Software Engineer – the title that both Anano Bodokia and Ana Gorozia will soon acquire in the Tallinn office of Microsoft, with their competencies being shared between a member of the team of Media Delivery Network for Ana and working in Azure DevOps for Anano.
As they’ve told us, they had a desire of working with giant companies for some time. The girls started by researching all the steps and stages they needed to take, how they operated, what kind of interviews they would have to expect and so on. Later, they had to go through a period of working on their own selves, so the future interviews would turn out to be successful. Finally, they got an offer from Microsoft LinkedIn representative, to fill out an application on their portal.
“They have an utterly different culture and rules when it comes to working. They have to manage dozens of people and this process is very interesting to me. For a programmer, it’s engaging to apply to globally used products. The specifics of codes are changing when the product is used not by a few thousand, but by a couple of million users.” – Says Ana Gorozia.
Anano Bodokia: “In our field, we have companies that tend to work on massive projects, and projects of those scales are a tremendous challenge, that I’ve always wanted to encounter.”
The girls have also shared with us how they react to setbacks and what scared them the most on this journey.
“If I’m being honest, there always are these tiny moments when you think that you can’t do it and that’s quite scary. But I always tell myself, that nothing stands in the way of trying. And then when the process starts, it doesn’t disturb me anymore and I do my best, therefore fear is gone.” – Says Anano Bodokia.
According to Ana Gorozia, she had not had any moment of fear. “To tell the truth, I never expected the unexpected during the interviews. I don’t know about other fields, but here it’s not a stigma to not know something. If I had the case where they asked me something and I wasn’t competent enough to answer, there was no problem in acknowledging that, neither for me nor them.”
Ana also recalls the support she felt from the company itself and how it helped her out when the staff welcomed her into the friendly and open environment on the eve of her interview.
In the modern world, the need for computer science grows rapidly, so we asked the girls if they would advise others who plan on entering or continuing their practice in the said territory.
As Ana says, you should not compare yourself to others and you should concentrate on your growth. “Women being invested in technology still surprises some today and you may hear obnoxious evaluations. One company even asked me why I was interested in math if I was a girl. I felt this horrible objection of how they had dared to ask me that. In short, I haven’t endured many of the alike circumstances, but those that I have experienced, have had a very unpleasant impact on me. You should never waste your breath on stereotypes, you should focus on your self-development. As for working with large companies, the selection process is quite similar everywhere. It doesn’t require anything particular, what is essential is to have a passion and to let the other party understand how much you want it.”
According to Anano, she would advise to not fear challenges. “Unfortunately, in the tech field, girls have to face bothersome obstacles based on stereotypes and despite the interest, some might turn down the option to work or continue studying in this speciality. I would like to tell them, that stereotypes should never push you to say ‘No’. You should not reject the opportunity to do what you love for such ill-advised evaluations. Luckily, these stereotypes are being broken. To eliminate this problem, we need more girls in this bubble – #morewomenintech!”