Conversations with a Female Engineer (Part 6)

A good mentor, female leadership and a passion for what you do are common themes we heard in our Conversations with a Female Engineer series. Over the past few months we’ve brought you interviews with female engineers from different types of companies, all outlining their career path and what it’s like to work as a woman in the male-dominated tech field.

They all point to the need for a more diverse work force and the hope that companies will do more to attract and encourage women to pursue a career in tech. Our last chat is with ADP’s Isabel Espina, who agrees companies should get more involved in training young girls before they choose a career path; to show them the potential job opportunities in the tech world.

If you missed any of the previous conversations in our series, click the links below:

• Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 3
• Part 4
• Part 5

I am currently Vice President of Enterprise Architecture at ADP, a role I’ve been in for a little over a year. I’ve been with the company for more than two decades. I was hired by ADP to be part of the Technology and Strategic Architecture team, where I was able to use my technical skills to design software and creatively troubleshoot problems.

Over the years, I’ve directly contributed to ADP’s transformation into a technology leader and have helped keep our pulse on how technology is impacting the way people work in an increasingly complex digital world.

Did you always want to work in tech?

Back in the day when I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do when I grew up, I initially wanted to be an architect. I was always drawn to math and science, and when I was applying for college I ended up going to an engineering school rather than an architecture program, because the practical side of me thought that engineering had more avenues and would be more marketable. I saw that in architecture, it’s more difficult to get established professionally and it is a more crowded, competitive space, so there were less readily-available opportunities.

What was your educational path, did you study engineering in school?

I was an electrical engineer and computer science double major at Stevens Institute of Technology.

How important is female leadership in a company?

I think it’s very important for a company to have diverse views, especially if your company is creating products that have diverse consumers. Therefore, organizations should be led and envisioned by populations that are as differentiated as your consumer base. Having people of diverse backgrounds brings creativity to your organization. Different points of view make a stronger product, and a stronger organization and culture.

Did you have a mentor? How important is mentorship in keeping young women in the tech field?

I’ve had several mentors throughout my professional journey, both women and men. One example from early on my career is a female manager who had a very successful career. She really helped guide me when I was struggling with which direction to take. She also helped me figure out how to manage work life balance, and when I was thinking of starting a family and how to still maintain my career with the same intensity. She was very influential in terms of sharing her points of view and her experiences and encouraging me to pursue areas where there were good opportunities.

I think mentorship is very important for everyone in general – find someone who has a breadth of career experiences in the field you are pursuing and can provide an objective opinion. Often, they’ll be able to see things that perhaps you don’t see yourself. They can act as a sounding board for questions and challenges you may have. Most importantly, they are an ally that isn’t your direct manager, so they can provide a different perspective.

What advice do you have for women who want to enter the tech field?

The tech field is very fast paced, so to keep up and stay very current, I’d say definitely do a lot of networking. There are different organizations and meet-ups depending on the topic you’d like to specialize in – I think that’s always important. Encouraging your organization to send you to trainings and conferences can also help you stay on top of trends and be part of the broader communities of women in the industry, both from a learning perspective and a networking perspective.

How can companies encourage more women to work in technology?

I think a key area for companies is participating in programs where they’re helping and encouraging the younger pipeline of female technologists. This could include involvement in coding trainings for students, as a community service projects for employees. Getting involved in these types of activities familiarizes young women with the technology landscape and the potential job opportunities that are out there, so they are encouraged to pursue careers in the field. When these younger individuals are looking for employment, they’re already going to be thinking about your company and your industry. We all use a lot of tech, but a tech career can seem like a very abstract thing – we need to show girls what these jobs look like and what it really means to be an engineer.

It’s also important to think about the culture at your organization – will somebody pursuing a tech career at your company have opportunities to grow? Do jobs offer the flexibility to have a family and also pursue a successful professional life? It’s important to be clear about your company’s policies and how you support women when recruiting them.