WomenInTech. "Opportunities are always available, regardless of gender," — successful women on equality in the industry

Nazhirk Kalidolda, City — Paris, Investment Analyst at Sturgeon Capital, Instagram , LinkedIn

About Me

I work as an investment analyst at Sturgeon Capital. I analyze investment opportunities, conduct financial and market analysis, and develop strategies for our portfolio companies. My work involves evaluating startups, building financial models, and preparing analytical reports that help the investment committee make informed decisions. I also support our portfolio companies, where my product management experience comes in handy.

My career began as a programmer at Google, where I worked on the Chrome browser. Then I moved into product management, where I led the development and launch of new products, and founded my own startup, which continues to operate under different leadership. Currently, I leverage my technical and management experience to evaluate promising startups and support their growth.

How I Entered the IT Profession

My interest in IT began in school when I actively participated in international programming competitions. This inspired me to further my studies in computer science and work at major IT companies. My love for data analysis, strategy development, and new technologies led me to my current position as an investment analyst, where I can combine my knowledge and experience to support startups.

On Stereotypes

I was lucky to encounter many people along the way who supported, inspired, and strongly believed in me. Thanks to this, I did not feel significant difficulties. Sometimes there were those who joked about women in IT, but it never bothered me. When I was a programmer, I liked that the computer was completely indifferent to your gender. You show results that have nothing to do with how you look, what you wear, your race, height, skin color, eye color, or anything else. The only thing that matters is what you can do.

Barriers for Women in IT

It is important to believe in yourself and move forward no matter what.

Currently, I work more with people and less with computers. Therefore, I can speak more about bias than before. But the most important thing is how you see yourself. If you cannot support yourself, others will not be able to either.

Recommendations for Those Just Starting Their Journey

Be bold and persistent. Do not be afraid to try new things; learn from your mistakes. It is important to find mentors and surround yourself with people who will support and inspire you. Continuous development and adaptation to new changes are key factors for success, especially in IT.

Zhanara Lesova, City — Almaty, Developer

About Me

I am an information systems developer at Ozon.

I started my career path during my university studies: these were small part-time jobs offered by my classmates, as well as part-time programming work where I wrote code in any language or framework required by the project. That was when I first got acquainted with Python, Django, React.js, and was a fullstack developer — writing both frontend and backend as well as I could.

After my third year, I got my first official job at the Chocofamily holding. In this company, I learned a lot and joined a great team, progressing from a junior developer to an experienced middle developer: I developed my own service, led a team, repeatedly fixed critical errors in production, interacted with the business to define requirements for implementing large tasks. But eventually, I got tired of numerous obligations, operational noise, and the abundance of everything around, so I decided to move on and see how things work in other places.

After a series of interviews, I joined EPAM. Working there was significantly easier and more comfortable thanks to my existing experience. I worked in an American team and got acquainted with a different mentality, saw what work-life balance is, and understood that a programmer can simply write code and close tickets without taking on many additional responsibilities. I was pleasantly surprised by the excellent organization of processes in the company and on the project I worked on. I also saw the differences between outsourcing and product companies — in the latter, greater involvement is often required, and proactivity in generating product ideas is not only welcomed but sometimes necessary.

After EPAM, I wanted to learn how larger projects work. Thus, I ended up at Lamoda. They offered good conditions, but upon joining, I realized that in such companies, everything depends heavily on which team and project you end up in. I sometimes had the feeling that I was assigned tasks that made no sense or should have been handled by an analyst or manager. I came to the conclusion that even in large companies, there can be broken processes and tasks for the sake of tasks, which lead to complex communications due to bureaucracy.

A new career stage began when I accepted an offer from acquaintances to write a project from scratch for a local company. During the work, I used the knowledge I had accumulated earlier and moved at a pace comfortable for me. There were no career challenges here. It was convenient for me until I decided to try myself in a large company again, where I could work with microservices and high loads. In an attempt to close this loop, I moved to Ozon. Along with this, I changed my tech stack, so I had to mobilize myself again and absorb new information. When you are not a junior, doing this is harder because more is expected of you.

Programmers are always learning something in the background. Each new job is often stressful, but also an opportunity to expand the range of skills, see new projects, different coding styles, or development philosophies. Technologies become obsolete quickly, and you have to stay on the wave of new trends while not forgetting the basics of computer science.

How I Entered the IT Profession

In the 11th grade, I faced the necessity of choosing a profile subject. Initially, I settled on English, but then I chose physics. I cannot say that my teachers were happy about this, as my task was to confirm my gold medal, and physics is not the easiest subject.

A month before submitting documents, I decided to study the most promising and popular professions in the technical field. IT topped all the proposed options, and I decided to try myself in this field. Already having entered the university, I realized I had made the right choice, although there were doubts at the beginning.

On Stereotypes

I have not encountered explicit discrimination or stereotypes in the professional environment. There were minor comments from relatives and acquaintances, mostly people of the old school, but this did not affect me or my career in any way. In the professional environment, all my colleagues, both former and current, are polite, adequate, and educated people.

I allow for the possibility that some opportunities passed me by because the people representing these opportunities had their own prejudices.

Barriers for Women in IT

Stereotypes that do not play in favor of women are still present. Perhaps, in some companies, this is reflected in the recruitment and promotion processes.

Women may find it harder to advance in their careers, partly due to internal reasons. Women often suffer strongly from imposter syndrome. Despite their competence, they feel their skills are insufficient, do not dare to speak up, and are afraid to voice their opinions in public spaces. Every action or word is accompanied by the fear of making a mistake. This is not surprising, as due to the minority of women in this environment, they face the spotlight effect, where even minimal success or mistakes are perceived more sharply than usual.

At the same time, I believe that there are more adequate people in IT than inadequate ones. Usually, we punish ourselves more for our mistakes than anyone else does. It is important to know how to control yourself, not devalue your achievements and knowledge, even when receiving negative criticism. Everyone makes mistakes. It is important to be able to admit it, learn from them, and move forward.

Recommendations for Those Just Starting Their Journey

Do not focus on gender, stereotypes, or reasons why you cannot do something; instead, focus on the goal. Concentrate on what actions you need to take to achieve it. Spend your mental energy productively.

Make a leap into IT if you want to. Opportunities are always there, regardless of gender. As cynical as it may sound, the only thing that matters is whether you can bring money to the business. In the modern world, women have a unique position — there are social initiatives, university discounts, programs exclusively for women, and much more. Be sure to use them.