A Room Full of Excellent Women: Our Night at the 2018 Women in IT Excellence Awards
Last month, nine Badoo employees had the chance to go to the 2018 Women in IT Excellence Awards – two of us because they were in the running, and the rest of us to cheer them on.
Apparently, the number of excellent women in London is now too many for any building to hold: although the event’s been held in various fancy venues for the last few years, this year they relocated to a pavilion in the centre of Finsbury Square. We might have been a bit skeptical in the taxi – “But it’s basically winter! And raining! And my heels are taller than I am!” – but when we finally arrived we were in for a treat.
We snuck into the main room just in time for Tracy Edwards’ speech about the women planning to repeat her trip around the world in 1989. We tucked into three courses of seriously tasty food, finding out that it’s possible to make a wagon wheel fancy. And when we were all finished, we warmed up for the main event with a round of comedy.
But although all of that was great fun, we were really there to support Jelena and Kateryna.
Nominated for Innovator of the Year and Team Leader of the Year respectively, we were all seriously proud of our team-members for making it into that room. Badoo always pushes us to get the best out of ourselves, but inspiring your team to nominate you for an award is on a whole extra level.
In Kateryna’s case, it was her decision to step up and manage a team delivering a game-changing feature for Bumble that got everyone’s attention – and she’s not afraid to own her achievements. ‘One woman in a room full of men will always be noticed, by default. You don’t even need to do anything to stand out from the crowd. So, use it!’ Badoo’s come a long way towards getting more women through the door, but the development industry is still pretty testosterone-heavy across the board. For Kateryna though, that just adds to the challenge. ‘Don’t be afraid of being weird, don’t be afraid of being noticed… just don’t be afraid!’
As for Jelena, challenging the status quo is pretty much at the heart of everything she does, so no one was really surprised to find out what she was up for. She says that ‘asking questions can open up new possibilities’ – and if there’s one thing we like at Badoo, it’s people who can wander up to something and say: “Nice, but what if we tried this instead?” When you’ve got someone on board who’s always pushing herself because ‘when I learn new things, they widen my horizons’, it’s going to drive the whole team to new heights.
Sitting there with our fingers crossed, it was awesome to be surrounded by so many other women who’ve inspired their own teams in the same way. All different ages, races and backgrounds, and mixed in with more than a few men there just to support them. It’s exciting to think that there might be no need for the 2040 Women in IT Excellence Awards because there’ll be just as many women as men in the industry – but it’s also great to know that, until then, there are so many people out there cheering for the women they work with.
And what do we have to say to the next generation? ‘You can do any role if you really want to’, and we’re looking forward to supporting more women in tech and IT in the future. So get out there, discover new opportunities you might never have thought of, and don’t be afraid to stand out. Sometimes it wins you awards, and sometimes it just makes your teammates feel like they’re really, really lucky to have you.
