In recognition of International Women in Engineering Day 2021, American Express gathered an esteemed panel of its everywoman award winners from the past eight years for a discussion on building a career in technology, the importance of allyship and how to tackle challenges facing women in the tech industry.
Katrina Roberts, Amex SVP and Unit CIO for Global Commercial Services Technology, opened the session by sharing her path into technology. She originally wanted to become a forensic scientist, and later a hotel manager, but parental intervention saw her take up a graduate position at Amex. “My dad was really the ultimate reason I got into tech,” Katrina said. “He persistently encouraged me to be interested in technology.”
After joining Amex, Katrina enjoyed tremendous allyship from her then-leader who encouraged her to advance within the field. “I didn’t have a tech background; I didn’t have a tech-related degree; I had worked with tech in my first few years of my career at Amex … but [my leader] inspired me to continue and I never looked back.”
Continuing the conversation on allyship, Vanessa Hackett, a VP in Amex’s Global Network and International Card Services group, built upon that message: “I’ve been really fortunate to have huge sponsorship and advocacy from male allies throughout my career and it’s hugely valuable. If you are a man working in tech, look around you, see who you can help. You don’t have to be their leader, you can be a peer — you can still support, encourage and ensure women’s voices are heard.”
The conversation turned to challenges facing women in technology. Nelly Kiboi, an Amex enterprise architecture engineer, recalled challenges around gender stereotyping: “I have had incidences where I’ve told someone I am a software engineer and they’ve started questioning me on a specific technology. It’s like people have perceptions around what you can achieve, what you know and most times they downplay your skills. That can have an impact on how you believe in yourself [and] on your mental health.”
Vanessa offered techniques to counter these feelings: “For me, it’s looking to the people around me, reminding myself what I am good at and why I have this job. And also finding people around me, people you trust, people who know you really well, who just lift you up when you need it.”
Maureen Biney, a Global Accounts Receivable Platform engineer, added: “I know that there are people on my list that I can always reach out to when I feel down and they are going to lift me up. They are going to tell me the truth about how I am feeling and help me go through it. I feel that Amex is also helping me to build that village of cheerleaders for myself who I can reach out to at any point in time.”
To close out, the panellists discussed what makes technology so exciting for them.
For Katrina, it’s the constant challenge and fast paced environment, the people-oriented nature of teams working together to solve a problem, and the amount of good that can come from technology.
Marit Thowsen, an Amex digital workplace director, shared similar sentiments: “What really inspires me about technology is the fact that you can really make a difference in people’s lives and experiences. “Especially when you think about innovations like assistive technology. These advancements not only help empower people, they can also help address larger problems like climate change, global health and poverty”
Louise Richardson, an Amex VP of tech transformation, offered some final words of nostalgia: “To me the progress just blows my mind. I was recently talking to someone about one of the first holidays I booked using something called teletext or Cefax and I’m kind of guessing there’s lots of people on this call who literally have no idea what I’m talking about. But that was cool back in the day, really cool, you didn’t have to go to a travel agent. How we’ve grown from there is phenomenal and as I think about the opportunities that have been created over 25 years or so [it’s] just incredible and [I] can’t wait to see where it goes next.”
American Express is committed to becoming the best, most inclusive and diverse place to work in technology. Many inspiring women work in technology at Amex, making enormous contributions and creating products & services that benefit the lives of millions of customers. It’s a top priority for Amex to ensure female colleagues have the tools, resources and sponsorship needed to succeed.
Interested in a career with Amex? As part of their diverse tech team, you can architect, code and ship software that makes Amex an essential part of customers’ digital lives. Work alongside talented engineers in an open, supportive, inclusive environment where your voice is valued, and you make your own decisions on what tech to use to solve challenging problems. Amex offers a range of opportunities to work with the latest technologies and encourages you to back the broader engineering community through open source. And because Amex understands the importance of keeping your skills fresh and relevant, the company gives you dedicated time to invest in your professional development. Find your place in technology on #TeamAmex.
