According to a study conducted by The National Center for Women & Information Technology, "gender diversity has specific benefits in technology settings," which could explain why tech companies have started to invest in initiatives aimed at increasing the number of female applicants, recruiting them more effectively, retaining them for longer, and providing them with advancement opportunities. There is much more to be done, but we are on the right track.

Every Wednesday, devmio celebrates inspirational and powerful women in the tech world. This week, we bring you Laura Bârlădeanu, Head of Engineering at Meister.

Today's Woman in Tech: Laura Bârlădeanu, Head of Engineering at Meister

Laura Bârlădeanu is Head of Engineering and part of the management team at workplace collaboration software provider Meister. Laura started at Meister in 2007 as a Fullstack Junior Developer and now leads the 50-strong developer team at Meister.

When did you become interested in technology? What first got you interested in tech?

During my first years of school, I was already interested in mathematics and other exact sciences. While my sister was enthusiastic about reading, history and languages, I found logical patterns, rules and formulas more exciting. I didn't like memorizing hundreds of pages, but I loved finding and applying a formula to solve hundreds of math problems. I didn't come into contact with computer science until 9th grade, when I entered high school— it was an immediate fit.

Let's talk about your background. How did you end up in your career path?

In my last year of Computer Engineering at university, I started working as a junior developer for a software company in my hometown. It was there that I was introduced to Ruby and Javascript. After going through onboarding and tutorials, I started adding features to our existing product. It was great to see how the code I wrote was received by our users in the form of new features. The more experience and knowledge I gained, the more complex features I built into our products, moving up from advanced to senior developer.

From the beginning, I enjoyed developing features from start to finish. I liked being confronted with a problem while having the freedom to find a solution. This helped me understand the product and its related building blocks holistically. Later, it helped me be responsible for larger projects as a technical lead. In this role, I also mentored new and existing team members.

As our team grew, I took on more and more team management responsibilities. This meant I was less involved with coding and more involved with project management and helping people work more efficiently and reach their full potential. When we introduced a new company structure in 2020 which solved some organizational issues and enabled further scaling, I was given the role of Head of Engineering and tasked with improving cohesion, collaboration and efficiency in our new engineering division—a role I still hold today.

Did you receive support from your family and friends? Do you have a role model?

Michael Hollauf, my boss for the last 11 years, has supported me during my time at Meister, from the moment I came to Austria in 2010 to join the team until today. He recognized my talents early on and allowed me to reach my full potential. He has also advised me on topics such as people management, project management and strategy, and helped me overcome uncertainties.

When leaders support their employees' well-being, they are happier, less burned out, and less likely to think about leaving the company.

What obstacles did you have to overcome?

Fortunately, I have not experienced any major obstacles or obvious discrimination. In my experience, the obstacles I faced were also much more subtle than what you sometimes find on the internet.

Obstacles I encountered in the past, and still deal with include not being asked for my opinion in a meeting, someone else taking credit for my idea, being told I'm too nice, and having my knowledge and position sometimes questioned and challenged. Or, that in meetings early on, people assume I’m the secretary and not a participant with great knowledge and input.

A day in Laura’s life

I am Head of Engineering at Meister. Since the department was officially established earlier this year, I've focused on setting up internal processes for handling bugs, feature development, and QA testing, as well as launching new initiatives like Innovation Week. This is a quarterly week dedicated to coding where developers can work on their own ideas and projects or learn something new. This is Meister's new approach of using 10% working time for topics other than their actual job, as seen in other companies.

I meet regularly with other engineering managers to discuss their projects, ideas, and goals. I learn where they need my help and how I can support them in their professional development. We also meet weekly as a group to discuss challenges in the department, leadership issues, and large projects most of us are involved in. Much of the work in my area is closely aligned with team members from other areas, such as design, product management for specs and sprints, DevOps for deployments, and reliability, so alignment with the other departments is critical. Most of the time I meet with the heads of the Product and Infrastructure departments, since we have the most overlap in our daily work.

Meister has big goals and to achieve them, we need the best people we can find. That's why recruiting has become a major focus in the leadership team, including initiatives like employer branding, active outsourcing, conducting interviews, networking, and so on. In our department, we started hosting, sponsoring, and presenting local meetups that fit our technology space. I am very happy to have talented team members promote champions in the community. Currently, I also make decisions regarding technical issues where technical leaders need my input, or projects that span multiple products.

What projects have you developed?

I have developed many things myself and continue to do so whenever I find the time. I was one of the main contributors to our main product, MindMeister. In that role, I developed features like adding images to elements, importing and exporting to and from various mindmapping formats, integrations with Google Drive and other third-party tools, an administration portal, and more. We just released the revised and updated version of MindMeister—a project I was responsible for.

My biggest project took about six months and involved migrating our rudimentary subscription management system to a completely new architecture. I managed this project—from setting up the new architecture to implementing the changes, integrating with new payment providers (PayPal and Wirecard), data migration, and delivery. This product is still in use and has successfully withstood the test of time and that of millions of users who rely on it every day for all three of our products. That makes me proud.

Why are there so few women in tech? What’s your take on that?

A major reason for the low number of women in the tech industry is that there are few female role models. Many tech companies are run by men, and the industry has cultivated a toxic "bro culture." One example of this is the founder of Uber, Travis Kalanick. He had to resign as head of the ride-sharing service because he was accused of creating a sexist work culture that discriminated against female employees. Another major factor is the low number of young women in STEM industries. According to the education campaign WISE, only 9% of female college graduates studied a STEM core subject in 2018.

I think the main reason why so few girls choose STEM subjects is because of stereotypes and prejudices in society that they are confronted with from an early age at school and at home. Even after entering the workforce, women face major obstacles and are 45% more likely than their male counterparts to quit within a year of starting work. There is a real lack of sponsorship and people in leadership positions, usually men, who support women's work and efforts.

Can you name a few challenges (or obstacles) women face in the tech industry?

A prevailing stereotype is that boys are better at math and science than girls. In addition, stereotypical characteristics of scientists such as objectivity and rationality generally correspond to male gender normative characteristics. In comparison, women are seen as highly collaborative, friendlier, warmer, more empathetic, and less analytical, independent, and competitive. As a result, they are less likely to exhibit the qualities and personality traits necessary for successful scientists. Such gender stereotypes not only affect women's career choices in STEM fields, but also affect women's retention in STEM fields because they must overcome deeply rooted discrimination and prejudice.

Thus, women are stereotypically assigned communal qualities such as warmth and caring, while men are stereotypically assigned acting qualities such as competence and assertiveness. This is particularly crucial in leadership positions, as many women are not even considered for these positions because they are seen as "too nice".

Many tech companies are run by men, and the industry has cultivated a toxic "bro culture."

Would our world be different if more women worked in STEM professions?

Many of the products we create in software development are aimed at a global audience - and that audience is 50% female. I believe we would have much better products if those developing the tools reflected the same diversity as the target audience. The case of the Apple Health app, which came to market without the ability to track women's menstruation, is now a classic example.

In leadership positions, female leaders are more supportive of their team members than their male counterparts, for example, by helping them overcome challenges at work or ensuring that their workload is manageable, and looking after their overall well-being. The work of female leaders leads to better outcomes for all employees. When leaders support their employees' well-being, they are happier, less burned out, and less likely to think about leaving the company.

Do a market analysis and make sure you know the value you bring to the company and can articulate it very clearly.

The discussion about diversity is gaining momentum. How long will it take for the current debate to show results?

We've made undeniable progress in recent years in bringing more women into tech—from 8% of the STEM workforce in 1970 to 27% in 2019 in the U.S— and in narrowing the gender gap. Yet they are still underrepresented in tech. By 2020, women will make up 28 to 42% of the FAAMG workforce (Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Google). More broadly, only 31% of IT workers in the U.S. are women. In the EU, the numbers are even lower: only 20% of STEM employees are women.

The shift to home offices and the increased pressures female workers face from the pandemic are having a major impact on the female workforce. One in four women are considering leaving the workforce or shifting careers, compared to just one in five for men. More than 80% of unpaid caregivers are women, so it's not surprising that three major groups face the greatest challenges: working mothers, women in leadership positions, and black women.

Looking specifically at management levels, women continue to face significant challenges. For every 100 men promoted to management, there are only 86 women. As a result, men clearly outnumber women at the executive level, which means there are far fewer women who can be promoted to higher levels. This is likely why the percentage of women holding senior manager, director and vice president positions has been slower to improve than the pipeline overall. Globally, only 24% of senior management positions are held by women.

What advice would you give to women who want a tech career? What should they know about this industry?

"Don’t be afraid" would be a cliché. Everyone is scared, everyone is insecure, everyone is Googling and copying from Stack Overflow. Know your worth. Discuss with your friends what they make and ask for the same or more. Do a market analysis and make sure you know the value you bring to the company and can articulate it very clearly.

Be aware of language and its hidden meaning and read "You Just Don't Understand". I can't tell you how much this book has helped me navigate various meetings, pull request reviews, and even how to give and receive feedback.