My working day

AGrade 10 robotics class first sparked my interest in the digital world – and I’ve been fascinated by the ways technology can make our lives easier ever since. Today, that means I’m focused on innovation and digitalisation, helping companies and senior leaders become more resilient, more able to respond faster to changes happening around them and within them. It’s about embracing more agile and flexible ways of working.

Above all, this is interesting because it can be tough. We’re asking people to move from a command-and-control model, where you have a boss telling you what to do, to having a leader who is empowering you and enabling your work to be done by removing any impediments along the way. My main focus is on training leaders to switch into this new way of working and thinking.

To do this, my working day involves liaising with lots of different people from all over the world – something that my time at ZIS definitely helped prepare me for. It’s that balance of working well under pressure alongside a healthy work-life balance – meeting friends, going for a run and to a spin class or, weather permitting, playing tennis. In fact, tennis was something I discovered a passion for at ZIS and carried on during my time at the University of St Gallen, studying for a degree in Business with a Master’s in Business Innovation.

Something else that’s stayed with me from my time at ZIS is the importance of giving back – for example, I was delighted to have the chance to take part in a session for prospective parents about life after ZIS. Also, a few years ago, I volunteered at Advance – Gender Equality in Business, the leading business association for gender equality in Switzerland, which set me on the path of wanting to make an impact in that area. In 2020, an opening came up for an events manager that later turned into a partnerships manager position for Girls in Tech, a non-profit organisation whose mission is to help build an inclusive and diverse tech community by empowering and inspiring women. We put on free networking events, provide learning opportunities, help with skills like preparing a CV and navigating a job interview, and give advice and mentorship.

In Switzerland, we’re a team of more than 30 volunteers that keeps growing. By partnering with companies that are committed to attracting and retaining more women in tech, we’ve been able to get funding and resources that we can put back into helping our network of women. Day-to-day, we’re mostly communicating on Slack, but we all attend a yearly retreat and it’s been wonderful to meet people from so many different backgrounds, all with the same goal: to build an inclusive tech community in Switzerland. Z