The pandemic affected almost every aspect of the professional landscape, and women’s representation in the workforce did not go unscathed. According to an IBM review, there are now fewer women in senior vice president, vice president, director and manager roles than there were in 2019. This doesn’t mean they all rose to C-suite, either. For the last two years, the number of women in those roles has stagnated at 10 percent. With a narrowed pipeline of women approaching leadership, the spotlight is on companies to demonstrate robust support for wider representation within their teams.
With so much room for improvement, support for diverse leadership can go beyond providing resources for an organization’s existing team. Snyk, a company that provides security intelligence tools to its clients’ in-house developers, is going a step further, taking a direct approach to increase diversity through its hiring practices.
“As a female leader, it’s...important for me to look around the room and see other women sitting at the table next to me,” said Lindsey Serafin, vice president of customer success. To develop that representation, Snyk has built out an internship program targeting women and underrepresented minorities, “so we can build a pipeline of diverse talent moving up the ranks in each part of our organization,” she said.
On August 26th, as we celebrate the 48th Women’s Equality Day, it is important to recognize both the successes and strides that have been made, as well as the work that remains to be done in reaching workplace equity. We met with three local women leaders to understand what professional development means to them, how their organizations have supported their growth, and how other tech companies can support women in their career pursuits.
With C-suite goals in mind, Lindsey Meehan credits Uplight’s mentorship, training resources and culture of creativity for her professional and personal growth.
What are your overall career goals, and to what degree have you been able to fulfill them at Uplight?
One day, I hope to be a chief marketing officer at a values-driven company. At Uplight, I’ve had amazing leaders and mentors — at the executive level and across our organization — who have helped me grow immensely both professionally and personally. I also work with an amazing team of marketers and designers, whose creativity and commitment inspire me every day to be a better leader. It’s so motivating to know that the work we do is contributing to improving the energy industry and fighting climate change. I can’t think of a better place to continue to grow my skills as a marketer and a leader.
I’m proud to work at a company that places such a high value on professional development and personal growth.”
What professional development resources does your employer make available?
Uplight provides strong professional development resources, both in terms of formal training and informal on-the-job mentoring and learning. We have a management training series, and monthly manager “meet-ups” where leaders from across the organization get together to talk about challenges we’re facing or opportunities to improve our workflows or team relationships.
We also have career ladders that outline the skills needed to advance to the ‘next step’ in the organization. Our executive leadership team hosts regular “Exec Connects,” where they facilitate company-wide discussions on varied topics, from leadership to difficult conversations to zones of genius.
Uplight is committed to diversity and inclusion, and has run development programs exploring unconscious bias, social systems and change, gender and intersectionality, and cultural appropriation. I’m proud to work at a company that places such a high value on professional development and personal growth.
How can tech companies promote an inclusive and equitable culture for women?
For a start, we need more women at the table at all levels of the organization. This means more women contributors, more women managers, and more women executives. Creating a more inclusive and equitable environment starts with having our voices heard and contributing to the decisions our companies make. Secondly, while the last 18 months have been challenging (to say the least!), the pandemic has also made work more flexible, which has been amazingly helpful to me as a mom. Empowering employees to work when, where, and how they need helps all parents who work outside the home balance the demands of raising a family with having an exciting, meaningful career — both during and after a pandemic.
As Vice President of Customer Success at Snyk, Lindsey Serafin is not alone — working alongside other senior and executive-level women keeps her feeling motivated and supported.
What are your overall career goals, and to what degree have you been able to fulfill them at Snyk?
As a customer success leader, the ultimate goal for me has been making the shift from supporting the business to driving the business. At Snyk, I’ve been fortunate enough to step into a role that gives me the support, autonomy and confidence to make bigger moves and help drive the business forward, which is what motivates me every day.
The partnerships and relationships with other senior women I’ve built at Snyk have helped me feel more connected, and like I belong here.”
What professional development resources does your employer make available?
The freedom to try new things is huge for professional development, and Snyk provides this for all of their employees. Not every company will tell you to go out there and experiment. If we pick the wrong thing, we’ll learn from that and course correct, but it’s better than inaction. Getting the chance to rapidly build and scale a team — like we’re doing at Snyk — is a rare and exciting opportunity.
Outside of the job itself, Snyk has given me access to a strong network of extremely experienced industry professionals and advisors who can help us all think about what our organization could and should look like one or five years from now. The mentorship specific to this job has been invaluable to me over the past year.
Snyk also offers great opportunities for education and development on the inside. I’ve taken advantage of our Learnably program to access audiobooks and Harvard Business Review articles that were curated for me by the Learnably team and helped make sense of the wide array of resources out there.
How can tech companies promote an inclusive and equitable culture for women?
It starts at the top. If you look up the ladder and don’t see anyone who looks like you, it can feel very demotivating. As a female leader, it’s also important for me to look around the room and see other women sitting at the table next to me. The partnerships and relationships with other senior women I’ve built at Snyk have helped me feel more connected, and like I belong here.
Especially with a product as technical as Snyk, it can be challenging to create an equal hiring pool for every role. To help close that gap, Snyk has built out and invested in an internship program targeting women and underrepresented minorities, so we can build a pipeline of diverse talent moving up the ranks in each part of our organization. We also have a strong commitment from recruiting and each of our hiring managers to push for a more equitable candidate pool, and to actively track progress against our hiring goals for underrepresented groups.
We have an inclusive culture for working parents, which is critically important for attaining equity for women in tech. Snyk has provided an extremely flexible work environment in terms of working hours and location.
For comprehensive and sustainable progress toward equity, Head of Sales Jessie LaCosta emphasized the importance of promoting the “why” behind an inclusive workplace culture.
What are your overall career goals, and to what degree have you been able to fulfill them at detectify?
My ultimate goal is to be a chief operating officer. I’ve come to realize I am operationally very strong and find great satisfaction and getting things done. My current role at Detectify is a great step on this path. We are a Swedish startup, and I was brought in to run and lead our U.S. operations. I manage a team that comprises sales managers, account executives, sales development representatives and sales engineers. This allows me to influence multiple parts of our sales organization and has been a great opportunity to work strategically with various team members and company stakeholders.
What professional development resources does your employer make available?
One of the great things about working at a startup is that I have the ability to work directly with our CEO. This has been extremely valuable in ramping, as well as getting a glimpse into skills needed to reach the C-level. Our C-level managers have also taken the time to personally coach my team to help them ramp up, which I think is not something you’d get in every company.
For the employee in general, working in a startup with fast changes and progress in itself is a very good ground for learning and developing. In terms of concrete processes, Detectify conducts continuous growth talks with our employees, both about their day-to-day learning and opportunities to build their development plan for the future. We do these talks at least twice a year.
It is important for companies to understand and promote the why behind the need for an inclusive and equitable culture.”
How can tech companies promote an inclusive and equitable culture for women?
It is important for companies to understand and promote the why behind the need for an inclusive and equitable culture. Beyond it being morally right, there is a ton of business value. Research shows that the more diverse a group is, the more innovative they are. I regularly notice that if I am in a meeting of all men, my input is very different than it is in a group of men and women. In the startup world, there are never enough resources. The more input you receive on how to creatively solve a problem, the more positive benefits you will see.
In addition, the recruitment and hiring process is key to achieving an inclusive and equitable culture; this starts with a diverse candidate pool. One of my first suggestions upon starting was to add a requirement to screen an equal number of men and women for all roles. The second is to challenge how you are doing “cultural interviews.” Hiring for cultural fit can sometimes lead to unintended biases. Instead, challenge your organization to hire for “value add” — for example, what unique viewpoint, skill set or experience does this candidate bring to your organization?
