🦸♀️️ Women of Mekari and their courageous career takeaways.
Learning from the Modern Woman experience as we celebrate International Women's Day today and every day.
The Modern Woman: Defines herself separate from stereotypes, is introspective, brave and intelligent enough to know and act accordingly based on her own strengths and weaknesses. -Cristina Hartmann, writer for the Huffington Post and TIME Magazine.
With an experiment-friendly work environment and respectful relationships at the core of our values, Mekari has been a hotspot for many Modern Women. Among them are Dwike Aprilia, our Technical Program Manager, and Retha Theresia, our Software Engineer, who have had their own fair share of building a career as a woman in a male-dominated industry.
Overcoming barriers
As one of the first women engineers in Mekari, Retha was also the youngest in her team full of senior and experienced engineers. Exceeding her expectations, the new circle of peers she joined created a supportive environment for her to grow. From guiding her through her work, to inviting her to team lunches. Once an awkward newbie in the industry, Retha is now a part of various tech communities including Ruby Conference.
Similar to Retha and many other women in the industry, Dwike, an integral part of our engineering team who is also a working mother, started her career with many doubts and fears. Even now, these insecurities still sometimes cloud her judgment, and when they do, she’s got a handy trick up her sleeves: listing down achievements she’s gathered from the past 7 years of her career. This practice has helped her refocus on her strength and solidify the belief that she brought herself to where she is today. As for her fear of uncertainty and the unknown future, she always keeps in mind to “start from what you can do and hold on to that control.”
Proudest contribution
Since joining the engineering team of Jurnal in 2015, Retha has seen many changes and improvements. Furthermore, she herself has been involved in creating and developing various features in Jurnal. Her pride extends from her own personal growth to the growth of Jurnal, which seems to reflect each other productively.
With her leading role in each team she has assisted, Dwike’s pride lies in the independence of her teams. When a team she leads gets to the point of ‘Self-Organized’ as a result of their patience and hard work, it’s an achievement within itself as it shows their commitment to use their shortcomings as a base to move forward. The Scrum Values she holds is also key in creating a Self-Organized team. The Scrum Values according to the widely-used Scrum Guide include: Courage, Focus, Commitment, Respect, and Openness.
Women supporting women
It takes courage to show up with a high quality of work while being the only woman in a team, especially in engineering. With no one sharing the same experience that she has as a woman, she feels that it is important for women even in different teams to look out for another and show that women, too, are capable of the same work their male colleagues have been praised for.
On the same boat, Dwike strongly believes that women are stronger when they support each other and willingly give advice to enhance each other’s growth. One movie that has inspired her is The Help (2011), which shines a light on women minority and how important it is for the majority to lift the voices of the minority and highlight their importance in society.
To all the young women out there
Do not fear, do not captive yourself in timidity, and do not stop learning new things to experiment and innovate. You are never too old to start something. Never be discouraged for being the only woman in the team, and instead turn it as an opportunity to show what we are capable of. -Retha Theresia.
Always look within yourself and find what it is that YOU want to do, and what you are interested in pursuing. Ignite the fire in you, as enthusiasm will bring you to new challenges and voluntary growth. Never settle, do not stay still, and continue to push boundaries to get out of your comfort zone. -Dwike Aprilia.
Happy International Women’s Day.
From the women building Mekari, to the women building their life journeys.