Flying high in data science
An interview with Michelle Conway of Lloyds Banking Group
Data science, much like the rest of technology sector, is still highly male dominated. However, one woman bucking the trend is Michelle Conway, Lead Data Scientist working within the consumer leading line of business at Lloyds Banking Group. Conway believes that data science could attract more women to pursue a career in technology.
"Data science takes in lots of different disciplines," says Conway. "It can be more geared towards the analytical, data engineering or more business focused. It's a good choice for women because the hours are fairly predictable, it can be flexible and it needs storytelling ability, which I feel like women often have. Women can also be good with stakeholders in relationships."
Neurodiversity in data science
There has been considerable discussion of late on the benefits of making the tech workforce more inclusive of individuals with neurodiverse traits. Being dyslexic, Conway is an excellent example of why employers should be actively seeking to extend opportunities to the non-neurotypical.
"I was diagnosed with dyslexia when I was seven, she explains. "I struggled with reading but I loved maths, puzzles, logic problems and my teachers were really supportive.
"I read code faster than I can read written text. If you give me text, I'll skip the words and it won't make sense to me. I muddle up words and I'll stammer and get my verbs, pronouns everything wrong. My brain is wired a different way. But problem-solving, right and wrong, formulas and statistics? Love that."
Lloyds are currently embroiled in cloud migration and Conway is very much involved in that process. "It's logic, it's code and I love it," she says.
Is data science an area where some types of neurodiverse people can prosper?
"I think so," Conway replies. "Different people learn things different ways. I'm terrible with things like documentation and governance, totally the wrong person to ask. But others can read documentation and they'll soak it all up. So they might be less hands on practical with the code but they can read about it and understand it all in their head straight away."
The road to a data science career
Conway studied maths at university and remained unaware of the rewards of a career in data science until the final year of her degree. Conway is yet another example of a woman who found her way into a technology career in spite of careers advice rather than because of it.
"I didn't really know what I was going to do with my degree. I got to my last year and sat down with one of my lecturers and said, ‘what am I going to do? I love maths but I don't want to be a maths teacher.' The lecturer said, ‘No, there's this thing in industry called analytics. You find companies that do analytics and be a statistician.' And I thought that sounded great so in my final year, I focused on statistics."
Conway ended up working in a support analyst role for another bank and moved into insurance and then Amazon and BT doing statistical modelling for various customer facing models and campaigns.
"After that I went to work for a data agency and I was getting bored. I was building stuff in SAS, SPSS, doing statistics and analytical work. I went to do a Master's in data science because it was the next technical step that I could take. I could learn Python and learn computer science because I didn't know any of it. I enjoyed it and then fell into being a data scientist the last few years and just stayed in that space. I've learned about software engineering, machine learning engineering and how you do DevOps."
Women in Leadership
In common with many women at earlier stages of their careers, Conway didn't worry herself too much about the concept of the glass ceiling for women, despite typically being in the minority in most of the teams she worked in. Also in common with many women, she encountered that ceiling after having children.
"I haven't been on maternity leave in the last few years and I've been actively pushing to get promoted. It's taken me 18 months of actively working at it, putting myself on leadership programs, getting mentors, going full throttle, and it was a lot of work although it was very rewarding.
"I think of my peers who might have gone on maternity leave and I wonder what happens to their careers. Does that mean if they try and come back it will take them two years like it took me? That's when you start to understand why the figures on retention differ between men and women."
Barriers to women returners progressing their careers is something that has been oft discussed by Computing, and whilst companies can look at their policies on workforce returners to provide more support, there's no getting away from the fact that women themselves need to lean in if they want to continue to progress instead of quietly deselecting themselves from the promotion pool based on assumptions about how increased responsibilities might affect their home life. Conway thinks women may be inclined to take rejection more personally than their male colleagues.
"Often, when men apply for things and get rejected, they take it on the chin and just brush it off and on they go. Women I know, including me personally find that harder. When I've had an application rejected I do find it hurts. I realised I have to build that resilience because you have to keep going through it."
Conway is working hard on that resilience by engaging with initiatives such as Women on Boards whereby women at all sorts of career levels can put themselves forward for non-exec director positions.
"I was also chosen as an ambassador for Women in Data this year. It's a 30,000 strong community that acts as a network but also volunteers in schools. So I've been able to meet women that are in C suite positions or senior leadership positions working in data and tech and I can reach out to them for advice.
"I do have that in Lloyds too, and there are really great female leaders in Lloyds but it's great to have support from inside and outside the business.
"It's great when you have someone else there to bounce ideas off. I am actually really blessed because within my own leadership team, it's a 50/50 gender split which is so nice. It's not the norm in the developer teams and it's unusual in leadership teams too. Sometimes I am the only women in the room or on a call but it is nicer when things are more balanced. Definitely."
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