Tech Sisters Stories

Shabana Ahmed is a Senior UX Designer and has spent over 10 years designing experiences and interfaces for International companies & startups. Her experience covers everything from finance to health tech and she’s presented and led UX workshops around the world. Shabana’s passion for design and improving everyday experiences is so apparent in everything she does. She’s also written and illustrated a children’s book! Key Lessons From This Episode: ⭐ How to evaluate if a job aligns with your values and the benefits of changing jobs frequently (5:02) ⭐ The growth that comes when we are brave and accept change (8:05) ⭐ How to keep going when things don't work out as you expect (10:36) ⭐ How Shabana approaches solving UX problems (19:07) ⭐ The lessons Shabana learned from Hajj (25:47)

How many of us got into tech not because we loved to code, but because we saw a problem and had an idea? These sisters take the founder's path into tech. Some of them have prior technical experience and some don't. But they all have passion for their idea and a drive to make it happen. Insha Tazeen, is in the middle of that path. In today's episode, she discusses the projects she's working on and what she's doing to overcome her non-technical background. Key lessons from this episode Deciding to get a Master's degree in AI (4:30) Co-funding Bound Security, a cybersecurity consultancy (5:30) "The more I'm challenged, the more I feel motivated" (12:30) Show Notes and Transcript: https://www.tech-sisters.com/2023/03/insha-tazeen/ Leave a Review: https://buff.ly/3o3ifG7 Patreon: patreon.com/techsisters

A lot of people say they stumbled into their jobs - and we have a lot of podcast episodes with guests who describe their career this way. But we've never heard a story like Reham Fawad's. Her product career was literally handed to her! In today's episode, Reham shares her knowledge and passion for product management, her 15 years of experience, and her insight into how to get into the profession. She also tells us about the amazing group she founded for Muslimahs in product - MVP! Key lessons from this episode At the core of product management is empathy, listening to people and adding value to their lives in whatever way you can (6:00) Always look at the why and pull yourself back if you're solutionising instead of listening (10:00) The question she gets asked all the time (hint: it's about how to get into product) (19:00) Show Notes and Transcript: https://www.tech-sisters.com/2023/02/reham-fawad/ Leave a Review: https://buff.ly/3o3ifG7 Patreon: patreon.com/techsisters

"Sorry. You're the best candidate for this role, but we wouldn't be able to go ahead because of your hijab. People would think we're an Islamic organisation, and we don't want that. Maybe you could take it off?" Searching for a new job can be a hard and demoralising process, even at the best of times. Most of us would be shocked to see such blatant discrimination in a job interview, but this is what today's guest, Fatimah Akanbi heard over and over when starting her career in Nigeria. And she's not alone. Sadly we've heard many similar stories from Tech Sisters around the world. So what gave Fatimah the motivation to keep going? Did she find a job that accepted her? Did she need to compromise her deen to achieve her career goals? Listen to today's episode to find out! Key lessons from this episode I didn't want to continue being at the mercy of employers who would discriminate based on my religion (3:12) I believe once you are committed, I believe hard work, perseverance, and consistency are the keys to success (6:22) Fatimah's volunteer work teaching coding to children from secondary schools and slums in Nigeria: "These are children people have given up on and I see a brighter future for them" (22:25) Show Notes and Transcript: https://www.tech-sisters.com/2023/01/fatimah-akanbi/ Leave a Review: https://buff.ly/3o3ifG7 Patreon: patreon.com/techsisters

Today on Tech Sisters Stories we're excited to have Alifya Kagalwalla Alifya Kagalwalla is a VP of Engineering at Tempus Labs in Chicago. At Tempus she leads various engineering operations teams focused on cloud infrastructure, test engineering and developer productivity. Tempus is a precision medicine company that leverages AI to help physicians make informed treatment decisions and improve patient outcomes. Prior to Tempus she held various engineering leadership roles at Digital Ocean, Groupon and Citrix Systems. Outside of work, she is a proud mom to two awesome girls and is always looking for fun and educational DIY projects to do with them! Key Lessons From This Episode The importance of having core values and principles that ground you throughout your career (6:22) How Alifya builds authentically inclusive environments as a senior leader(12:00) How to decide between the tech lead and management pathways (14:00) Alifya's advice for dealing with bias at work (17:50) The leaky pipeline and how we can prevent women from leaving tech (25:00) Show Notes and Transcript: https://www.tech-sisters.com/2023/01/alifya-kagalwalla/ Leave a Review: https://buff.ly/3o3ifG7 Patreon: patreon.com/techsisters

Today on Tech Sisters Stories we're excited to have Zahraa Al Sahili. Zahraa is a current PhD Student at Queen Mary University of London and Google DeepMind PhD Scholar. Zahraa is also an AI Session Lead a Udacity. Key Lessons from this Episode Zahraa's experience studying in Beirut during the height of the economic crisis (2:32) Zahraa's favourite AI project (7:30) The complexity of removing implicit bias from AI (10:00) Show Notes and Transcript: https://www.tech-sisters.com/2022/12/zahraa-al-sahili/ Leave a Review: https://buff.ly/3o3ifG7 Patreon: patreon.com/techsisters

Today on Tech Sisters Stories we're excited to have Fatma Elasouad Fatma is a hardworking, motivated and knowledge-hungry developer; currently working as a cloud data engineer at BT. She’s also a co-founder of @Inclusive.Code a community that shares their experience as Early Career Developers, many of whom have made a career switch into Tech, in order to spread visibility and hopefully show others who have the same ambition that Tech needs their passion and unique perspective. Fatma was also part of the winning team of the ShowCode Athena 2022 hackathon and was recently shortlisted as a finalist for both the Rising Star of the Year - Tech and the Role Model of the Year - Tech, for the Women in Tech Excellence Awards 2022 Key Lessons from this Episode How Fatma built up her experience while she transitioned from education into tech (5:32) What led to Fatma co-founding Inclusive Code (10:52) Fatma's insights as a STEM ambassador (23:29) Show Notes and Transcript: https://www.tech-sisters.com/2022/12/fatma-elasouad/ Leave a Review: https://buff.ly/3o3ifG7 Patreon: patreon.com/techsisters

Today on Tech Sisters Stories we're excited to have Shahed AlMashni Shahed is currently a software engineer at Google working on Sovereign Cloud. Previously, Shahed has held internships at Amazon, Meta, and Google. Key Lessons from this Episode How competitive programming helped Shahed pass her technical interviews (3:53) What kept Shahed applying for internships even though she didn't get any responses for two years (6:00) Shahed's growth mindset and how it helps her become a better version of herself every year (12:00) Show Notes and Transcript: https://www.tech-sisters.com/2022/11/shahed-almashni/ Leave a Review: https://buff.ly/3o3ifG7 Patreon: patreon.com/techsisters

Today on Tech Sisters Stories we’re excited to have Yulianna Frederika Yulianna is a multi-faceted creative with expertise in graphic design, branding, social media & content creation across various industries who believes that thought-provoking content inspires actionable change. She’s a social media manager at Rice Media and co-founder of Lepak Conversations which focuses on engaging social change-makers around issues concerning the Malay/Muslim community Key Lessons from this Episode Design and tech should be available and accessible to everyone (3:50) Yulianna's approach to inclusive social media (14:45) Why Yulianna sees being a minority as her superpower (22:00) Show Notes and Transcript: https://buff.ly/3AdVAOh Leave a Review: https://buff.ly/3o3ifG7 Patreon: patreon.com/techsisters

Today on Tech Sisters Stories we're excited to have Marium Abid Marium is a senior technology consultant Digital Analyst at EY. She’s an active Tech Sisters member and was the recipient of last season’s scholarship from Product Guru. Key Lessons from this Episode Marium's experience getting into tech through an apprenticeship (5:22) Winning the Product Guru scholarship and her experiences (8:00) How Marium prioritises what to learn (27:30) Show Notes and Transcript: https://buff.ly/3zEZjUI Leave a Review: https://buff.ly/3o3ifG7 Patreon: patreon.com/techsisters

For our first episode of season 2, we are so excited to have Yasmin Desai. AKA the startup girl, Yasmin is a product director who has worked for over eight years in startups, including catapult Revolute and  Impala. She's passionate about startups, tech and entrepreneurship, and she's on a mission to empower people, to develop entrepreneurship as a skill in their day jobs. Key Lessons "Just apply. The worst that can happen is you don't get it. At least you tried" (6:50) Why Yasmin loves startups (17:20) Advice for people who want to launch a product (29:25) Show Notes and Transcript: https://buff.ly/3yL1i8q Leave a Review: https://buff.ly/3o3ifG7 Patreon: patreon.com/techsisters

Today's episode is a little bit different. We're talking to some of the participants of our first Mentor Match cohort: Medina Tochi Ajro, Madihah Akhtar, Muna Ali, Damilola Odumosu, and Sadiya Zackria. The three-month cohort recently finished, and you'll hear their reflections on their mentoring experience. Applications for the next mentor match cohort will open after Ramadan Also, this is the last episode of season 1! Thank you so much for listening and supporting the show. Season 2 will start in August iA Key Lessons from this Episode Mentoring is just being sisters to one another and sharing and saying, "Hey, I've been there. I understand what it's like." 16:00 So much of mentoring is just listening to your mentee and pointing out the things that their not necessarily seeing. 20:00 You don't have to know all the answers to be a mentor 29:30 Leave a Review: https://buff.ly/3t60ZlT Show Notes and Transcription: https://buff.ly/3MYoQwV

Today on Tech Sisters Stories we're excited to have Iliana Montauk and Mai Temraz from Manara. Manara is a social impact startup whose mission is to unlock human potential and diversify the global tech sector while uplifting the economies of the Middle East & North Africa (MENA), with a focus on Palestine and women. Iliana is the co-founder and CEO of Manara and Mai is the Program Manager. They’ve both previously worked together at Gaza Sky Geeks and they’re both Fulbright Scholars. Key Lessons from this Episode Manara's vision is to become a platform that creates community connections and supports people at every stage of their career 12:00 What makes Manara graduates so special 14:20 Confidence is a huge challenge for people who come from non-traditional backgrounds 16:30 Leave a Review: https://buff.ly/3t60ZlT Show Notes and Transcription: https://buff.ly/3CcWQ3z