. I hope to create a space to inspire and be inspired by women. Get in touch if you’d like to be involved! No previous experience necessary.
What’s next for you, have you got any career goals you’d like to achieve?
I’m on the management track at Ravelin and currently building a team while codifying the onboarding process to help Ravelin scale even further in the future. I love being a technologist however, tech is only as effective as the people involved in it so I’m passionate about developing both. I’m excited about building my leadership experience to deliver something meaningful - fighting crime with Ravelin certainly ticks that box!
What does a typical day in your role look like, and what do you enjoy most about it?
Our day starts with a standup where we share what we’re working on and whether we need any help. The great thing about being an engineer is that you can just get on with it. The culture is such that everyone helps each other so you’re never stuck for very long. We’re always improving our architecture so that our environments run smoothly and code is deployed continuously. Most things are achievable when broken into smaller parts so the day is just a series of little puzzles to solve. I love this.
What do you think tech leaders could do to help support gender equality within their teams and how can businesses support women with their careers?
Gender equality is a big issue! I think a good start would be to improve the female:male ratio in engineering teams and management. Be proactive and creative in the search for female engineers. It’s easy to be resigned to the fact that less females apply to your positions. However, I go to women in tech events and can tell you there are plenty of women in tech! By committing to more equal representation this way, it demonstrates the company actually cares about gender equality. Diversifying the types of voices on your team and getting feedback will naturally give you more ideas.
I also believe gender equality isn’t just about uplifting women, giving male colleagues more freedom like better paternity leave works towards the same goal in changing assumptions and behaviour patterns in the wider workplace.
What are your top 3 tips for women looking to break into tech or progress from their current position into a tech role?
Don’t be afraid to be open and vocal about what you’re looking for. People generally want to help.
After all the hard work, it may be tempting to jump at the first offer. However, remember the interview process runs both ways - it’s your chance to figure out if the company is right for you too, especially in your first tech role. Find a place where you can be yourself and trust your gut.
The struggle is real... so embrace the struggle! Get comfortable with the fact that you will never know everything; no one ever “completes” computing, we just keep levelling up. Things can feel tough at times however, you don’t have to go through it alone, it’s ok to ask for help. On the other hand, don’t forget to celebrate your successes - have fun!
Alice will be sitting on our panel for our next women in tech event - Challenging Implicit Bias
