Women In Tech panel offers insight into unconventional career paths in technology

On Wednesday, March 5th University of Kentucky Information Technology Services (UK ITS) hosted a Women in Tech panel entitled, “How did I get here? A Panel Discussion About Unconventional Career Paths in Tech.”

Featuring panelists from diverse educational and professional backgrounds, the discussion offered valuable insights and advice from women who've taken unconventional paths into tech careers.

Panelists included Senior Director of UK Online Patsy Carruthers, VP of Pinterest Lisa Stoner, Business Analyst with Indiana University’s IT Services Sharlene Toney and Director of Digital Initiatives, Scholarship and Collaboration at Hamilton College Lisa McFall.

Assistant Director of Communications & Strategic Engagement for UK ITS Marci Adams, moderated the panel. Adams began the discussion by referencing a Forbes report on women in tech field.

"Last year only 25% of the tech workforce were women and only 11% of executive roles in tech were held by women,” Adams said. "So, we think this topic is more relevant now than ever and that women are just not entering the tech workforce at the rate that men are."

With that statistic in mind, panelists shared stories about their unconventional paths that led them into various sectors of the technology industry.

Patsy Carruthers began her career at a newspaper. Eventually, Carruthers landed a job in publishing and then in public media, where she began hosting workshops for teachers on how to use the internet in classrooms.

"After about 10 years, I moved to the University of Kentucky, where I support higher education faculty," Carruthers said. "So, it was kind of a winding path, but also to me it seems like a very natural progression."

Prior to becoming Vice President of Pinterest, Lisa Stoner held a multitude of roles, including jobs within food service and retail industries.

“I applied at Kmart to be an assistant manager of the shoe department and didn't make it to the final round,” Stoner said. Eventually, she landed her first tech industry job with AT&T.

“I started working for AT&T in the customer service department, and it was the only game in town in Jacksonville, NC. So, I was fortunate to be hired as an entry level supervisor and that business evolved over time,” Stoner said.

With an undergraduate degree in speech communication and theatre secondary education and then earning a master’s in macro social work, Sharlene Toney had no plans of moving into the IT world. After spending eight years as an academic advisor, Toney’s supervisor approached her with an opportunity that combines academic advising and student success technology.

“I write all of our specs for development, and I do all of our testing. I make sure our security is taken care of,” Toney said. “Eighteen months ago, I started on an MS in cybersecurity risk management, so I'm three classes away from finishing that. So, I hope to move into privacy within higher ed.”

Lisa McFall earned a music education degree and worked as a music librarian. When she began working at Hamilton College, a small liberal arts university, her career path shifted.

“I supervise our digital scholarship team, and so they are working directly with faculty to support their digital research methodologies,” McFall said. “Currently, I also serve as an IT project manager, so helping to facilitate some of our IT projects as they're moving through and across the various teams within our merged library and IT organization.” Panelist also shared insights about addressing training gaps and skepticism they’ve encountered along their atypical career paths.

McFall is currently working on a project where she’s often the only female in the room during meetings. She has learned that being comfortable contributing her knowledge has become a valuable skill.

“I'm not a programmer by nature, but I do have skills and things to offer, so I think that finding ways to have my own level of comfort with who I am and speaking to that is really a valuable skill that I've had to help combat some of that skepticism,” McFall said.

Carruthers agreed and added that constructive criticism helped her become comfortable in her new position.

“They were all extremely helpful in just being open when I said, ‘Hey, I really don't know much about this. Can you help me work through this?’” she said. “And being able to hear what they said would be a better way to approach really helped me but also helped open up some relationships as well.”

Acknowledging their differing paths into their current tech careers, panelists shared advice for anyone curious about where to start.

“The other thing I was encouraged early on that I appreciated was the phrase your ability zone is greater than your comfort zone.” McFall said. “So even though you might start out in a specific area ... think more broadly about how what you're doing might diverge a little bit from the path that you thought you would be on.”

During her time as an academic advisor, Toney said first-year students would often panic if they were undecided on a career.

“I used to tell them follow what you enjoy, follow what you want to explore,” Toney said. “If you do what you love, you'll end up where you're supposed to be.”

Stoner’s advice for women interested in tech is to be the person who says, “Yes.”

“Look for yeses and not no’s,” Stoner said. “Look for the people who see you in a way that you can’t see yourself.”

In honor of Women’s History Month, the panel concluded with a video featuring the stories of additional women in tech who began their careers in other fields. These stories highlighted the diverse experiences of women in the tech community and encouraged others to forge their own career paths.

Watch the video here.

The panel discussion is available to watch on UK ITS’s YouTube channel.

Sign up for UK ITS news, alerts and tech tips here. You can also follow UK ITS on social media and listen to all episodes of our new podcast TechKnow here.