Why it's time to retire the techno-geek

The geek stereotype belongs with floppy disks, dial up modems and overhead projectors in the dustbin of history.

Since its inception, the technology sector has suffered with image problems. Popular culture has almost always depicted the most technically qualified person in the room with a predictable set of characteristics. First and foremost, they're male. Obviously. They're often also socially awkward in some respect - either quiet and shy or perhaps unpleasantly abrasive. They're almost always badly dressed - their costumes are used to signpost difficulties reading social cues. The techie is always a supporting member of the cast - rarely the hero.

It isn't just a big budget Hollywood issue either. Even the well regarded, UK produced comedy The IT Crowd ploughed the same nerdy furrow. True, the supervisor was a woman, but the joke was that she was in over her head.

Why does this 'geek' stereotype matter? For starters, it's demeaning to everyone who works in technology, no matter their gender. It belittles their skills and in the case of developers, their craft (yes, coding is a craft and highly creative.) Perhaps more importantly, it acts as a colossal barrier to entry for the young people that technology so desperately needs to attract. The shortfall in digital skills, particularly acute in areas such as cloud native development and data science, has been extensively chronicled across both industry and mainstream media. Salaries have risen in line with demand - but employers are still struggling to find the skills they need to help them secure their exit from the COVID-19 doldrums.

Longer term indicators are also ominous. The proportion of young adults taking IT subjects at GSCE level has fallen in recent years - shrinking the pool at further education or apprenticeship level. These trends are going to make it harder for organisations who are actively seeking to increase the diversity of their technical organisations to find the candidates that they need. The pandemic has created a perfect storm: the quickening pace of digitisation has accelerated the need for related skills, but at the same time the pipeline of talent is diminishing.

Whilst the technology industry has to broaden its appeal to young adults as a whole, it really needs to raise its game when it comes to recruiting women if it's going to begin to close the skills deficit. A recent report claims that young women account for 16 per cent of computer science first year degree courses. There are many reasons that young women are being put off technology careers, but one of them is the belief - perpetuated by the pernicious geeky stereotypes - that you have to be a technical genius (and probably socially maladroit) to succeed in the industry. Some women working at high levels in the industry would argue the exact opposite. Adenike Cosgrove, director of international product marketing at Proofpoint, is one of them.

"This idea that you need to be a coder to be in this industry - I don't think that's accurate. There are so many different routes that you can take, so many different areas you can specialise in. You don't have to be a coder."

Adenike Cosgrove

Cosgrove came to a cyber security career via technology research and is the embodiment of how flexible the routes into technology leadership can be.

"I did a computer engineering degree and naturally, we focused on C++ and Java. I also very quickly realised that I did not enjoy coding - particularly debugging. I still really enjoyed research though, and I love and am fascinated by technology."

As far as Cosgrove is concerned, what matters most for cyber security professionals isn't technical aptitude, necessarily, but curiosity. Cyber criminals target human flaws and weaknesses - and an understanding of people is at least as important as an understanding of technology.

"Look at white hat hackers. It's about curiosity and I think if you're a curious person, you will be interested in that - interested in how you can break things down but also how you build it back up. If you're curious and looking for an understanding of how things work and how people work, then you should be very interested in a career in cyber security."

Alice Genevois, senior manager, data science at Lloyds Banking Group and on the judging panel of the Women in Technology Excellence Awards 2021, believes that her ability to communicate the language of data to business stakeholders has been a vitally important aspect of her success.

"I'm not as technical as some of the other people in the team at all, but I'm very good at then explaining what we've done and why we've done it in a way that's actionable for the stakeholders. The bridge is very much what I'm good at."

Genevois founded a mentoring program within Lloyds for women who wanted to learn more about data analytics, data science and software development.

"We got coaches to talk about their jobs in data to try and demystify them. Working in data and tech doesn't just involve one type of job. There are so many opportunities, and you don't necessarily need to know coding. You don't need to be super technical, and you don't always need lots of training either."

Genevois's fellow judges, many of whom were promoted into technical leadership roles from other areas of business such as finance, project or program management, provide further proof of the many different routes into technology careers.

The collective success of these women is demonstrable proof that technology offers enormous career potential, and that the geek stereotype belongs with floppy disks, dial up modems and overhead projectors - in the dustbin of history.