What kind of work did you dream to do at high school? Were you thinking back then, that you would work in IT?
When I was in high school, I went to an art studio and wanted to be an architect or designer. A little later I started getting into literature and wanted to be a journalist. I never thought I’d end up in IT and will get carried away by technologies. And I want to keep it that way.
I had a dream–to find myself a life as a specialist, and I’m very happy that it came true.
How did you get into the world of technologies? Did you study IT or did life bring you there?
I studied at a technical university, so in general everything is logical.
I accidentally got into an IT company of a university professor, successfully having passed the traineeship and staying there to work. Initially, I didn’t even understand what I was doing, what testing was, and why it was needed.
Did your family and friends support your decision to join the tech world?
Of course! Their support has played a big role in choosing a profession.
They tried their best to help me to understand unfamiliar technologies and instilled confidence when I gave up after an attempt to solve some difficult task.
Please tell us a little more about your work. (something cool for girls and young women considering working in IT). Why do you love it?
Mostly in IT, girls are in the position of QA and business analysts. I am QA and I really like my job. I think testing is just a female job. Girls do not know how to stop and simply postpone a task if something goes wrong. On the one hand, this is a problem, on the other hand, perseverance is a good feature when it is necessary to achieve a goal. And in testing the most important thing is to achieve the best quality product. In general, a girl can figure out everything, be it code, or traffic parsing, just different methods. Perseverance, attentiveness, scrupulousness–the girl will sit an hour longer, but will understand everything and solve all tasks.
What does your company do?
My company is one of the largest legal online cinemas in Russia. We have been working successfully since 2011. We are like Netflix, only in Russia. We distribute legal content on different platforms: Smart TV, iOS, Android, Web and PS.
What do you like about working in IT?
I like IT because, first of all, it is interesting. At the same time whether it will be interesting to you often depends on you, because there is a choice. Now there are a lot of companies and projects, technologies are different, and you can always change something. People around you have a broad outlook, have seen and know a lot. IT also allows you to honestly make good money.
What are the advantages from your point of view?
These are professional development and prospects, the opportunity to be useful, to constantly study and communicate with wonderful people, the opportunity to work in interesting projects.
What is the ratio of men vs women at your team? Would you change it?
Approximately 70/30. Men, of course, more. I think that everything is as it should be. Among my friends and in my company, there are more and more girls: QA, FE-developers, web-designers, project managers. I do not publicly agitate to go to IT, but when I can, I share my positive impressions about work and cite as an example this field of employment as a good way to realize yourself.
Have you ever experienced any prejudice towards you?
Oh,no, never. Any girl can beat a man in an intellectual duel! We are all equal, everyone is trying to help each other, because we have one goal!
Would you want more women in IT? Why?
It does not matter what gender you are if you do your job well and it brings pleasure. No one perceives IT as an exclusively male type of employment. You need to think about the abilities of the future employee, and not about his/her belonging to a particular gender.
Natalia Pletneva vystupovala na konferencii Testing United vo Viedni, ktorú organizuje firma KRONE consulting services.