Janet Onyia is a true inspiration. Growing up as a young black female in an area of Newcastle where there weren’t any other black families, Janet has faced many challenges and struggles along the way to landing her dream job in tech. Imagine being told by your new colleague that you only landed your prestigious graduate placement job because you were a Black Female.
Now working in tech as a Project & Programme Manager at Accenture in Scotland, she is still one of only 3 Black employees and the only Black Female, but she is on a mission to change that.
With 50% of women working in tech leaving by the age of 35, there’s clearly a huge problem to be solved. And Janet wants to be the driving force behind this change for women in tech and Diversity and Inclusion in the workplace.
In Episode #1 of ‘The Talent Intelligence Podcast’, I sit down with Janet to hear first-hand how she is raising awareness of the struggles and challenges faced by not just black females in tech, but women in tech full stop.
Inside this episode Janet spoke passionately about:
- How she really felt when one of her colleagues told her she only landed a prestigious graduate placement job because she was Black and why she never wants her daughter to ever feel the same as she did…
- Why there’s a huge disconnect between HR & female employees when it comes to the reasons why 50% of women are leaving the tech industry by the age of 35…
- The impact of recruiting women in tech in this new world of remote recruitment…
- Why employers need to be doing much more to attract a more diverse workforce, including a blind application recruitment process to remove unconscious bias…
- How to ensure black females in tech with traditionally poorer internal networks are not overlooked for internal promotions…
And so much more including Janet’s views on Kamala Harris being sworn in as the first woman, first Black person, and first person of South Asian descent to become the Vice President of the United States of America.
We are also joined in this episode by Claire Murray, Solutions Driven’s Marketing Operations lead.
You can connect with Janet Onyia on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/jdonyia/
Learn more about Girls Who Code at https://girlswhocode.com/en-uk
