Not all women in tech have to be coders, but it helps

For many of the women who lead Australia's technology industry, lacking a degree in computer science has not been a barrier to success. And, they say, it should not be one for other women either.

Speaking at the Females in IT and Telecommunications International Women’s Day luncheon in Sydney Wednesday, Kate Burleigh, managing director of Intel Australia, Pip Marlow, managing director of Microsoft Australia, Tara Commerford, managing director of GoDaddy in Australia and New Zealand, Sharryn Napier, vice president and regional director at Qlik, and Dr. Susan Pond, steering committee co-chair of Science in Australia Gender Equity, all shared their own unique career paths.

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Pond, for example, has moved from a career in medicine, to the biotechnology industry and now into clean technology. Burleigh, on the other hand, studied marketing at university and became familiar with computers during the Australian industry's early days while working at electronics retailer Dick Smith in the early '90s.

Of course, executives across a variety of industries are often experienced in business and management, rather than being subject matter experts. If we broaden the definition of what it means to work in technology, however, more women might chose it as their career, the panel suggested. 

Napier pointed out you can work in marketing or law and still be in the technology industry. "[There are] a breadth of roles that aren't just about tech," she said.

Speaking to Mashable Australia after the event, Commerford admitted her career so far has been diverse. "I've traversed a number of different industries ... and that's put me very much into a generalist role where I've had exposure to product, to back-end web developers that I've managed, right through to [communications] and partnerships," she said.

For her, it's no longer about simply promoting STEM skills to attract women to tech, it's about redefining the workforce. "If we broaden that scope, we're going to make it more appealing as an industry," she explained. "We're seeing people come up through the ranks from marketing, from mathematics, from HR."

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"It is true to say you don't have to have a hardcore technology background to succeed in the technology industry, and I'm living proof of that," Burleigh told Mashable Australia.

That's especially true if companies invest in talent and train people on the job. "I'm not actually inventing Intel's next microprocessor, for example, so I can get away without having engineering skills," she said. "But I'm running the sales and marketing office, and we're doing a lot of pre-sales engineering ... I've had plenty of on the job training on the computer engineering side."

That certainly doesn't mean studying computer science is not worthwhile, she emphasised. "If you want to be the person creating the technology, or inventing that next big startup … we do believe those skills are going to set you up to be more successful than just pure business skills or pure marketing skills," Burleigh said.

Ultimately, it depends on the role you want to play longterm. "If I could revisit my journey again ... I would choose computer science as a subject, knowing what I know [now]," she added. "I'm always talking about something someone else has invented, and it's not something I've done."

UPDATE: March 18, 2016, 11:57 a.m. AEDT Correction: Kate Burleigh, managing director of Intel Australia, worked at Dick Smith in the 1990s, not in the 1970s as previously reported.

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