Exceptional Female Role Models - Rahma Javed

Rahma Javed is the Director of Engineering for the Restaurants group at Deliveroo, building the tech needed to make Deliveroo the restaurant partner of choice.

A Computer Engineering graduate from the University of Toronto, she previously worked for Microsoft, Blackberry, IBM and fintech start-up Wealthfront.

She is a champion of diversity in the workplace and encouraging women into STEM careers. She speaks at schools and conferences; and mentors young talent from underprivileged backgrounds. 

Rahma is an active member of tech communities globally and advises companies on using technology to advance their mission. She sits on the board of Charity Right UK - whose aim is to provide meals to school children from underprivileged households. She also sits on the board of FactMata - whose aim is to eliminate biased, hateful and misleading content on the internet.

She was the winner in the Technology & Digital category at the Asian Women of Achievement Awards 2020; she also won the Digital Masters Award by the Up Group in the Technology category; was included in the Women of the Future Programme 2020; and was shortlisted for the WeAreTheCity Rising Star award 2020.

#ExceptionalFemaleRoleModels

Can we start by understanding a bit more about your background?

I was born in Pakistan and lived there until I was 9 years old. Then my parents moved to Canada hoping to find a better future. 

I got into tech accidentally. When I was at school I actually wanted to pursue a career in medicine, but then when it came time to apply for medical programs at university, I realised that I didn’t honestly want that. It no longer aligned with my interests, and after getting advice from my family I decided to try electrical engineering - I had always enjoyed analytical subjects like maths and physics. 

My introduction to computer engineering came due to the subject being linked within my engineering program, and I immediately felt it was a perfect fit.

In my experience, teachers play a huge role in making computer science feel exciting, but I didn’t enjoy my first programming course. However, the next year I had a different teacher who made the class fun and I loved doing all my projects. Teachers can have a huge influence and can really awaken undiscovered interests inside you.

While I was an undergraduate, I completed two internships – IBM and Research in Motion. IBM was a large corporate, but Research in Motion was smaller and popular due to their Blackberry product. It was a fantastic experience to work at a company with loads of excitement and enthusiasm about their product. 

After graduating, I interviewed at Microsoft without expecting to get the job - more for the experience of going through a Microsoft interview - but they offered me a role based in Seattle. 

Most people stay at Microsoft for 10+ years, and if you feel you need a change, you move to another team. A year into my job working on Windows, my sister moved to California and I decided to explore opportunities at Microsoft in Silicon Valley - I got a position with them working on Bing. I stayed there for another one-and-a-half years before deciding to make the most out of living in the Palo Alto area by joining a start-up.

My sister was working at a fin-tech start-up called Wealthfront and I ended up joining them as a Software Engineer and progressed to become their Director of Engineering, leading their financial services area. One of the products I worked on was a college savings product that allows parents and grandparents to invest money for their child’s college education, where all the investment appreciation is tax-free.

After six years in the Valley, I started to get bored with the homogenous environment where everyone was working within tech. I had always wanted to live in Europe, with London being my favourite destination. I started networking with people based over here and eventually spoke with the CTO of Deliveroo - he offered to fly me over for an interview, and as soon I walked into their office I felt impressed that they were an exciting start-up, and that the role being offered to me was exactly aligned with how I saw my career progressing. 

I see myself as an engineer - someone who solves problems, rather than a developer who only writes code. My responsibilities now focus on developing the product roadmap and setting the strategic direction of my group; and I don’t actually do any coding on a day-to-day basis anymore. 

My job right now is different from the things I learned at university, and I love that - as you progress through your career, your job should change. In my opinion, if your job isn’t evolving every six months you’re in stagnation. I love using my passion and work ethic to push myself out of my comfort zone and keep learning. 

What do you wish you had learned earlier in life?

My appetite for having new and different experiences – as it used to be much lower. 

I came from a strong family unit and it was a pretty safe environment for me, so even though I did move to a new city I kind of built a bubble around me, because that is what I always had.

I put a lot of restrictions on myself, especially around what would be a good or bad experience, and holding myself to a standard where I never wanted to make a mistake. I was operating in a safe zone.

What I have now learned – through having many more experiences – is that firstly, it’s okay to fail sometimes, especially when you are able to extract the learning from these situations. Secondly, the experience you gain from trying new things is usually way more valuable than just continuing to do things you already know you are capable of.

I’ve realised that when you are young in your career, you think you know yourself - but you really don’t. Life is a long journey of learning more and more about yourself, and the only way you truly do this is by trying different things.

Accepting that decisions are reversible gives you perspective - it’s not the end of the world if a decision turns out bad. Sometimes people think that only good decisions make us better people, but living through difficult challenges enriches your character - you learn more about what you are capable of, which situations you thrive in and which ones you don’t.

We are all products of our environment, and my career trajectory has been the result of the chances I’ve taken. If I had stayed with Microsoft I would have had a more typical career progression, but working with start-ups exposed me to higher-level problem-solving and a very different range of responsibilities.

I also now realise that challenge and motivation is very important. I feel really motivated when there is a big challenge ahead of me, more so than when I go into something already knowing I can do it.

What is the best advice you have ever been given?

Don’t be too hard on yourself – be a little kinder and gentler.

I’m not saying don’t take things seriously, but try not to make things more serious than they really are. Sometimes we can have the tendency to hold ourselves accountable to such a high degree that we end up forgetting that in the moment we should also be having fun.

I believe that if you are a little easier on yourself, this changes how you approach life and also the individual situations you will be faced with.

What are the biggest life lessons that you have learned?

Have the confidence that eventually things will fall into place.

This will allow you to live life less on edge and less scared as you enter - particularly new - situations.

Believing that as long as you are prepared to do the hard work, the universe has a way of making things all fall into place down the road. Even if you are enduring a streak of failures, I believe that eventually you will get your success.

I have learned not to put limits on myself, and I now realise that so much of life is just about believing in yourself and putting in hard work to reach each new goal. Also this isn’t always about just putting in the hours, sometimes it’s being able to figure out how to work differently and adapting your approach.

How important have mentors been to you?

Very important, I had a great mentor at Microsoft and also at Wealthfront - both of these mentors really built up my confidence.

I had to cope with my share of imposter syndrome, I had a lack of confidence, I always believed that I had a certain cap when it came to my capabilities.

These mentors helped me to realise my own potential and that it’s often your own internal fears that hold you back. Being mentored by someone you respect who tells you positive things about yourself and is encouraging you really means a lot.

I also think it’s crucial to talk to different people and get their perspective on a situation. I have key people in my life - outside of my family - whose opinion is important to me. It is essential to have people in your life who know you well enough to give you honest advice. 

Sometimes it’s great just to talk things through with somebody, and it may be that you walk away from that with a different perspective and realise that things aren’t as bad as you first thought.

How important do you think visible female role models are?

I think this is extremely important - fundamentally if there are no female role models, who are we going to be inspired by and look up to?

Sometimes I look at myself and ask why I am continuing to push so hard – I’m happy with what I have achieved so far and I earn reasonably well. But then I find the drive that I want to keep going to eventually try to become the role model to others that I was looking for when I first started in tech.

The more examples we have of successful women in tech, the more it becomes the norm and others look at us and say ‘it can be done’. When we feel discouraged it’s always good to have role models that look like you, and to feel that ‘if they can do it, then I can also do it’.

What has been your experience as a Muslim woman in tech?

The tech environment is not always supportive of women in general - what we need professionally or how it impacts our personal lives. Companies who are intentional about supporting and sponsoring women, and have policies to support their intentions are really important.

My experience as a Muslim though has actually been very positive. My daily prayers are essential for me, and I’ve able to do that where I’ve worked. Once I explain what I need, people have always been happy to offer support. 

Some people are worried and think that their colleagues will think they are weird if they are praying, or fasting during Ramadan. What I have found is that nobody has an issue, especially if you are open and explain things. 

Mentally, I turn this situation around, I look at it like ‘Do I let being different bother me, or do I feel proud of my diversity and be grateful for the chance to educate others?’ 

What strategies have you come up with when dealing with challenges?

Have many things in your life that bring you happiness.

If work is your only source of fulfilment or achievement you will often be disappointed as it’s not always going to go perfectly, so develop a better balance.

Diversify and invest time in your family, your friends, your interests and hobbies. Life is short, so appreciate it.

For me I invest in my mental and physical health through prayer, and also hiking, running and reading. I also believe in the power of giving back.

What does success mean to you?

Success to me means leading a holistic life, I would like to feel that I am making progress in every area of my life and well-being.

I also want to work towards my longer-term passion which is to give back and make a social impact. I am very committed to eventually working with women who struggle to achieve their educational potential because they come from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds. I believe that education can be used to turn around your life, and so I want to work in some way with women where access to high quality education is not so easily attained.