There has been a significant number of women entering the world of tech in Asia-Pacific. In Southeast Asia, women account for around 32% of technology workers. As the industry becomes more and more competitive, we speak to some of the women at Indeed in APAC, and they share how they found their way into tech, their challenges and what they look out for when hiring for their teams.

“In school, I was interested in things that required logic, like math and science as well as languages and art. So when the time came to choose a major at university, I seriously considered two options: Graphic Design and Computer Science,” Christel Ghawi shares.

Christel is based in Tokyo and is a Senior Quality Assurance (QA) Engineering Manager as well as the Asia-Pacific chair for Access Indeed, an official employee-led Inclusion Resource Group that helps to drive education and awareness around inclusion for visible and invisible disabilities in the workplace. She talks about how she first got into Computer Science through encouragement from her dad. 

While in her second semester of university she began to work full-time doing many things from coding, testing and business analysis work to administrative tasks and process creation and improvements. After gaining about 7 years of work experience, she went on to pursue a Master’s Degree in Financial Systems Engineering at UCL (University College London). 

“During the final few months, our class was sent to different financial institutions in scrum teams of 5 to complete a final project. During that project, I was given the role of Scrum Master and Tester. That’s where I learned that there was a full-time role in testing or quality assurance, and I was hooked!” she says.

“I found the intellectual activity of not just designing and building software, but also ensuring that it serves its purpose and meets its users’ needs quite enjoyable”.

After living and working in London for almost 9 years, Christel decided to move to Japan. While  looking for a job there, a headhunter introduced her to a role as a QA Manager at Indeed as well as a role at another large Tokyo-based tech company.

“At that point, I hadn’t really heard of Indeed before, so I did my research and everything I found looked pretty good,” she said.

She was then invited to Tokyo for a full day of onsite interviews and met some of our Indeedians at the office.

“A lot of what I’d read seemed to match reality – I also felt like the people I met at the offices had no problem being what felt like their authentic selves. After I got offers from both companies, I decided to go with Indeed. I was somewhat cynical (you could say it’s an occupational hazard), and kept waiting for the catch… and here I am 3 years later!”

Similarly, Lin Yang a Software Engineering Director based in Singapore also stepped into the world of engineering with encouragement from her father. With his support, and being skilled in math, Lin went on to pursue engineering. 

Born in China, Lin started her engineering education and career in the Bay Area, United States. Her experience with Indeed started when an Indeed recruiter reached out to have a conversation about women in tech.

“This really caught my eye, as I was impressed that a company reached out to me (a female engineering leader) to get my opinion about women in tech. I had to answer it!” she remarks.

After 2-3 months, the recruiter at Indeed reached out to Lin again, and this time, to ask if she was interested in a job opportunity in Singapore.

“I have never thought of going to Singapore… I wasn’t looking to change jobs, and I have never been there, but because the relationship was built, and I had a lot of respect for the company I figured, why not give it a try. I then relocated from the Bay Area to Singapore!” Lin shares.

In this Culture Matters interview, Lin talks about the challenges she has faced as a woman in tech and how Indeed has supported her overcoming  these challenges, the exciting projects her team works on and what she looks for when hiring. Watch this video here: 

You can also listen to the interview on our Culture Matters podcast here.

When asked to discuss the challenges faced by women in tech, Fangda Wang, Software Engineering Manager based in Tokyo shares her concerns about the lack of female engineering role models in the industry.

“People always look to others to emulate positive attributes… to learn and grow. But how (and who) will female software engineers take as a model when there are not many role models?” she explains.

“I feel supported here at Indeed. In my first month, I was really encouraged when my manager pointed out that I am a natural leader, and went on to ask about my interest in management. I was then introduced to a female mentor and career coach to help me grow my career,” Fangda recalls.

In India, Soumya Madugula, a Quality Assurance Automation Engineer based in Hyderabad shares that one of the challenges she faces is being the only woman in the room speaking up about her ideas. 

I’m fortunate enough to get managers and colleagues who are extremely supportive. It makes me feel included and I feel comfortable voicing my views and opinions. This really helped me bring my ideas to the table,” she shares.

At Indeed, one of our goals is to increase Indeed’s workforce representation of women to 50%, in all functions and job levels globally. We are constantly working on adjusting how we look at promotions, support and hiring to ensure we are providing equal opportunities to women across the organization. Read more about our goals and commitments on our Environmental, Social and Governance page here

As we are constantly looking for people to join our teams across APAC, we asked hiring managers what they look out for when hiring for their teams. 

“I generally look for curiosity, eagerness to continuously learn and grow, and technical aptitude,” Christel shares.

Lin adds that at Indeed, we take hiring very seriously. “We’re looking for technical capabilities, teamwork and collaboration across functions. In our culture, it’s really about working as a team to bring the biggest impact,” Lin explains.

Women at Indeed, play a crucial role in the success of our mission of helping people get jobs.