My Experience as a Woman in Tech – Naomi Clarke
In-line with our topic around International Woman’s Day, today I am going to talk to you a bit about me, and what’s it’s like to be a woman in tech.
I’m Naomi, I have recently joined Blue Whale Media as their new Web Design Apprentice. Before I joined Blue Whale Media, I got a previous qualification in Graphic Design. I come from a family a creative people, so I have always had a passion to do something in the creative industry, as I have also wanted to do something I love. The qualification in Graphic Design was a D*D*D* in a BTEC Level 3 Extended Diploma. Personally, I feel this has really helped me with what I do in this apprenticeship. This is because my projects were for live clients, and my course went into a lot of detail, so I was able to gather a lot of skills.
Although, I am quite new here, this is not my first experience in the tech industry. From my pervious experiences I have noticed it is predominately a male industry.
My first experience was when I went on work experience to a graphics company, in Huddersfield. This company was a small company of about 14 people. In that company they only had 4 female employees that were admin. My other experience was in a social media marketing company, in Manchester, when I started an internship. This company was also a small company of about 10 people and they only had 3 female employees. With these kind of splits, it put me on edge a little as some things are easier to explain to another female. However, here at Blue Whale Media we are lucky as we have a good split between men and women at different levels in the company. Personally, I think this is really inspiring as it shows that you can progress in the company no matter your gender. Even being a new starter, I felt as ease straight away, because of the great split. It makes for a great environment to work in.
Being the only female web designer, I personally think that sometimes it’s better to have a woman to design something that is for a woman as they know what they are look for. However, this is not always the case.
Some advice I would give to woman either trying to get into tech or progressing, is too keep going and pushing forward for what you want, as it won’t be just handed to you. You need to show them you are going to back down.
