Women in Tech. I read stories of struggles all the time, a lot more than I’d like to.

These are the stories of women that didn’t get into tech because growing up they were told (or shamed into believing) that it would not be a suitable path for them.

Or the stories of those that dared to follow that path but struggled to be accepted, to be taken seriously, to progress their careers in a male-dominated industry.

Even the stories of the female tech founders that struggled to get seed money or were mistaken for the receptionist.

If that’s the kind of story you’re after, you should stop reading now. As outraged as I am for the fact that those situations have and still do occur, that is the polar opposite of my own experience.

In fact, I didn’t set out to be in tech at all.

As a child, at one point, I wanted to be a ballerina and a supermarket cashier, at the same time. Somehow I felt they would be complementary careers.

I soon realised I would not have the willpower to withstand a life of restricted diets and arduous daily exercise, and working a till, even a digital one, was not as glamorous as I had originally anticipated as a 6 year old.

My teenage self wanted to pursue Arts but I yearned for independence and was worried I wouldn’t be able to support myself, so I settled for Graphic & Media Design. That’s where creative thinking meets commercial fortitude, right?

I graduated from a top London University and got a job at a design agency. Over the next decade I progressed professionally but over time felt more and more disillusioned with the work I was doing. I often regretted the output after n rounds of changes requested by the client. Artworking wasn’t exhilarating either. Not what we had been sold at uni!

Then one day, through friends, I found out about this tiny London startup with a big dream: to revolutionise the beauty industry by bringing it online.

The year was 2009 and the idea of booking your hair and beauty appointments online was not as mainstream as it is nowadays. Hard to believe, I know!

It was fresh, new, exciting. Their vision and passion were contagious. I wanted to feel that way too! I had no idea how to get to the end goal, but the question I asked was “what can I do to help out”? Them being in London and me in Lisbon didn’t matter, at least not to me. Wasn’t it an online business after all?

So that’s how I started working for a tech company, doing data entry. My background and experience certainly helped in being flexible and creative about the approaches we took to solve problems so soon I was doing a bunch of other stuff too.

But I didn’t see it as working at a startup, or working in tech, I saw it (and still do) as creating something that hadn’t been done before. Sort of being an explorer, like my forefathers centuries before.

Fast forward to 2013 and the tiny startup, not so tiny now, is venturing into international waters. I was privileged enough to be part of the international launches team and through that experience I ended up getting an invitation to join the Product team two years later.

Since then I have had the opportunity to launch a new team within the Product and Tech organisation at Treatwell — more on that to come later.

Turns out I’ve been a Woman in Tech for nearly a decade — or for the last four years if you’re a purist — and I have no idea how it all happened. I’m just really grateful it did, I feel more at home now professionally than I ever did before.

Have I faced setbacks and disappointments? Absolutely. Do I feel they were caused or brought on for being female? Absolutely not.

Maybe I’m just lucky and Treatwell is simply an amazing company or a bit of both, but it’s worth sharing my experience in the hope it will inspire others and help bring barriers down.