Overcoming Obstacles to
Success: Surviving and
Thriving in the High Tech
World
Kelly Lopez File
Sr. Competitive Strategy Manager
Microsoft Corporation
kellyfi@microsoft.com
Agenda
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Introduction
How are women doing in high tech?
Obstacles to success
How to survive
How to thrive
Personal highs and lows
Resources
Introduction
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37 years old
Hispanic
Mother of 7 month old baby girl
BS in Computer Engineering from U of W
20 years of experience:
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8 software test and design
9 software development
3 competitive marketing
In the grand scheme of things…
Steve Ballmer
Sales
Products
Enterprise Sales & Partners
Field Competitive Strategy
Technical Marketing
Operations
How are women doing in high tech?
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Better in pay equity
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Non high tech: $.73 on the
dollar
Tech: $.92 on the dollar
40% of Computer Science
degrees awarded to women
in 1994
*National Science Foundation
*1998 US Census Data
*2001 survey from techie.com of 106,000 workers across 39 U.S. job markets, all
levels
Top 50 Fortune Most Powerful
Women
1.
2.
6.
23.
28.
30.
Carly Fiorina – Chairman & CEO, Hewlett-Packard
Meg Whitman – President & CEO, eBAY
Anne Mulcahy – President & CEO, Xerox
Betsy Bernard – President & CEO, AT&T Consumer
Ann Livermore – EVP, HP Services
Linda Sandford – SVP & Group Exec, IBM Storage
Systems
32. Donna Dubinsky – CEO, Handspring
47. Janet Davidson – Group President, Lucent Integrated
Networks
49. Louise Francesconi – VP & GM, Missile Systems,
Raytheon
9 out of 50 are at technology-related companies
Common obstacles
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Attraction to technical education
Getting through the door
Retaining women long enough for them to
move up
Individual obstacles
Education issues
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Qualified female students don’t choose scientific majors
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OTA report of 2,000 9th grade students
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College can reduce self esteem of women
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80 high school valedictorians – 20% of both men and women
ranked selves as highly intelligent
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End of high school: 280 male, 220 females have sufficient math for
scientific degree
But only 16% of qualified females vs. 50% of males choose
scientific majors
During college, women outperformed in GPA
But only 3% of women vs. 20% of men ranked selves high after
sophomore year!
Personal experience
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The other two women in my program quit during 1st quarter!
Issues with a prof that wanted to flunk me out of Analog
Electronics
Lab partners scarce, had to be creative
Filling the pipeline
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UMass College of Engineering – great work!
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Corporate sponsorship
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Minority Engineering Program
Engineering Exploration Program (SWE, Girl Scouts,
College of Engineering effort)
Women in Engineering Program
TWIST – great way to retain women!
IBM, Ford, Raytheon, Texas Instruments, Microsoft
Take Your Daughters to Work Day
Getting through the employer’s
door
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Hiring processes can be um, biased…
Women often disqualify themselves
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Not negotiating well starts you at a disadvantage
Learn to “sell” your qualities to prospective employers
On the other hand…
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Men: 20% job knowledge is enough
Women: 80%!
Education pipeline problems mean fewer female candidates
available – they need you
NETWORK, NETWORK, NETWORK
Networking is the #1 success factor for women in high tech
Retention
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Women are highest turnover group
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Work-life balance
Lack of mentoring and networking
Can’t fulfill ambitions, lack of professional
development
“No matter how hard I try, I won’t win”
Lack of visibility to upper management
Turnover makes it hard to find qualified
female candidates for leadership roles
Mentoring is key to retention
Individual obstacles
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“The imposter” syndrome
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Stanford study shows men more confident
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Women tend to downgrade their capabilities
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Men more confident that they can handle the workload (2x)
Women half as comfortable speaking up in class
33% of women (vs 9% men) fear that speaking up will
expose them as imposters
Success attributed to “lots of hard work” vs. men who
claim “innate ability”
Competing can be uncomfortable
Fear of the unknown, aversion to changes
How to survive
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Fake it until you feel more confident!!
1.
2.
3.
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Everybody messes up
Everybody feels insecure about their job
performance
The most successful people are not those who mess
up the least
Learn to speak up in many different situations
Ask the right questions
*Kaitlin Duck Sherwood, 1994
How to thrive
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Get more comfortable with risks, change
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Mentor and be mentored
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46.8% of women of color cite lack of mentoring as major barrier
to advancement (Catalyst Survey)
44% of women of color cite mentoring as a critical success
factor
UMass participates in MentorNet program – use it!
Enjoy working with men
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My switch to sales and marketing
Stepped down from manager to individual contrib role
“Can do” attitude helps ensure success
They say what they think
They make great mentors
They have wives and daughters, too…
NETWORK, NETWORK, NETWORK
My experiences…
Just like the Olympics: “the thrill of victory and
the agony of defeat!”
The Agony of Defeat
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Wanted to quit many times while working 30+
hours and FT college
Couldn’t break into the “men’s club” at last
company
Had to fire someone for sexual harassment
Presentation to German Bankers 1st 6 months on
the job at Microsoft
Car and luggage stolen in Malaysia
Literally 100’s of dumb questions asked
In front of SVP – realized I was not prepared
enough
Motto: always make it to the nearest bathroom before you
start crying
The Thrill of Victory
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Overcame fear of public speaking!
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Presentation to 1500+ peers at Moscone within 5 months on the
job
Denmark – 4 hour E-Commerce “seminar”
Bangkok – followed SVP to present to 1000+ on E-Commerce
#1 rated speaker in the Executive Briefing Center
Making a difference
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Conference Board conference, sharing results with MS
management
Most Influential Women of Color in Technology award
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Included live radio interview
Mentoring and being mentored
Technical accomplishments
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Kernel mode driver development in C++ of an NFS Server
Designed and implemented an API for a customer; resulted in
$1M sale
Promoted to manage a team within a year at Microsoft
Working mommy moments
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Missing my moment in
the spotlight…
Code word for pumping:
“maintenance”
Never leave your pump
unattended…
How to turn down
international travel
“opportunity”
Never underestimate the
effects of sleep
deprivation
Resources
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Contact me:
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Kellyfi@microsoft.com
MentorNet: www.mentornet.net
National Engineers Week www.eweek.org
UMass Women in Engineering Program (WEP)
http://www.ecs.umass.edu/wep.html
Women in Technology International (WITI) www.witi.org
Society of Women Engineers (SWE) www.swe.org
IEEE Women in Engineering (WIE)
www.ieee.org/organizations/committee/women
Toastmasters International www.toastmasters.com
Positive Politics at Work by McKenna and McHenry
Why So Slow: The Advancement of Women by Virginia
Valian
Congratulations!
Enjoy the new Microsoft Center for Women
in Engineering and Science
Questions/Comments?