Women working in the IT industry are starting to create increasingly strong communities.
The community of women in IT is also supported by several organizations such as Czechitas and AjTyvIT . Other companies are also getting involved! such as Enehano Solutions ! which connects IT and business thanks to Salesforce.
Enehano supports the newly formed group Women in Tech Czech Republic (WIT CZ)! which meets regularly and helps women with further technical education. At the end of last year! the group completed its first women’s 8-week course focused on Salesforce administration.
Miroslava Vodičková is a member of this community female database and a graduate of the admin course. We were interested in how far Mirka has come in IT! how she perceives the female community in the Czech Republic! and what she would recommend to other women who are thinking about an IT career?
Mirko! what position have you held and how long have you been working?
I have been working as a business analyst for almost twenty years. I started in this position at a time when analysts were scarce and in IT! analysts were seen as something non-technical or as a barrier between the user and the developer. UML (Unified Modeling Language – a graphical language for software engineering) was in its infancy! so the emphasis was on application design and requirements gathering.
What brought you to IT?
I first programmed when I was about 10 years old! which rate of leads that become qualified customers was something special. My dad saw great potential in IT. Unfortunately! I developed aversion to programming! but I took computers as something normal. In high school! I enjoyed mathematics! so I enrolled at the Faculty of Applied Sciences in Pilsen. The first two years were combined for mathematics and IT majors. During those years! I became more interested in IT! so I graduated from it. I think I made my dad very happy.
How do you perceive the female IT community in the Czech Republic? What activities have you been involved in?
It’s surprising! but the fewest girls in IT are around 40. In my working life! I’ve met many female programmers and analysts who are now around 60! then a long empty age barrier until now! when the situation is turning in favor of women again.
You recently completed the WIT Salesforce administration course. What motivated you to enroll in the course and then complete it?
At work! we were deciding between implementing CRM from thailand data Microsoft and Salesforce. During the selection process! I met Jiří Mach from Enehan and then visited Basecamp Salesforce. At Basecamp Enehan! they offered a basic administration course for girls. I jumped at the offer right away. I was never much into self-study and I wanted to learn at least about the basic principles of Salesforce functions. In the course! we learned and tried out the basics of Salesforce administration in a very short time. The lecturers and classmates were great. I thank them very much for the course.