One of the best parts about working at Zillow as a woman engineer is being a part of the Women In Technology (WIT) group. The WIT group encourages gender diversity in software engineering by fostering support and mentorship for women at all stages of their careers. The group gets together on a monthly basis to discuss topics of interest, share skill sets, provide advice, swap stories, and act as a safe and welcoming space in which all women can communicate, grow, and be professionally empowered.

Zillow WIT has started collaborating with female engineers at Slack in an effort to build a community with other women in the Bay Area. We recently had the pleasure of hosting Slack Staff Software Engineer, Ei-Nyung Choi, at our fireside chat. Ei-Nyung has been in the tech industry for over 20 years and has held a variety of impressive roles from Software Engineer and Engineering Manager, to co-founder and CTO.

Ei-Nyung led an inspiring and uplifting conversation on a variety of topics ranging from struggles in her career to her takeaways and insights. Every piece of wisdom she shared was genuine, profound, and thoughtful. Her talk left everyone in the room feeling empowered. Here are some of our biggest takeaways.

Project Downstream

As you evolve in your career, you can’t only be concerned with yourself, you also have to look out for biases that may impact other female engineers who are earlier in their careers. To project downstream is to protect younger and newer female engineers who may not have the power or safety to stand up for themselves, push back on the institution, and get involved in the hiring process to try to make your company more diverse. If you notice someone making comments that are biased, jump in and say something. If you have the chance to stand up for another woman, especially one who is not in a position of power, do so. Once you have evolved enough in your career to have the confidence to stand up for yourselves and others, use that power to help shrink the gender gap in tech.

Create a framework for standing up for yourself

If you notice other people taking ownership of your ideas, say something like, “Thanks so much for being on board with my idea!”. You can do this for other women engineers as well if you notice this happening to them, for example, “That was a great idea, Stephanie”. If a man takes ownership of your ideas it can result in people not recognizing your skills and accomplishments, and possibly hurt your career growth. If you don’t feel like you have the voice to stand up for yourself; direct-message another woman engineer and ask her to help you by calling out your idea and giving you credit.

Everyone has value to give

Everyone has value to give, no matter where you are in your career. If you are a junior engineer you can mentor interns or students. You likely have a lot more to contribute than you think. You can even be involved in onboarding for a more senior engineer if you’re already at the company. That can give you a chance to explain your projects, which can help you understand them more in depth; as well as an opportunity to create a relationship with a more senior engineer.

Be the first woman in the room to ask a question

Studies have shown that when a woman speaks first in a meeting, the other women in the room are more likely to participate. When we create a space for everyone to have a voice, we continue to close the gender gap in technology by allowing everyone to feel safe and welcome.

Having the opportunity to network and meet people like Ei-Nyung and hear her insights is how we’re going to expand gender diversity in tech. We all must stand in this together; hear each other’s stories and learn from them, so we can continue to make the future brighter for female engineers. Visit https://www.zillow.com/careers to learn more about joining our team!