Awesome. Thank you so much for having me today. Uh I'm super excited to be part of this conference.And what I wanted to talk to you about today is how my, my lessons learned through my career and how we can open doors for future women technologies, which is a passion of mine. How can we bring more women into this technology, road and career that will be super good. I wanted to start saying that my career path is unique. I think all of us has a unique experience as we go along. And I wanted to say that each of us have different ways to get what we want to get and just follow your gods, follow your instincts and, and make sure that you follow your dreams as you go along. So I wanted to just talk about that path that is unique for me today. So what a career in technology. And I think that's interesting for me. Um I love Disney World and when I was a kid, I went and instead of interested to get into the ride, I was more interested to see how that robot was moving, how these rides were kind of moving into this direction. What is it? Is it?

So is it hardware and that got me into technology. So the first thing that I learned is that you have to fight against the stereotypes. I think you will find them along your career. Women cannot go into engineering was a big one. I started in Mexico, I'm from Mexico and that was the other thing Mexico does not have enough jobs for this field. So why are you going into technology? Um So you have to fight through it, you have to follow your dreams. And I went into software engineering. Um At the time, we were only six women graduating from software engineering. Out of 100 we started with 200 for this uh career uh but only six in this field. So that's a number that I would love to change uh be ready to wear different hats. I started as a entrepreneur and there was basically a person saying, hey, can you guys do websites? And we started doing websites for banks, small to medium sized projects, automation. And basically I said yes to everything. So I was doing development, I was doing management.

I was hiring more developers to help us. I was doing sales for the next project. And that helped me get a big perspective of everything that had to do with the job. Don't be afraid to take on a new role um from individual contributor to manager. Uh What it really helped me when I started at Microsoft was because of my different hats. I was able to get into asking more questions, right? What about this project? What about this? What about that? So I was looking at my development piece, but also all the different pieces and dependencies that connect to it. And that helped me to get a different perspective. So I remember my manager at the time say, hey, uh we want to promote you. We want to make. No, no, thank you. And he said, why, why not? Um And I said, because I'm gonna make mistakes and I don't want to make mistakes. And he said, no, no, no mistakes is part of it, right? And you will learn and you would do it all over again. So don't be afraid to take on a new role. Don't be afraid to take on a new opportunity. Even if you think you're gonna make mistakes, you will continue to make mistakes. But the important thing is to stop learn and do it all over again. And the other thing that I learned is about having the sponsors and mentors that will help you also grow. Your sponsor is a person that is basically report your manager that you report to and that person will help you and guide you.

But also find mentors, find all the people that you like how they work so that you can also say, hey, I did this. How can I do that better? It's ok to go back to learning. I think that's also important for me. It's about identifying my gap. It was very technical and I realized that finance administration, people management were things that I didn't know a lot about. So I basically went back to school. I did my post degree. Uh I passed my OK, let's go back, let's go back to school. I did an internship and that really helped me to get into different gaps and fill those gaps that I didn't have before. So that's how I, I went to Canada. Your time will come. It's another big one. is how to apply to the role, even if you don't have 100% requirements. And probably you already heard this through the conference today. Women are not super good at applying to the job if you don't have 100% of the things uh men do, but it's important to believe in yourself. And basically what I find in this role is, oh my God, this is exactly what I want to do and I just got into it and I just applied and I got it. So that was very interesting for me that gave me an opportunity to be an architect.

Um And yes, it was, it was interesting because I was young, I was the woman, the only woman in the room and you have to make sure that you deserve that spot of the table that is super important. Um Make sure that you are OK to take projects that you didn't uh thought about before. I did very interesting things like enterprise portals, ecommerce search, you name it. Uh It was super interesting and um the other thing that I learned in this uh process in my life is to have your own priorities. Um I was talking to my man at the time about being a team lead, but I also wanted to start my, my family. I had my first baby and yes, I had to go on math leave and yes, that opportunity didn't come to fruition but have your own priorities. You are unique and your time will come believe in yourself uh from architect to senior manager uh managing two teams plus a remote in Ukraine. It was, it was a lot at the time. But you know what it was like, yes, let's, let's do it right. I can do this. I can do this one step at a time. Imposter syndrome is something that I still have to fight with um about believing in yourself. It's about even if you don't have the support from the people around you.

And sometimes you feel like, oh my gosh, I cannot do this. Um Believing yourself is super important. Um I think it's something that all of us have to fight all the time. But you have the experience, you, you deserve your, your spot at the table, you can do it right. Um And then as you go up the ladder, yes, the stereotypes continued to come to the table uh whether we like it or not and we just had to be ready. Um I was a director managing four business units. Um It was I was the only woman in that area and yes, I was asked to take notes and bring coffee, which was not super interesting, but um you turn it around, right? And you say, hey, um I'll take it this time, but next time somebody else can take it, right? Let's take turns. Let's make sure that everybody has the opportunity to take notes and bring coffee. So stereotypes will come no matter what position you have. Uh You just have to find your way around it and that's why it's also important to have your mentors. And if you have another female mentor that will help too.

And um the final thing that I want everybody to kind of get from this is um have the opportunity to open doors for future women in tech. Um It's also important to make sure that we bring that diversity in, right? That number of sex only graduating um It gets reducing as you go up. Uh I would love to see that number changing. Um In Amazon, I have that the opportunity to lead different teams. Um I created a team from scratch in my last opportunity. Um and what I really like. What about this passion for the varsity that I have? I have three female ses in my team and now, and I, I also female as well. And what I did together is I spend more time looking at resumes. I talked to recruitment and say, hey, we have to do it. Um Let's just spend the time to look more. Let's bring the females into these conversations to these interviews. Let's give them the opportunity. I'm the voice in in those round tables when we're talking about the opportunities and hey, let's, let's bring more women in, right? Let's give them the opportunity. Let's give them um the, the chance to demonstrate what they have and what I like about working with this uh females in my team is that I, I love to have the, the conversations about what they're going through because I already went through the same thing.

I love to give kids and try to help them grow where they need to grow. Um And I will say all of us if you have the opportunity, if you're a manager, if you have a team, if you're a team lead, if you're building a new team, who cra take the time to go through the resumes, go to have a specific sessions and recruitment for women. Um be part of the panels. It's OK to, to say, hey, let's do this. Um And I will say it's worth it totally worth it. So let's open the door for future women in tech. And my last uh comment that I want to give you is to the women who are aggressive, keep being assertive to the women who are bossy. Keep on leading to the women who are difficult. Keep telling the truth to the women who are too much. Keep taking up the space and to the women who are awkward. Keep asking the hard questions. Uh It's totally worth it. OK. So that's what I have for. Hey,

hey Maria, great job. I feel like we can ask you so much more too and we do have a little bit more time. So if you don't mind, I might pick your brain a little bit perfect. So um one of the things I think that you, that you said quickly that I thought was so interesting is that statistic of when we're looking at a job posting and we're thinking I should be expanding my career. I know I can do it, but we read a posting and men will apply and I think the, the real stat that you didn't get a chance to fully give is like if they have at least 60% of the qualification. So like a little over half of the job description, men will apply women, something like 90% or higher. Like we have to check all these boxes on the listing in our mind before we're gonna apply. Um What advice would you have for someone who's looking at a job posting? Thinking? Right. But Maria, if I only have half, like I'm gonna get rejected or I might feel like, you know, it wasn't the right decision for me or I might not be good enough once I'm in the role, even if they do give it to me.

How do you help squash some of that self talk that people have?

I, I think it's a very good question and that happened to me too. Um One of the things that I can suggest is believe in yourself and be prepared, right? And be honest about it because sometimes you, you go into the interview and you say I can do this, I can do that. But here is how the experience may relate to the job description. That is not exactly what it says, but this is how I demonstrate experience, right? Like for example, I have managed these projects, I help push them to implementation. So I have some of the experience and sometimes it's also about saying I'm willing to learn, I'm willing to get there. So give me the chance I'm a fast learner. I can get there and I can get the things done. So I think it's about believing yourself, especially when you see that position that you said like, yes, I have to do it. This is something that I would love to do um that passion and and that uh opportunity to learn, I think learn and be curious is super important,

right? Yeah, it's changing that narrative that we have for ourselves to some degree, right? That positive self talk. OK. So one of the questions that came through in the chat too is they were wanting to learn more from you about how do you select the University of recruiters in your search for other women

candidates? Um So a couple of things. So um first off when I see a list of resumes and sometimes I, I volunteer myself with the recruiters and say, send me the resumes. I'll look at them, right? Uh And then I go through it. So, yes, it's more job. It's more time you have to go through all of them. But I want to make sure that I go into every single one and when I see potential and opportunity for females, I will take it and I will say, hey, let's bring them in, let's do the phone interview, let's do the interviews as we go along uh for females specifically, I also like to do specific female sessions uh with universities or this one, I always try to volunteer as well to talk to other women and to talk to them about technology.

And that's what you also can recruit, right? You see women coming in, talking to you about your team, your company, things that they can help you with. So I always try to volunteer in some of sessions too because A I want to bring more female to this technology world. And B this is an opportunity for them also to know me and to match up uh to match up between recruiters are potential candidates and people to, to feed the roles.

And that's so wonderful that you talk about kind of volunteering and really like paying attention and giving back. And I know in your presentation too, you talked about the concept of passing it forward. Can you tell us a little bit more about kind of the best strategies to do that? And in fact, maybe on both sides of the coin, like if you're someone looking to get involved and get that support or if you're someone who's at maybe a point in your career where you think maybe you can give back, where should you go to look, you know, rather than creating your whole own program of a way to give back, what should you look for?

Right? Um I think this, this sessions as women net uh women tech Global Conference is a great opportunity. So yes, let's get to those, let's go to those conferences, let's volunteer in those sessions, right? I think that's something that you can just um join, be part of and volunteer your time. Um The only thing that you can do is also mentor other females. I know different companies, companies have their own mentorship programs, but there are also external mentorship programs. That you can join and you can join on both sides of the spectrum. Right? Uh, maybe I have experience, I can give back. You can also mentor, uh, junior people starting their careers or the other way around. Right? Like junior people are starting their careers. They're looking for mentors, they're looking for people that they can help them. That's can, uh, can you also give back?

Yeah. And those, those are such good ideas. You know, it's interesting because as you were talking, I was wondering, I wonder what your favorite thing to do has been. Um But, but even maybe that question applies to projects because you worked on some really interesting things over the years, Maria, do you have a favorite project or output or volunteer opportunity that you, that you comes to mind when I ask

this? Yes uh for projects. Um The first project that comes to mind is when I was in Blackberry, we were implementing portals uh for our partners. And um it was the first time that I was doing a lot of these situations with ecommerce and there were so many dependencies. It was challenging, but at the same time, it was rewarding. It was at that moment that, that you're like, OK, we're doing something, we're delivering something, right? And that customer obsession right now in Amazon, I love the way that we do, which is called working backwards uh from the customer. And it's basically put your, your shoes or yourself into the customer uh and say, what would I like to do? Right? If I'm buying something from Amazon, what is the thing that you will make me buy more? What are the things that I would like to see? Right? What is that customer obsession? And I love that. So, the, the project that I'm doing right now with my team is a lot about innovation. It's about how to make things completely different than we did before. So we created a team from scratch, but a product from scratch started learning web, machine learning, make things super more efficient. Um So for me that, that is very, very exciting.

Yeah. OK. Well, and that's just a good answer. And Maria and no, do you feel pressure to not be as aggressive in salary negotiations if you do not meet 100% of the job qualifications? And so, so should women feel that pressure or if they do maybe what can they do about it?

Yes, the pressure is on and that is true. And it's something that I'm still working on. I have to tell you that I'm not super good at. But I remember there was one recruiter that was this uh headhunter um that he was talking to me and she was female. And I remember at the time when I, when I was talking to her about one of the positions that I got, uh I was like, yeah, let's do it, let's just take it. And she was like, no, what about negotiating? What about this? And what about that? And you should think about you because you're bringing a lot to the table. Maria and hearing from another person, you're like, you're right, I'm bringing a lot to the table. We should negotiate. Um So I think this is a reminder that everybody should do because we're so I will say shy maybe right or not confident enough to negotiate, but we're bringing a lot of good to the table, right? Our skills, our experience a different side of thinking because we we do have different sides of thinking, right as females.

So just believe in yourself and remind yourself before you say yes to any job or any new opportunity, remind yourself and say I'm bringing a lot to the table. I should negotiate no matter what.

Yeah. And that's so interesting because there was someone who asked kind of that exact question, they asked the flip side of it like in the case where they're maybe overqualified and they look at it and think like I have everything on here, but it comes to being in front of someone else and projecting that same confidence becomes a little more difficult to round us off here, Maria.

Do you have any final tips of how to really feel and stay in that sense of confidence when you're actually in the interview or putting yourself forward?

Yeah. I think it's about bringing data points, bring data points with you and say this is why, right, I have done this. I have these many years of experience, this is how many projects I have delivered. This is how much money I have bring to the com the previous company that I was working on to the company that I'm already with, bring data points with you that will completely support you no matter what.

That's a great point, Maria and then you have them with you. You're ready and I think don't be afraid to bring a couple notes with you too if you need to remember those things, right? No one will fault you for that. Wonderful Maria. I have to let you go, but this was so informative. Thank you so much for taking all our

questions. Thank you everybody. Bye.