Women in Tech: A Practical Guide to Success in Industry

In continuation of the author spotlights within the #TechBookThursday series, I had the chance to chat with "Women in Tech" contributor Kristin Smith last week. As an avid adventurer at heart, her career has landed her in positions at prestigious companies including Dell and Amazon. She currently works as the COO of a startup called Dolly, which aims to help people find movers at affordable prices with just a click of a button. In the following excerpts of our conversation, she highlights her "Let's do it!" attitude as well as tips for how young people (specifically women) can succeed in the sometimes challenging yet rewarding tech industry.

Could you tell me about yourself and what prompted you to become part of this book?

Sure! I've lived in the Seattle area for about 16 years now. Growing up, I lived in Michigan where there was a lot of STEM, specifically within the manufacturing domain. This caused me to choose to attend the University of Michigan with it being close to home as well as the mix of engineering, business, and culture that was readily found in my major. Although I didn't initially pursue a career in tech, I ended up following that path since I'm a bit lazy (*laughs*). Technology helps to make things so much easier by allowing people to scale more effectively, make better decisions, and more! Once this was decided, I worked Dell Computer, went to MIT for grad school, and then took up a position with Amazon for about 8 years. I later chose to enter the startup space by working at a coding school. Now, I am the COO of my own company called Dolly, which acts as a sort of Uber for moving.

As far as the book is concerned, I initially met Tarah (the author) due to us both working in Seattle. While we were having conversations about where it might be headed, she had told me of her surprise of there not being a book called "Women in Tech". Tarah had read a lot of books in the past; however, she hadn't found something that had advice and inspiration for women facing large obstacles in their careers. I loved these ideas and ended up supporting her throughout the creation of the book.

What I really enjoyed about reading your section of the book was the "Let's do it!" mentality that has followed you throughout most of your career. Could you explain this further and how one might go about cultivating a similar mindset?

I remember vividly of the times during my youth when I wasn't good at something new right away. My parents had always told me that you overcame this with practice, but I had never truly taken this to heart in all areas of my life, which ended up becoming a big limitation for me. I'm not exactly sure how this changed; however, I think it may have happened during my time at Dell in Austin. As I started, I didn't know my coworkers, who all had much more experience than me. A lot of responsibility also came my way, which put me in a state of not knowing what to do. However, I got over this hump through asking lots of questions to everyone I saw. This kicked off a new age of discovery for me; it all resulted from a shift of perspective and "retraining" my mind to accept the help.

You also mentioned the realities of imposter syndrome, which even exists as far as the halls of MIT. Do you have any advice as to how to overcome it?

I can still picture myself in the room with everyone else that had been just accepted into the same program (at MIT). They had all had similar thoughts of having no idea of whey they were chosen, which is a testament to the types of people who applied there.

Regardless of the imposter syndrome we all felt then, I'm not exactly sure how you overcome it. In fact, I cannot say that you ever do. However, I believe that the best practice when you start getting those types of thoughts is to recognize them via mindfulness. This allows you to see yourself where you really are, which helps to eliminate these feelings of self-doubt and limitation.

Finally, do you have any tips for young women that are interested in pursuing a career in the tech industry?

I would tell them that a career in this field doesn't look any particular way. When I started working in tech, I came right from studying operations research; however, I don't really use it now. However, the abilities that I've picked up along the way (such as coding, analysis, and putting systems together) have been extremely helpful; they don't necessarily follow the stereotypes. School is great in and of itself, but it can be rather misleading at times due to the reasons mentioned prior. Therefore, anything you can do to mix things up (such as taking courses outside of your major or having internships in different areas) can be extremely influential and important.

Thank you for reading this article! If you are interested in "Women in Tech", the link to it can be found here.