When I think of challenges, it's really not the challenges we had in the past two years. And actually, I looked up the definition of challenge to set myself up for um what when when we talk about challenges, what is it?Um except for the pandemic because everybody had challenging time back then and it calls about competitions, dual combats defi boldly, but there is nothing very specific to women. It's just universal, right? Everybody is being challenged. Um I found myself as a woman, being challenged by being a woman quite a few times and I will take you on a small personal journey um with two little stories and lessons learned from them, which helped me tremendously to get to where I am. And it's kind of those stories which you know, I wish somebody had told me when I was 25 and I was just about to begin my career and it would go beyond that. Like, don't worry, you'll be all right. So uh just a little bit about me, you've heard it all. I'm currently leading analytics as GSG ah but I am an astrophysicist by trade and just to give you like a context of this journey. Um I started as an astrophysicist, right, or as a physicist at the university level. Uh We were at 33% being women. So that means when I graduated my master's of three women, out of 10 men, out of 10 of us.

So 33% uh when I was admitted into my phd, um I got a scholarship and the scholarship was, was uh offered to two women and four men. So again, we are at 33%. However, when I did the transition, so I transitioned from um science via program called Science to Data Science. I have joined the first company and I realized that I am the second woman joining a team in a big team of 20 people. So realistically, we were 10% women in that one team, which is not very encouraging. However, when I was leaving that company, we are 5050. So we were at 50% which was pretty amazing because that makes me pause and think something must have happened during those five years when I was at the company and women actually started to, so to say, own, own the field. A little bit more women somehow got more encouragement, somehow were like more sure of themselves and say like, OK, I can do this. It's not only for men and I'm proud to announce that currently the team I'm leaving. Uh leading is 75% women uh which is pretty impressive. So guys have definitely something to catch up to. So let's see, let's see how they go with that. Um Just a little bit about the GSG, maybe that's the part of that, why we are so good with attracting women.

We are empowering people um to do better purchases, better, better decisions. And in the end, we can relate to that because actually most of the spending in households are done by women, statistically more than 70 persons. So maybe we are aligned there. Uh But I want to believe that we are creating a really, really good space uh in GSG and uh we are actually very attractive as a as a very inclusive environment. So um just a little bit about GSG. So without much further ado uh I'll take you to my first little story which comes from academia, right? Um You see all those um all those pictures every time when you see like adverts for join us at the university, join the science lab, join this and that and you know, everybody looks very inquisition on those very often. You see women in those pictures and it's not incorrect, right? I'm a proof of women joining labs and women working in science. However, the story I want to share with you is a little bit shocking in the instance of what I have experienced in my first year, we were in a lab, first lap, first year, you know, everybody messes up, like literally everybody messes up like there is no, no person who does it right at the first instance.

And a colleague of mine also a woman, um she messed up at connecting something and the teacher literally looked at her and said, like maybe cooking is more your forte out loud in front of the whole classroom, which is pretty appalling. What would you do in a modern world? Well, you would try to complain, to complain to someone. The problem is the Institute was quite small. So whomever you would run to complain to it ends up at the head of Institute was also a man who was really happy to do sexist jokes. So nobody ever complained. We couldn't stand behind her because we felt like we were going to be target, targeted and we all just so to say, sucked it up and we just listened to him kind of telling her off, uh, which is pretty depressing, to be honest. Um, myself, I was a target of just minor incidents like that. Um, they were not every day, definitely, but they were pretty, pretty daunting like that. It was not really encouraging. So, what we ended up with, um, is called the impo impostor syndrome. And you've heard about it probably before. It's very present in academia and the term was used first time in eighties. Um, so it's not that not that old and all those little incidents watching women being just downplayed.

Watching women being told to just go cooking instead, all that attributed to that. And one thing which I would like to highlight in this in this picture is the impostor syndrome. Here is referring to two stories or two examples. It's again taken from a dictionary and both examples relate to women. Um I am not saying that women are the only ones suffering from impostor syndrome, but it definitely is more prevalent in women and we have to deal with that more often because we were more often told that we can't achieve that. Um Did I have the impostor impostor syndrome? Of course, I did because I was a woman in academia. Um I wanted to go from academia to industry and I have believed I am Underqualified and I can't ever get a job. Um It turned out not to be true and that goes to the first lesson I had, I was told that I'm not good in something all the time. I shouldn't be good because I'm a woman and I should be doing something else. And people are always telling me like, hey, um you're talking to people, you're extroverted, like you should be communicating with people. You should be doing this and this. Um you know what, in the end, I kind of accepted that.

So, but I didn't give up on being good in something technical. I kept it, I just didn't highlight it, but in the end, I embraced what they told me that I should be good at and that means that I was suddenly good in two things. The one thing they expected me to be good at and the second thing they didn't expect me to be good at and you know, they forgot about that part and you can come back back with that. Um, just make sure you don't forget the part where you are actually good in something and it might be not perceived as such by the others. But you are. Second story is a little bit more cheerful. I admit that the academia stories are never very encouraging. The second story comes uh comes to the challenge which I willingly exposed to myself. Um In my intro, you're mentioning that um I enjoy mountaineering. I enjoy the Alps, which is pretty challenging and admittedly, it's quite a male dominated sport as well. And let me share a story from the latest expedition I did which was in Greenland. So in March, we decided to do a crossing of Arctic soccer trail which is 100 and 60 kilometer wild trail in Greenland. And we did it when the temperatures were on average minus 20. There was no facilities, there was no connection, there was no reception. Um Everything you carry is on the sled which you might be able to see behind me in the picture.

Um It was 10 people out of the 10 people. I was the only woman and you know, you are pulling the slat um just to give you a comparison. Um The sled is 35 kg. Uh That's more than half of my weight and I was just like, I'm tough, right. I can do this. Uh There is no reason I should not be doing this. Um I don't want to be the one bringing the group back like I don't wanna be slowing us down and you know what, like it's, it's OK. Um Sometimes it's OK. So literally I got into these stages where this was me um roughly minus 35 degrees. Um You can see my eyelashes being absolutely frozen, my jacket was frozen from inside and that was just minutes before my nose go to first frostbite. And at that point, I was like, OK, you know what? It's fine. I I already carry 35 kg on the sled. It's fine to ask for help, which kind of brings me to the lesson two, which I believe is very, very important and I think it's a little bit easier for me as a woman to embrace it. I rarely saw men doing that. So I feel it's a little bit of a woman's superpower. Um So it is totally OK to not have the same strength and asking for help at the right time will ultimately help you out.

Um Because the only person you're hurting if you're not asking for any sort of help or any sort of support, um, is ultimately yourself and you are not able to get further just because you didn't ask. And, you know, it's fine. I have strength somewhere else. I was the person able to cheer up the whole group in the evening because I'm chatting, um, and they were not able to do that. So reach to your unique strength and don't be, don't be afraid to ask for help. That's absolutely fine. So that kind of brings me to the um to the little conclusion of really what I'm talking about, which is the leadership from hardship. So I can't say the path to achieve something is easy ever, right? Especially as a, as a woman, the challenges presented is like people not trusting you, people not believing that you can make it, people not believe that you have the right skills. But um you know, ultimately, when you prove them wrong, you can look back and just say what you have learned. So for me, the important lessons I have learned is sharing is caring whether it's something on a, on your psychological level where you are just feeling down. Um Because you have just been told by somebody that you should go back to your stove and cook for your maybe husband or a partner.

Um Just share it with somebody, you know, like seek out that help, um share it with somebody you can trust is the only way to get it of your, of your mind, create a safe space. So people can say, I don't understand, I emphasize this in my team and to everybody around me, it's if you don't get an answer, you are the only one hurting. And I called those moments at the university where they ask an auditorium of 200 people. And do you understand? And you are afraid to be that one person saying, oh, I don't uh please repeat or please explain. Um So yeah, make sure that if you are, especially if you're leading people, make sure that they feel comfortable that they can say I don't understand. Um a little bit, a little bit tangent from all the lessons I have learned. Um It's always provided why do all the tasks uh make sure people understand why they are being asked. So they are not directed, right? And in the end, like one of the most important lesson I have learned um because people did underestimate me, don't, don't do the same mistakes as the people who I have encountered at the university did, don't underestimate anybody in your team. They are smarter than you think.

And hopefully, I hope my team is smarter than I am because that means that I hired awesome team. Uh But they might have a back story and that's why they might be quiet and then they might not necessarily be able to shine yet. Uh And then in that instance, help them, help them get out so, you know, get out into the world and shine. They might have a back story. Their backstory might be very similar to mine and, you know, just sharing that I'm able to share that after many years. Um But they might, they might still be in the stage where they are not ready to share, help them out. And yes, that's pretty much it. Uh from my little personal story. Uh I guess we have some questions comments. Um but before we, we get uh get out, like I think we have a GSG booth, uh you can visit so I will just invite you to, to visit GSG. And yeah, that's pretty much it for me.

Thank you so much and that was super interesting. Thank you for sharing your journey, your lesson learned, your story. And it was super interesting and yes, you mentioned uh Global Savings Group for GSG as you call it, it's uh actually supporting our conference already for the second time this year and super excited to have you with us and drop by. Definitely. And let's see if we have any questions to Yana. We have four minutes still to go. I I just want to project some really nice comments and nice sessions. Um G thank you. Thank you so much. So people are really thinking going to Yeah, absolutely. Great talk really important to me. I'm sure that there were so many, you know, messages that you shared today that resonated with our people and also how it is important that we speak about it, you know, speak about challenges of actually being a woman in tech and what we have faced and how others could, you know, could help them to stay in tech and to overcome these challenges that they might be also facing.

Do you have any questions for Jana?

It looks like I was very clear.

Yeah. Um I think that since you got um share your personal story, I, I think that many people would love to connect maybe with you one on one or to drop you some personal questions on linkedin. So I will make sure to share your profile and he actually, we have a question from Angela. What do you recommend to create, build all shift when a space isn't always safe?

Good question. Um I would say no, your know your surroundings a little bit. Um Make sure like your ally or um or the safe space might not start to be as somebody who is necessarily say your manager or your um or somebody in a in a position of power. So to say, um I would say just, you know, starting out as a small group, like if you, if you have somebody you trust already, like at least one person then start together. It just went on like try to grow it organically, don't create like a big, big thing on yourself. Like I have to create a safe space. No, just like have one person and the third one and just try to grow it organically without feeling like it's your project now and you're responsible.

Yeah, and share, share it with others, right? So, thank you so much. This is a really great answer. Thank you. Yeah, thanks for being with us. We shared your linkedin. I'm also showing it on the screen. So I'm sure we'll receive some lovely personal messages as well. Thanks for being with us and stay for the rest of the conference.

Thank you very much. Have a lovely day. Bye bye.