Finding Bravery and Authenticity as a Woman in Technology

As a women in legal technology and consulting, my career has progressed in a profession that has traditionally been predominately led by men. While it hasn’t always been easy to navigate, experiences during my time in university and early career taught me strategies for finding success even when I doubted myself. I lean on these when I face new challenges and I share them to help mentor and empower other women who are building their careers in legal, technology and consulting fields. 

One of these strategies is to stay focused on the goal. At university, I was one of only six female students in a class of 300 men pursuing a computer science degree. That was the first time that I questioned whether it was wise to be my authentic self and the first time I had the realization that I might need to work twice as hard as my male counterparts to prove my value. Early on, I wondered whether I should stay in the program. Yet it was where I wanted to be, as I’ve always had a logical mindset and was inherently interested in advancing technologies. 

The women around me in the program were incredibly driven to earn their degrees and pursue careers in computer science. Having that community, however small, made it easier for me to commit to the pursuit of what I wanted for myself, rather than to turn away from it out of insecurity. I’m so grateful that I made that commitment, as I’m now a decade into a career that I enjoy, working with data and creating logical solutions to help solve my clients’ challenges. 

Bravery is another pillar of my approach to succeeding as a women in technology. In my fourth year of university, I held a contract position with a large firm doing data collections. Again, I was part of a male-dominated team; this time as the only woman on a small team of five people. My enjoyment of and pride for the work I was doing were pivotal for my career — it’s when I realized working with data and in e-discovery was what I wanted to do.

However, when the project was ending, I needed to be bold in pursuit of the next opportunity. Because of the nature of the contract position, I hadn’t had any interaction with decision makers at the firm. Nevertheless, I reached out to the director to ask if there was a role available. That led to an interview, which led to my first full-time, permanent role in digital risk and e-discovery. 

Now, because of my earlier bravery, I’m in a profession that I care about and I feel more confident in taking on challenging work. For example, I recently contributed to a significant merger clearance review on behalf of a client. It was a difficult project due to time constraints set by the regulatory authorities and numerous, unique data challenges we had to overcome during data collection and review. I’m learning, sharing and growing my expertise with every client engagement, all because I had the confidence to give myself a chance all those years ago in that contract role. 

As I’ve built my experience, another way I’m continuing to help myself and women around me combat self-doubt is by investing time and passion into diversity, inclusion and belonging initiatives at my current firm, FTI Technology. 

I’m proud of this work, as it nurtures my confidence and provides support and empowerment to my colleagues who may themselves be experiencing forms of imposter syndrome or feelings of exclusion. By staying focused on my goals, being brave and helping build a company culture I want to be a part of, I’ve grown comfortable with being my authentic self in my professional life. And I feel more confident than ever in giving other women the advice to never hold themselves back out of doubt that they can’t do something or don’t fit a certain mold. 

The views expressed herein are those of the author(s) and not necessarily the views of FTI Consulting, its management, its subsidiaries, its affiliates, or its other professionals.