The salesforce.com Woman of the Month campaign turns the spotlight on the amazing women who help make salesforce.com the World’s Most Innovative Company (according to Forbes) and one of Fortune’s Best Places to Work. Honorees are nominated by fellow employees and selected by a dedicated committee that works to ensure a variety of roles and regions are honored. 

Women are becoming a force to be reckoned with in the technology field—thanks in part to the powerful global community Women in Technology. WIT offers programs and resources to advance women in technology fields, from elementary school to executive level and beyond. Talk about girl power. 

One woman leading the charge: Josie Gillan, Director, quality engineering at salesforce.com. Born in New Zealand, Gillan explored in a variety of countries (Australia, U.K., U.S.) and roles (developer, development manager, technical program manager) before her #dreamjob journey landed her in a leadership position on the quality engineering team at salesforce.com. Along the way, she became passionate about spreading awareness around the unique challenges facing women in technology. Here, our salesforce.com Woman of the Month shares her thoughts on women in tech: what’s going on, why it’s important and what we can all do to help transform the industry.

Why do we need more women in technology?

Besides the fact that it is the right thing to do, we also just need more technologists in general to be able to fill all the projected computer-related job openings over the next decade. There is also significant research showing that having more women on a team results in more innovation, better performance in solving hard problems and a positive impact on organizational and financial performance. What team wouldn’t want that?

What does WIT mean to you?

To me, WIT means encouraging and supporting other women in technology, as well as encouraging young girls to enter STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) careers. Too many girls are turned off by STEM fields because they aren't seeing the right role models, and we need to change that. I have a 7-year-old daughter, and I truly hope that by the time she starts thinking about college, women will make up closer to 50 percent of the computer science classes and engineering positions.

How did you get involved with WIT?

A few years ago, the salesforce.com WIT group kicked off several sub-groups to address particular areas. I built the WIT Outreach team; our charter is to promote STEM to young girls. We partnered with an awesome organization called Techbridge and hosted several field trips where ten-year-old girls from underserved communities came to salesforce.com, participated in fun activities to learn how coding works, had lunch with role models, and went on a scavenger hunt to find clues on the Technology and Products floors. It was awesome!

What do you love about working with WIT?

I love that there is energy around WIT at the moment, and that we are having even more conversations around increasing our diversity. The WIT group is incredibly passionate, and we are looking forward to making even more progress to support our female technologists. I also love having the opportunity to exchange ideas with WIT representatives from other companies—it's great to be able to  share ideas in this area and learn from each other.

What would you say to women who are considering a career in technology?

I'd say do it—but don't do it alone. Get yourself connected to some of the amazing communities out there that exist for women in tech, build your network and reach out to women who can be role models to you. There are so many positive aspects to a career in technology: working for amazingly innovative companies, collaborating with incredibly smart people, job flexibility...the list goes on and on! I certainly understand that many women are turned off by the fact that it is generally a male-dominated field, but in order to change that we need more women moving into tech careers...and there’s no better time than now!  

How can everyone support the future of women in technology?

I think the most important thing we can all do is to support each other. Whether it’s becoming a mentor, participating in a job shadow, being active in WIT organizations or events, or even just meeting someone for coffee to discuss career options, building our supportive network is the key to transforming the world for women in technology. 

To learn more about WIT, follow Gillan and salesforce.com WIT on Twitter. And stay tuned for more career tips and tools for success from our next salesforce.com Woman of the Month, coming your way in September.

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