Amanda N. Wegner

 

SUCCESS CAN BE YOURS WITH STRONG SKILLS, A WILLINGNESS TO GROW AND A SOLID NETWORK

 

WHILE THE NUMBER OF WOMEN IN COMPUTER ENGINEERING IS DIPPING, ENGINEERING AND COMPUTING HAVE 80 PERCENT OF THE STEM JOBS AVAILABLE AND THE BEST-PAYING JOBS, CHRISTIANNE CORBETT, A SENIOR RESEARCHER WITH THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF UNIVERSITY WOMEN TOLD FORTUNE MAGAZINE LAST YEAR. AND WITH STRONG SKILLS, A WILLINGNESS TO APPLY YOURSELF, AND A LITTLE HELP FROM FRIENDS, YOU CAN EXCEL IN A CAREER IN THE COMPUTER SCIENCE INDUSTRY.

 

“TAKE RISKS AND GO AFTER WHAT YOU WANT,” SAYS ANNA PINCZUK, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT OF BACKUP AND RECOVERY AT VERITAS. “ESPECIALLY AS A WOMAN ENGINEER, I THINK YOU NEED A RISK-TAKING FACTOR. SEEK MENTORS AND SPONSORS WHO CAN HELP YOU ON THAT JOURNEY. DON’T THINK YOU HAVE TO DO IT ON YOUR OWN.”

 

HERE, FOUR FEMALE ENGINEERS WHO HAVE MOVED UP TO THE TOP RANKS OF THEIR COMPANIES TALK ABOUT WHAT MAKES COMPUTER SCIENCE ENGINEERING A REWARDING FIELD AND GIVE ADVICE FOR HOW TO GO AFTER WHAT YOU WANT.

 

ANA PINCZUK, VERITAS

 

Ana Pinczuk wants to help companies protect one of their biggest assets—their information.

 

Pinczuk is executive vice president and chief product officer at Veritas, an information management company serving enterprise and commercial companies. Veritas recently separated from Symantec and became an independent company.

 

“I am an engineer who has grown up a bit,” says Pinczuk. “My day revolves around three things: the strategy and execution of the business, finding the right product line and roadmap, and understanding how we serve the market. The second element is our customers and how to solve customer problems. The third piece is about people and creating an environment where people want to do great work.”

 

While she has moved up in the ranks, Pinczuk’s engineering background remains critical to her work. “In engineering, one of the skills you learn is the ability to solve problems, to process information and make decisions on sometimes ambiguous and unclear information,” she adds. “I think that has helped me in the role that I have today.”

 

A mechanical engineer by training and with a variety of additional degrees to boot, Pinczuk was drawn to the field of engineering because of its constant innovation. “There are fun new things to do in the technology and engineering fields,” says Pinczuk, who has been with Veritas since January 2015. “I love the diversity of new problems one can solve and the opportunity to keep learning.”

 

She also appreciates Veritas’s vision and inclusiveness.

 

“The idea of enabling customers to harness the power of their information, and not just provide service, but to give insight into their information is compelling,” says Pinczuk, who is from Argentina. “Also, the culture at Veritas is inclusive, where new ideas have been welcome. People are receptive to what you bring to the table.”

 

Pinczuk is passionate about getting more women in our field and creating an inclusive environment in engineering.

 

With a rich work history, Pinczuk offers young engineers a wealth of career advice with the most important being this: “You’ve got to like what you do. Don’t do it just for the money; money will come. You have to have passion for what you do.”

 

Secondly, she advises, don’t try to be perfect.

 

“Take risks and go after what you want. Especially as a woman engineer, I think you need a risk-taking factor. Seek mentors and sponsors who can help you on that journey. Don’t think you have to do it on your own.”

 

But you do need to excel at what you do.

 

“To position yourself for success, you have to be good at what you do,” says Pinczuk. “You can’t be mediocre and have the same opportunities as someone who is good. Be an expert in your craft. That will position you for the next stage.”

 

On the topic of mentors, she adds that it’s important to gather people you trust “to tell you things you might not want to hear and give advice you might not want to hear.”

 

MAMIE JONES, INTUIT

 

As they say, nothing is certain but death and taxes. And Mamie Jones wants to make the latter easier.

 

As the senior vice president of technology at Intuit for the accountant segment, Jones leads a team of more 300 people, including engineers and tax experts, who build product offerings for accountants that support small businesses and consumers.

 

“My goal is to build a product that helps [accountants] grow their business, eliminate wasted time, and enables them to make a difference in their customers’ lives … and at the same time, includes all the annual requirements and tax law updates of the IRS and state agencies,” explains Jones.

 

Throughout her career, Jones, who has been with Intuit for four years, has found that she has a knack for driving effective change and transformation within companies and teams. Luckily, Intuit is extremely receptive to change and transformation.

 

“When I joined, my team and I took on the challenge of transforming the tax user experience from desktop to online, all while maintaining the familiar desktop product that many of our customers use and love,” says Jones. “This transformation and challenge was what initially drew me to Intuit. Technology changes quickly every day, and we’re constantly working to find new ways to improve the product with all the new — and cool — developments for our 120,000 customers that use Intuit’s professional tax software.”

 

According to Jones, Intuit’s leadership, culture, and values make the company a great place to work, allowing her the opportunity to continue growing her career while providing her team with new opportunities to advance.

 

“I love that Intuit is an innovative, values-based company,” says Jones. “We live our values at Intuit, not just talk about them. It’s an extremely important attribute to me, and it’s inspiring to see it start from the top. One thing that stands out far beyond the rest is the ability to build and maintain a lasting career. There are always new challenges, opportunities, and rewards for employees who commit to doing awesome work and aspire to reach the next level.”

 

Aligned with Intuit’s desire to help employees reach new heights is Jones’ core career advice: “Do what you are doing to the best of your ability — do it absolutely awesome,” says Jones. “Whatever career path you’re in, articulate your aspirations, and then go do excellent work. Excellent work is almost always recognized and rewarded.”

 

To support this, she says, get involved in activities and organizations inside and outside your day job. And make yourself visible to leadership, meet with leaders across the business and join networks with similar interests. In addition, in customer- facing positions, it’s critical to understand your customer.

 

“Make that a priority,” says Jones, “so when you’re doing your work, you can partner with them for the best possible results.”

 

ELAINA SHEKHTER, EPAM SYSTEMS

 

Elaina Shekhter’s background plays an important role at EPAM Systems, as the company expands across the globe. Having held a variety of roles with the company, Shekhter now serves as EPAM’s chief marketing officer, setting strategies to position EPAM as a leading custom computer software development company working within an array of verticals, including retail, travel and hospitality, life sciences and healthcare, and more.

 

“We live in a fast-paced, changing marketplace that is driven increasingly by advances in technology,” says Shehkter. “It’s my job to anticipate, adapt and set an agenda of goals and action plans for the organization at large.”

 

With a background in political science and economic theory, Shekhter had the opportunity to develop predictive models in the mid-1990s for her economic work, helping redesign the Limited Liability Reform Act. With that experience — and seeing that technology was a growing force for change — she received a graduate degree in information systems.

 

“I knew I would never be bored at EPAM,” says Shekhter. “My background in information systems translates well to what I’m doing now, and understanding the technology allows me to succeed in this role.” With the company for 15 years, Shekhter has watched EPAM experience great growth through the years; at present, it’s growing about 30 percent annually. Yet, the company still has a small, agile feel, and that is one reason she has stayed.

 

“Culturally, we are diverse and global in nature, but it’s still a startup environment,” notes Shekhter. “This is exciting for people who want to start and build their careers without giving up the notion of being in a place that feels like a startup.”

 

The company’s constant push for innovation is another reason she stays at EPAM.

 

“The things [clients] are asking us to solve are complicated, requiring critical thinking and real creativity,” says Shekhter. “Anyone thinking about working here would be driving the edge of transformation for customers and building a career at the forefront of the technological revolution.”

 

Success in engineering comes from a perpetual desire to continue learning, says Shekhter. “The desire to continuously expand and learn--that’s a top trait--which gives you the ability to not only do incremental innovation, but to get outside the box and do breakthrough innovation.”

 

Critical thinking, she adds, is important as well.

 

“The problems we are now solving are broader and more complex, and the level of abstraction is even greater,” states Shekhter. “We have to be problem solvers before we are engineers.”

 

Finally, communication skills are a must.

 

“You can be the most brilliant problem solver, but if you don’t have basic communication skills, your career will suffer. It’s a widely known joke about the IT industry execs keeping the best coders in dark rooms and sliding pizza under the door, but that doesn’t work for anyone anymore,” continues Shekhter. “It’s important to continue to develop skills with an emphasis on being able to communicate.”

 

More broadly, she also offers young professionals this advice: “A friend and mentor of mine, one of the biggest investors and developers of businesses and real estate in the world, once told me that if you think it’s a maybe, then it’s a no. If it’s not an absolute yes, it’s not something for which you should settle, especially as a woman.”

 

PRAVEENA VARADARAJAN, FICO

 

Using data to make decisions is at the core of Praveena Varadarajan’s job.

 

Varadarajan is the vice president of product development for FICO. While FICO may be universally known for its FICO score, a predictive analytic that measures a person’s credit risk or worthiness, at its core it is a leading analytics software company that uses Big Data and mathematical algorithms to predict consumer behavior.

 

“At the highest level, I manage multiple software engineering products, specializing in business management solutions that integrate data, provide insights, create and deliver actions based on those insights,” says Varadarajan. “I look at innovation and how we take our platform across many industries. It is a pleasure and joy to work on the architecture to build these products.”

 

Right now, Varadarajan is working on a next-generation innovation, a decision management suite that is more universally applicable instead of something focused on just the financial services industry.

 

“A decision is what is actionable at the end of the day,” she says. “What we are trying to do is take our intelligence of analytics and the tools and technology we have built to analyze and optimize data and take it to a new level of abstraction. That would allow us to serve a vertical, or industry, at a higher level rather than coding products for each silo.”

 

In the industry for almost 25 years, Varadarajan came to FICO five years ago and, in part, it was a data-driven decision. “In this world, everything is about data and data is everywhere,” she says. “The constant need to use data to solve realworld problems was very attractive to me. Plus, the analytics [FICO is doing], and the fact that it has been doing it for over 50 years, that was exciting to me.”

 

At the time, FICO was also transitioning from older technologies to the company it is today, which, adds Varadarajan, “has been a fabulous journey to watch and be part of.”

 

Having worked at large companies, Varadarajan also appreciates working for a smaller company where her scope of impact is much larger. “I’m not a manager sitting at the 1,000-foot level,” says Varadarajan. “I get to be a part of decisions and dynamics. In a company like FICO, you get to be in middle of many things, which is an opportunity to learn and to build your portfolio.”

 

The most important thing engineers of all stripes can do to be successful is to excel in their field, says Varadarajan. “There is no excuse for a lack of knowledge; you must focus on excellence and technology, which is an ongoing job in this field. You want to develop your interests and be constantly learning and picking up new skills.”

 

With the technology moving at a breakneck pace, you must be open to change.

 

“You must be able to adapt to change and be agile, maneuvering yourself and the organization together through the change process,” adds Varadarajan.

 

Once in the field, Varadarajan reminds young engineers of the need to pay it forward. “We need to make sure more women compete for these opportunities and enter the job force. This is an ecosystem and an ecosystem built with relationships in the industry over the years. It’s important to share our experiences and in doing so, we all benefit.