Do you know what important day was established 45 years ago? In 1975, the UN General Assembly began celebrating March 8th as International Women’s Day. Since its start, many organizations and companies take this opportunity to recognize the triumphs and contributions of women, and we at Empatica are no different.
Last year, 43% of our team was made up of women; this year, we are proud to share that this value has increased to 49%! How does this compare to large tech companies? In the Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, and Microsoft (GAFAM) group, based on self-reported company figures, female coworkers make up between 29 and 42% of the total workforce. However, looking at actual tech jobs, women fill less than 25% of those roles in GAFAM (Amazon did not report a value) [1].
For this International Women’s Day, we asked our nearest and dearest female colleagues to share some personal, self-growth advice and career advice that has helped them to get where they are today. After all, part of this day is about creating useful conversations and sharing advice to help our fellow women succeed.
Our 6 best tips for personal growth
- “Life, by default, is chaotic. Try and embrace it, and let only the things that you can control affect you.”
- “Show vulnerability, and be vocal about your limits. The risk to be backstabbed and shamed will always be there, no matter what you do. So you might as well open yourself up and expose yourself to the advantages, not just to the risks, as the reward is very high. You might lose some things on the way, but they were probably worth losing.”
- “All people have infinite value, no matter their level of ability.”
- “It doesn't matter where you are from, how old or young you are, or how much experience you have. All ideas are valuable. If you firmly believe in something and you want to change it for better, you should speak up and not hold your thoughts in. Always express yourself respectfully, but most importantly, never underestimate the power and the capacity of other people!”
- “Read. Read a lot, about anything that sparks your interest. Everything contributes to building the person you are today, and it will help get where you want to be.”
- “The secret of happiness is to see all the marvels of the world, and never to forget the drops of oil on the spoon,” from The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho.
Our 6 best tips for professional growth
- “Don't see yourself as your gender. See yourself as your capabilities, and you'll see how everyone does the same around you.”
- “Just try. Risk it. Don't overthink the next steps in your career. Do what makes sense for you and trust that the best outcome for you will happen.”
- “Treat everyone, at all levels, equally and with respect. Everyone's job is important.”
- “Love what you do; you can only give your best if you are passionate about your work. No matter the trillion hardships that pop up in your path. As long as you continue to be loyal to your passion, nothing can stop you. Trust yourself and your intuition, not people that tell you otherwise.”
- “Always be kind to your coworkers and colleagues. You never know when you may cross paths with them in the future or may need their help on something.”
- “Don't compare yourself to where others are today but to where you were a year, two years ago. Remember nothing is impossible to learn if you set your mind to it.”
We hope that you’ve found some inspiring and useful advice from our female colleagues. They are extremely important to the success of Empatica, for we are involved across the company. One of our brilliant women is our Co-Founder and Chief Scientist Rosalind Picard (listen to her Ted talk here). Also, our female colleagues work in data science, regulatory affairs, marketing, operations, engineering, recruiting, and more.
We continue to foster a desirable and appealing work environment for all of our colleagues, both male and female. Check out our blog post on the 6 reasons why we love working at Empatica!
We have offices in both Boston, USA and Milan, Italy, and we are always looking for the best and brightest to join us. We invite you to regularly check our Careers page for our latest openings. We look forward to hearing from you soon!
Words worth reading
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