Name: Kavitha Chandrasekaran
University: King's College London
Degree: MSc Computing, IT Law and Management
It all started on one fine day. I
was looking at TARGETjobs website and something caught my eye. It read
"IT's not just for boys!”
Immediately after reading what it is all about,
I was dumbstruck. I have been in the IT field for more than six years before
doing my Master’s degree but so far I had no idea about an event focusing on
women in IT existed. I had worked in several teams surrounded by men and almost
every time I was the only woman in the group. There were so many instances when
I felt it would have been really nice to have more female co-workers in the IT
field for both professional and personal relationships.
Having said this I was still in a
dilemma over whether to apply or not. So many questions were running through my
mind like , ‘is this going to be another job fair with employers in the stalls?’
‘Will I be able to have a one-one conversation with the employer?’ etc.
In spite of all these dilemmas I
applied, as I was interested to network with other young women in technology as
well as meet the employers. It was a simple online application form including a
short paragraph reasoning the inspiration behind to attend this event. Shortly
after that, I was booked for a telephone interview. I was still thinking how
the interview will go - will it be a traditional one based on competency
questions?
On the scheduled day, I received
a call from Katy, who was friendly immediately from "Hello" till we
ended the conversation. All the scary thoughts about answering the questions
were long gone after speaking to her. She genuinely wanted to understand my
motive to attend the event and explained to me about what will I gain.
After the telephone interview,
true to her word, Katy sent me an email the same day stating I was successful
and I received the information about the venue and other information required
to get me there.
On THE day, I was a bit nervous
about meeting employers and new people but the excitement got over the anxiety.
I reached Bloomberg HQ well before time.
I saw few other women walking towards the building and waiting. After
the initial ice-breaking introduction, we went inside a Victorian building and
in complete shock to see a fully functional hi-tech infrastructure with coffee
machines which was a pure gadget by itself, large fish tanks, and unlimited
refreshments. The hospitality of the event's organisers can never be matched. I
doubt I will meet such a charming and cheerful group of organisers ever again;
they were welcoming every single person, especially much needed for few ladies
who travelled all the way to London from further afield like Scotland and
Ireland for the event. 
Once we were registered we were
given ID cards and had headshots taken for use in a CV book after the event.
Soon after, we were listening to inspirational and motivational speakers like
Nathalie Nahai and Kate Taylor. Later, we were separated into several groups
with one employer heading that group and asking us to create an app. The
employers had great attention to our brainstorming session and gave us loads of
tips to get the teamwork up and running. Once we "developed" the
concept of the app, we were asked to present it in front of the rest of the
employers and we were much appreciated for our ideas.
Post Team Challenge, each group
had their 'one-one' time with all the employers. One of the employers was
saying about the application process, another employer was discussing on
preparing a great CV and the common mistakes and so on. We had 3 sessions of
around 20 minutes on different skills topics. After that, we had a question
time with a panel of senior women from each of the companies. They were really
genuine and enthusiastic to answer all the questions we had. I learned that it’s
possible to become a senior manager or director of a top company, if you have
the drive to succeed.
As the day was drawing to a
close, we had a chance to meet the recent graduates of many companies and they
gave us an insight of how is it inside the organisations and they gave us some
many important tips on the interview processes.
I can't end this blog without
mentioning the fantastic lunch we had and the goodies we had to take home, something
from each event partner! :) Kudos to the TARGETjobs Event team for all thier efforts and
supports! I recommend each and every young woman in the field of IT (whether
you are studying it or not) to attend this event to have a real insight and how
you can succeed in life, without compromising your personal life.
A BIG THANK YOU from the bottom
of my heart!!!
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