Women in Tech Trustmary Edition: SaaS And Humanities Are A Great Match

Aino Valtonen works at Trustmary as Content Writer. She first started as a freelance writer, but soon joined the team at the Jyv?skyl? office. She recently graduated from university, having studied English and German. In today’s blog, she discusses what makes a language student and a software company a good match.

This blog is part of the sub-series that showcases the awesome women in tech who work at Trustmary. You can recognize them from the “Women in Tech Trustmary Edition” tag in the title!

Aino Valtonen learned about Trustmary from a friend who worked at Trustmary. There was a need for a writer who could produce blog posts in English.

– It was the power of recommendation. Trustmary was looking for someone who would write in English, and Venla from the BDR team recommended me, as we knew each other from the university. She knew I studied English and could be a fit for the role, Aino recalls.

Previously, Aino had worked as a translator and a journalist, so she knew what it meant to write for a living.

She was writing her thesis and finalizing her studies when she got the opportunity to join the Trustmary team.

At first, she wrote a couple articles as a freelancer, but in February she started as an employee.

– Today, after six months, my tasks include writing blog posts in English for the website blog and LinkedIn blog, and managing our link building process. Additionally, I promote content on different social media platforms, Aino says.

What Does a Linguist Do in a SaaS company?

Trustmary is in no way foreign to language students. At the moment, there are two BDRs and two marketing team members who are former language students.

That might come as a surprise to outsiders.

– When I started working at Trustmary, my brother, who is an engineering student, asked me: “But what are YOU doing in a software company?”, Aino laughs.?

– I think this is a prime example of how people don’t necessarily know what happens inside a software business. On top of developers and other product team members, there are many different necessary titles inside a SaaS-team.

This conversation prompted Aino to think about what kind of skills she has that are useful in the software industry.

– Bear with me even though I speak through stereotypes and generalizations. I’m not arguing that other professions wouldn’t include these qualities, but I think they are more characteristic of people who study Humanities, she stresses.

Software-Layman Dictionary

– Personally, I find that one of the biggest challenges that a SaaS firm faces is how to communicate with customers. How can we make a potential customer realize what we do and how we can help the customer’s everyday life?

This is one of the topics that Aino covered in the recent article on lead generation for technology companies.

– People who work with tech have their own vocabulary. They are so used to their own jargon that they don’t necessarily notice that other people might not understand it.

In situations like this, it is useful to have someone who is not as much into the software jargon to translate the ideas for potential customers.

Research Skills and Fast Learning

Aino has had to write about topics that she knew nothing about when the draft was first presented to her.

– The first ever text that I wrote for Trustmary was about chatbot lead generation. I did not know what lead generation is, Aino recalls.?

The process of writing a new blog starts with research. Aino sees what others have written about the topic, clarifies the topic for herself, and starts making her own version.?

– Some of my favorite things to write about have been the challenging A/B and multivariate testing related texts. I had no idea what any of that meant, but I think I managed to put together a decent guide for dummies. That’s what I also mean with the software-layman dictionary: I took a topic that I don’t really understand, researched it, and translated it into layman terms.

Curiosity about the World

– I have always been curious about the world and the different phenomena. I think that is the most important factor in learning.

Aino has noticed that almost all her peers in the university have the same problem: they are interested in so many different things that it is almost impossible to choose only a few subjects to study.

For that reason, people in the Faculty of Humanities often study for a few extra years.

– I graduated in the goal time of 5 years, but I feel like there is so much that I had to give up. Luckily, learning doesn’t have to stop at the graduation, Aino says.

Thanks to a curious mindset, it is easier to dig into new topics and write about them.

– People who study Humanities are often generalists who can handle large amounts of information without going too deep into details. It is a great advantage when one has to take a completely new concept and summarize it.

Language and Writing Skills

Writing skills are in the center of Content Writing.

Language and writing skills entail many different aspects. They are not only accumulated in the classroom, but in everyday life.

– I think most language students have always read lots of books. That’s what helps people develop language skills in the first place. If you read a lot, it’s almost impossible not to develop your grammar skills and grow your vocabulary. And it’s not just books: you should read anything and everything if you want to become a good writer, Aino enhances.

– The studies include lots of reading and writing different kinds of texts. You learn to recognize patterns and know how different text types work. Thus it is easier to adapt content into different forms at work, too, she continues.

Another important thing is to know how much even individual word choices affect communication.

– Language students can critically analyze each and every word and even read between the lines to find the intention of the text. For that reason, language specialists are crucial in marketing, PR, communications, and so on. They know how to manipulate styles and word choices to leave the desired impression.

Aino points out that language and writing skills are never ready. There will be no moment when someone could confidently say they have mastered a whole language, or have no more room for improvement as a writer.

– For me, one of the development points at the moment is to learn away from the academic style of writing. I need to move towards shorter, simpler sentences that better suit commercial purposes, Aino says.

Diverse Talent Pool Is An Advantage for SaaS Companies

Even though softwares and human sciences seem to be a strange combination at first, there is no doubt that they are a great match.

– We need to understand the human side, because it's the people who buy and use software. Even people who might be new to technology, Aino says.

Moreover, a multifaceted talent pool is essential for a startup.?

In startups, there is a lot of work to do, but only so many people to handle it. Employees need to manage large entities.

Only when businesses grow it is possible to focus on more niche areas.

When there are versatile interests and skills in a team, the team can pay more attention to different details.

That’s why Trustmary has hired people from diverse backgrounds.

– If everyone in the company viewed things the same way, we would be blind in some areas, Aino contemplates.

– People with different viewpoints complement each other in a team. And it’s great that we can always express ideas and opinions, and get feedback from each other.

Women in Tech: Defined

What does women in tech mean?

The internet seems to be divided. Some say that it is only about those women who work in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.

Others think that it encompasses all possible positions in tech companies.

We like to use the company-based definition. We are a tech company, and everyone working in the company works in tech, one way or another.

Marketing, HR, and Sales are also playing an important role in the success of the software company.

Stay tuned for more stories in upcoming parts of the Women in Tech: Trustmary Edition.

If you are a woman in tech, share your experiences in the comments!