Women with good networking skills can make it to the top

Aspiring female IT leaders must spend more time networking to mitigate traditional corporate barriers and further their careers, according to experts.

One of the main challenges to women in senior IT roles is returning to work following motherhood, so using contacts and professional memberships is crucial to keep updated on business developments and avoid stagnation or reversal of their career progression.

The most successful female managers in technology are typically technology and business-savvy, extremely good networkers and “politically astute” within their organisation, Maggie Berry, director of networking forum Women in Technology, told Computing.

“Those women will know who the key stakeholders are and be able to influence them. They are also able to self-promote, speak at conferences and be very visible inside and outside the organisation in which they work,” said Berry.

But companies need to offer an environment in which women can develop, through ongoing professional development and initiatives such as returner schemes.

“Businesses interested in bringing in more returners should think of a graduate-like programme to retrain women in technology skills, bring them up to date on business issues and create maximum opportunity for them to succeed. But a lot of firms are not geared up for it,” she said.

The shortage of women in IT is not helped by dwindling interest among girls in computing-related subjects, said Berry, so the current generation of female IT leaders could do more by holding school talks, for example, and acting as a role model through mentoring.

In addition, women looking to progress in the technology field should find out who the key business influencers are and strengthen working relationships.

“You should get to know them on an individual basis, so you break into that network bit by bit without having to go to the pub every Thursday night. And this takes time and effort,” said Berry.

“I’ve heard statistics that recommend spending 80 per cent of your time on your job and 20 per cent networking – ­ it seems like a fairly big split but it can only be career enhancing.”

But according to Janet Day, IT director at law firm Berwin Leighton Paisner, that proportion of time spent on getting to know business peers is not so essential.

“You have to do your job ­ – and everybody needs to network to get things done, so I don’t think that women need to do it more than men,” she said.

Find out what type of IT leader you are, and what you can do to adapt your skills to grow within your organisation with IBM’s CIO Study self-assessment tools.

Listen to a podcast Q&A with Maggie Berry at www.computing.co.uk/podcasts