TUTCRIS

TY - GEN

T1 - What motivates adult age women to make a career change to the software industry?

AU - Hyrynsalmi, Sonja

AU - Hyrynsalmi, Sami

PY - 2019/5/23

Y1 - 2019/5/23

N2 - The software industry is facing rapid changes both in the field of new technologies and skills demanded. New kind of people with a multiple background are sought by recruiters and industry is already suffering from a severe labour shortage. One of the solutions have been to get more to the industry and past decades a lot of work has been done for getting more women for the STEM industries. However, the results have not been as efficient that would have hoped for and in addition to this, women who are working already in the industry are not pursuing towards more technical or manager positions.This paper addresses the question what motivates adult age women to make a career change to the software industry in Finland. The background data for the paper was collected with an open internet survey (n=134) from Finnish women who have already made or are planning to make a career change to the software industry. This study shows that Finnish women are motivated to make a career change to the software industry, but face different kind of challenges starting from lack of proper career counseling, uncertainty about the right kind of education to the industry and dream job and for example challenges with their self-esteem and ‘imposter syndrome’. The paper discusses on the findings and reflects the need for further research on the topic.

AB - The software industry is facing rapid changes both in the field of new technologies and skills demanded. New kind of people with a multiple background are sought by recruiters and industry is already suffering from a severe labour shortage. One of the solutions have been to get more to the industry and past decades a lot of work has been done for getting more women for the STEM industries. However, the results have not been as efficient that would have hoped for and in addition to this, women who are working already in the industry are not pursuing towards more technical or manager positions.This paper addresses the question what motivates adult age women to make a career change to the software industry in Finland. The background data for the paper was collected with an open internet survey (n=134) from Finnish women who have already made or are planning to make a career change to the software industry. This study shows that Finnish women are motivated to make a career change to the software industry, but face different kind of challenges starting from lack of proper career counseling, uncertainty about the right kind of education to the industry and dream job and for example challenges with their self-esteem and ‘imposter syndrome’. The paper discusses on the findings and reflects the need for further research on the topic.

U2 - 10.1109/ICE.2019.8792630

DO - 10.1109/ICE.2019.8792630

M3 - Conference contribution

SP - 1

EP - 8

BT - 2019 IEEE International Conference on Engineering, Technology and Innovation (ICE/ITMC)

PB - IEEE

ER -