As we celebrate International Women’s Day, OnePlan is proud to highlight the outstanding women who work for our event planning and mapping software company. Women in tech have long been underrepresented, but these talented and inspiring individuals are breaking barriers and paving the way for future generations. In the part one of this blog post series, we are excited to share the stories of these remarkable women, their experiences in the tech industry, and the unique perspectives they bring to our team – as well as give advice to a future generation of women working in tech.
Heather Bray, Senior Customer Success Manager & Product Specialist for OnePlan
Can you tell us about your journey to becoming a woman in tech? What inspired you to pursue this career path?
I’ve worked in live events for a long time, and as a natural problem-solver, it made sense that tech would be an ideal career space for me. From ticketing to operations, working in technology in the live event space has empowered me to make live event planning better. The most brilliant women I know work in this space as well, which inspired me to pursue a career in tech.
What do you think could be done to encourage more women to pursue careers in tech and to create a more inclusive industry?
Creating a more inclusive industry means highlighting representation of women in this space! Having women of all career stages incorporated into you organization signals to the industry that there is room for all, and more importantly, room to grow. I chose to mentor other women in the tech space as well as be mentored by women, supporting each other along the way.
How have you been able to grow your skills and knowledge in tech? What resources or support systems have been helpful for you?
As mentioned earlier, my relationships with other women in tech carry so much value to me. I learn from my peers and mentors, and chose to be active in many tech-centric communities. Seek out professional groups that meet regularly and get involved with initiatives and courses that feature passionate tech leaders in your discipline. Start an employee resource group at your company. Gather for a tech-focused book club! There are lots of ways to gather and share your passions.
What advice would you give to young women who are interested in pursuing a career in tech?
My advice is to harness what makes you unique and run with it! Cookie cutter profiles for careers are no longer relevant – if it wakes up your brain and drives you daily, follow that path. Find a mentor or two and meet with them regularly. Get involved, and share your ideas. Don’t be shy. The space needs you!
Manon Thonneau-Zurano, 3D Modeller for Venue Twin
Can you tell us about your journey to becoming a woman in tech? What inspired you to pursue this career path?
It clearly comes from my Dad, who was a computer enthusiast and created his own computer repair company. He taught me lot of things about those and some technology. The fact that I was a little girl made no difference in the way he educated me.
What do you think could be done to encourage more women to pursue careers in tech and to create a more inclusive industry?
I think school should make everything neutral and not gender based. Maybe have some classes about using screws, having small internships in robotic/medical/research labs industries or even in video game studios. Just to have a first sight on how it works.
How have you been able to grow your skills and knowledge in tech? What resources or support systems have been helpful for you?
Besides learning from my dad, I learned from many many mistakes ! I’ve looked at tutorials, I’ve learned from my friends who also love technology, I’ve studied 3 years in this field also.
What advice would you give to young women who are interested in pursuing a career in tech?
Don’t be afraid by the fact that there’s less women in this field, it doesn’t matter. It is interesting and fascinating. Go talk to people in several fields of expertise to see what their daily life looks like to get to know what could make you become passionate.
Nim Wichienkuer, Senior Product Manager for OnePlan
Can you tell us about your journey to becoming a woman in tech? What inspired you to pursue this career path?
I worked in product management for FMCG before, and the pace at which physical products get produced is much slower, so I wanted to work on something more fast-paced, where user insights get analysed and improvements get done in a matter of days, rather than months or years. To me that’s the most rewarding part of working in tech.
What do you think could be done to encourage more women to pursue careers in tech and to create a more inclusive industry?
A mentorship programme to groom the next generation of wo(men) tech leaders will be very beneficial.
How have you been able to grow your skills and knowledge in tech? What resources or support systems have been helpful for you?
I listen to a lot of podcasts and read online articles to keep myself up to date. I also attend tech meet-up events.
What advice would you give to young women who are interested in pursuing a career in tech?
I’d recommend talking to as many people as possible about the career path you’re interested in pursuing. Find someone you admire or someone with the career path that you’d like to follow and ask them for coffee chats. I used to be too afraid to do that, but you’d be surprised how helpful people are and how much you’ll be able to learn from just one conversation with someone from the industry. Your success rate might not be high, but that one conversation you have can be life-changing.
Anastasiia Mykhaliuk, Product Owner for OnePlan
Can you tell us about your journey to becoming a woman in tech? What inspired you to pursue this career path?
I started my career in digital, where I’ve gone through a long way of different marketing activities applied to various products. Then at some stage I realized that I would be happy to be on the other side, as I’m more interested in the products themselves. At that point, I began to move into product management/ownership.
I actually like how this path has developed for me because in order to succeed in product related roles each additional experience is beneficial, be it marketing, analytics, project management or anything else.
The world of technologies is inspiring in itself, and it opens unlimited opportunities for everyone. Large company with established processes or growing startup where you can influence decision-making, product or outsourcing, office or remote, from VR or fintech to SaaS platforms or food delivery apps – this could be pretty everything.
You can always find an interesting role that suits not only your desired career path, but also your personality type, motivations and habits.
What do you think could be done to encourage more women to pursue careers in tech and to create a more inclusive industry?
I just can’t say I see any obstacle.
For example, most software developers are male, that’s true – but is there any reason in this not to become one if you want? Even if you still think of yourself as a ‘woman who wants to pursue a non-female career’… should this stop you? and why?
Don’t limit your imagination. Your world starts from you, and all the stereotypes in your world also starts from you. Be an engineer, be a housewife, be a pilot. Be whoever you want, break the rules – or follow the rules (if you see any). Both ways are equally ‘right’ as long as you think so.
Stereotypes begins with a collective thought, but develop in the minds of each person individually. The best thing we can do is just not to follow them, and then – to encourage people around to do so. Any way to somehow ‘remove the bias from industry’ seems artificial for me, but we can just naturally move towards this, starting from ourselves.
How have you been able to grow your skills and knowledge in tech? What resources or support systems have been helpful for you?
I’ve learned a lot from the online courses I took. I see it as a quick and easy way to get started – no need to add it to the wish list, search for special courses, wait for the semester to start, etc.
If you can learn this way (less interactive and requiring more perseverance) – it can be a fairly easy entry point for many things.
Go to Coursera or Udemy, choose a topic that’s interesting for you, buy a course for some $30-50, spend an hour on it and see how it could be more interesting than your evening series.
At the same time, ‘deep’ knowledge and skills come only with hands-on experience. And here, the best thing you can do for yourself is to find a job that will open up opportunities for learning and growth.
What advice would you give to young woman who are interested in pursuing a career in tech?
If you want to try – just try!
(advice that could be given to anyone interested in any career, actually)
But seriously… tech is everything and everywhere.
Do you want to build technological products? Or to develop monetization strategies? Or to help people to reach their potential? Or to analyze performance and help products to grow?
And no matter how ‘feminine’ or ‘masculine’ your list of interests looks – whether it’s sport or science, psychology or travelling, investments or shopping – everything is digitalized.
So, could we imagine the environment opening more opportunities for… you? 🙂
Sandra Weiland, VP of Customer Success for OnePlan
Can you tell us about your journey to becoming a woman in tech? What inspired you to pursue this career path?
I always wanted to become an event manager. With my studies in event management and tourism, I remember taking a walk through Berlin checking out my neighbourhood and companies close by before I finished my last semester. Booking.com had recently opened an office around the corner where I lived and I knew it from using it occasionally. It was brand awareness and user experience that got me into the company. Three years later I was asked to join the event industry with a recently opened tech start-up for online ticket sales. It was my passion for events in general, clubbing in Berlin, open airs and festivals across Germany that brought me in.
What do you think could be done to encourage more women to pursue careers in tech and to create a more inclusive industry?
This is a really great question. To get to the bottom of it I’d like to understand and know first what it is that women feel discouraged about pursuing a career in tech nowadays.
In the past years, before Corona, I was happy to attend and be inspired by the event called Female Future Force Day in Berlin organized by EDITION F. I have been happy to attend it once, with some fantastic workshops, panels and companies presenting themselves and creating awareness for a more inclusive industry letting women talk directly to the women on the ground. I believe we need more of those great formats and people that make it happen to share knowledge, engage and connect on such a great level in the future.
How have you been able to grow your skills and knowledge in tech? What resources or support systems have been helpful for you?
Nowadays I find it a lot easier to learn and develop. I love reading and talking! Reading the newspaper, books, newsletters and blogs, watching Netflix documentation and listening to podcasts but also connecting with other industry experts makes a difference on my learning path. It is on each of us to own it and to inspire ourselves every day for personal growth.
A lot of my knowledge I have also gained through listening and speaking to customers and industry specialists at events. With any new products and services I’m being introduced I try to think about how those can help me in my current role and company to drive for success.
Last year I have been introduced to a fantastic lady heading up Customer Success for an online security company. While talking to her I realized we are facing the same challenges and success stories and decided to launch a monthly catch-up, talking about Customers Success processes, trends, and anything we have on our Customer Success minds. It is great to exchange ideas, and knowledge and brainstorm even beyond.
What advice would you give to young women who are interested in pursuing a career in tech?
As in any career, it is you driving it. If you are in an early stage coming from university I would suggest connecting with industry experts. Go visit events and start networking. It is not only valuable for you to understand your passion and interest better but also to know what businesses, sectors and job opportunities are out there. The tech industry is fast growing and trends are changing quickly.
The same goes for any in tech working women. Connecting and interacting with others through events, communities, newsletters and social platforms makes a difference in order to be seen and valued.
Rachel Klasey, Director, North America Operations for OnePlan
Can you tell us about your journey to becoming a woman in tech? What inspired you to pursue this career path?
My career has largely been in Operations, and over the years, I have realized how much Operations and Technology go hand in hand. For this reason, I started to ask a lot of questions around IT, around technology systems that I saw show up in my organization, and tried to understand how the all work together. To give some tangible examples – this started as, “how does this cord connect to this device to create the ability to project a computer screen?” to when Microsoft rolled out Teams, “how does this compare to how we collaborate now and how is it better and how does it actually work?” to “what is fiber infrastructure for a building and why do we need it?”
Over time, I had enough of an understanding of technology to be dangerous and ask the right questions, so that when I found OnePlan, a company that was creating a technology that I believe is going to change the way Operations teams work, I had to join. So while I didn’t always know I would work in tech, I think my career has always been leading me to this point.
What do you think could be done to encourage more women to pursue careers in tech and to create a more inclusive industry?
Awareness and promotion, starting in high schools and colleges, would be a great start. While this is happening more and more, there is work to be done to showcase that a career in tech can encompass a lot of roles, whether you are technical or not.
When I started my career, I thought working in technology meant becoming a software engineer; while that absolutely is true for some people, there are so many different types of jobs that exist within the technology sector; these might look like technology-specific roles like product development, data analytics, web developer, and technical support, and it can also look like project management, recruiting, and customer success; until I started working in the field, I thought that if I wasn’t super technical, the technology industry didn’t have room for me, which is absolutely not the case.
How have you been able to grow your skills and knowledge in tech? What resources or support systems have been helpful for you?
I ask a LOT of questions. Anytime I don’t know or understand something, I ask for clarification, sometimes on the spot, sometimes later. It was nerve-wracking at first, as I didn’t want to seem young and uneducated, but then I realized that I was well, young and uneducated, and that was ok. The more questions I asked, the more I realized that people actually like to share knowledge and talk about their jobs, and they were more interested in that than they were noticing I didn’t already know the information.
A resource that has been useful for learning about topics within the technology industry is LinkedIn Learning, and of course, Googling terms I hear that I don’t know, like “what is Cat6 cabling?” , and, “what is Dark Fiber Infrastructure?”.
As far as building support systems – I recommend networking as much as possible; there is no better resource than someone in the field you want to be in who has experience and is willing to share – which in my experience people often are. I often ask people I meet if I can pick their brain (often over coffee!) about their job and their career path – people will almost always say yes to talking about their experiences.
What advice would you give to young women who are interested in pursuing a career in tech?
There are so many facets to the technology industry, so don’t get bogged down trying to fit into a certain box or type of role – sometimes you even get to make up your own roles! Many skills from other industries transfer into the tech, so you don’t even have to start in tech; focus on what interests you, and you’ll find the right fit. And ask lots of questions!
Chantal Abadie, Functional Area Integration Manager for OnePlan
Can you tell us about your journey to becoming a woman in tech? What inspired you to pursue this career path?
By chance! In July 2000, while I was working in London, I went to the 30th birthday party of a friend from Business School who was working for Gemplus near Marseilles. He offered me a job as they were recruiting extensively at the time. I thought I would stay in this company for 3-4 years maximum and I ended my career there after 18 years! In fact, I have been growing up with the company and the Telecom industry. I had 7 different roles in 18 years!
The technology has been evolving so much, seeing the evolution and the emergence of so many new technologies has been exciting (3G, 4G, 5G, contactless and digital payment, smartphones, tablets, drones, 3D printing, AR/VR, biometrics with facial recognition, fingerprint, digital ID, connected cars, etc.) – working with people in the Silicon Valley or in Asia you had the feeling to write and live history, and at the same being given the opportunity to bring new useful things to all continents and people in the need – while I was working for Emerging Markets we developed so many apps that helped people connect with their family, send money to the ones who stayed in other countries (e.g. nannies in Singapore sending money to their family in Vietnam or Philippines), check the fish market from their boat while being at sea in real-time in Dakar… this has been a fantastic journey!
What do you think could be done to encourage more women to pursue careers in tech and to create a more inclusive industry?
I won’t lie: it has sometimes been difficult being the only woman in the team, or in meetings with clients, and also being the only one with no engineer degree (I have a business degree) – but if you work hard, understand things and are not reluctant to tackle complex issues, the interest is huge and opportunities are numerous.
I participated to an initiative with our association “Gemalto Connected Women” for many years: going to meet girls in high schools (15-17 years old) to raise awareness and show them the opportunities of working in tech. Several associations work on various projects too and I have seen the progression in recent years.
And this industry definitely needs women to get a wider perspective. For instance, the biggest joke after Mobile World Congress in Barcelona back in 2015 was about Samsung. They released their first beautiful connected watches but the model for women was so big that no woman could wear it on her wrist. Therefore we all laughed that if they had had at least one woman in their team, she would have noticed that and raised the issue! Women are 50% of the market so they should take their part in building the offer!
Shaping the future with technology is important both in terms of technics but also through usage and ethics. We have seen that with the growing impact of internet and other technologies in our civilizations in the last 30 years. And we, both men and women, need to bring to the table all talents to build a better world (this is my idealistic side I’ve never lost 😊).
How have you been able to grow your skills and knowledge in tech? What resources or support systems have been helpful for you?
It has been along the way…
From a technical point of view, I spent hours speaking with my engineer colleagues to understand how things were working, every time a new tech was emerging, and also reading white papers. I also accepted the fact that I would never be able to explain technically things to my clients the same way as an expert would do. So my objective has always been to understand enough to give a sales pitch, and bring along an expert !
From an industry/market point of view, I used to read a lot of specialized publications to stay informed with the Mobile industry and Consumer Electronics… in our team we used to share the link of an interesting news every single time we found something relevant, and we had a dedicated team in charge of market and competition watch for the whole company, providing us with essential information. Meeting with clients, prospects, partners or potential partners during exhibitions (MWC, CES in Las Vegas, etc.) and also when visiting them in their country, helps you learn a lot, you better understand their needs and requirements… And then you have to connect the dots to understand what value your company can bring to such a client or such a market, be alert for business opportunities.
What advice would you give to young women who are interested in pursuing a career in tech?
Go and get there! Plenty of opportunities and exciting challenges! Sky is the limit 😊
In terms of studies, an engineer degree combined with a business degree can help a lot, but it is your mindset that makes the difference: be open and curious, don’t be afraid to innovate, believe in your ideas and fight for them!
Janaina Gerde, CAD Specialist for OnePlan
Can you tell us about your journey to becoming a woman in tech? What inspired you to pursue this career path?
Since college I’ve always been fascinated by technology and how it can change our lives. As an architect, I was always inclined to pursue new design technologies and software that could facilitate the design process. During my career, I’ve been introduced to many of those tech features that support the design and that made me curious to know more about them.
What do you think could be done to encourage more women to pursue careers in tech and to create a more inclusive industry?
I believe exposing women to technology and what it can offer it’s a start. The more people are exposed to something, the more they will be curious about it. I think women don’t consider this career because they don’t know anything about it.
How have you been able to grow your skills and knowledge in tech? What resources or support systems have been helpful for you?
I’m a curious person, so every time I was introduced to a new feature or software, I researched more about it, If there were any courses available to master that technology, and how that could be helpful to my career.
What advice would you give to young women who are interested in pursuing a career in tech?
Be curious! Keeping myself informed about new design technologies has led me to search for it deeper and look for suitable courses that could take me where I wanted to go. A career in tech has nothing to do with being a man or a woman, it’s about curiosity and looking at different ways of solving a problem.
We want to give a huge shoutout to the amazing women at OnePlan and all the women in tech. Your hard work, dedication, and unique perspectives are changing the game and inspiring us all. We are grateful for your contributions to the tech industry and the positive impact you are making.
This is just the beginning of our series highlighting the women at OnePlan. In the upcoming posts, we will continue to share the stories of women working in various roles at OnePlan, from developers and designers to marketers and managers. We hope to provide a glimpse into the diverse experiences and perspectives of our team and to celebrate the unique talents and achievements of each woman. We are excited to share these stories with you and to continue to support and empower women in tech. Stay tuned for the next installment in our series!
