Break The Norm - Coding Dream of a Young Tech Lady

The more she codes, the more she realizes her dream.

Throughout her teenage years, Tes Putthira had been trying hard to get through the stereotype, which portrays that a career in IT (Information Technology) is not a profession for women. Despite the image the society built for people like her, Putthira has always motivated herself and other young girls to put confidence on themselves, and a belief that girls also can be a coding engineer.

“I remember some of my male high school mates once told me that IT is only for men while women should study accounting or economics instead. However, at the end of the day, I managed to study, and successfully graduated from this major,” Putthira, 25, said.

Currently working for Pathmazing Company for almost six months, Putthira is the only female staff in the tech company’s iOS developer team. In this position, she is assigned to build mobile apps for iPhone. She is also in charge of mentoring juniors to process the tasks necessarily in creating smart phone apps.

The work obviously does not put her into a comfort zone. Putthira said her works could be sometimes stressful, especially, when she has to deal with the deadlines most of the time. To her, this means a tough challenge.

Even if it is putting her in hard time, Putthira still figures that what she loves most about her job is the ability to create and explore new things, as well as to understand more about technological advancements.

“What I love the most about my job is when I successfully solved the problem I spent so much time working on,” she said.

To date, Putthira is not only achieving as one of the most outstanding staffs in the company, but she also made marks in her I.T. career path. Because of her strongly-committed and hard-working characteristics, she had been given opportunities to make professional visits to Japan, Korea, Laos to exchange experience and knowledge in tech field.

Today, Putthira is pursuing her master degree in I.T. at Royal University of Phnom Penh. Although most of her time is filled with work and study, Putthira is still trying to spend some of her weekend to share what she has learned with other tech-savvy young ladies. That pushed her to be a volunteer for Technovation Cambodia.

“When I were in their ages, I wish I would learn this much like them and that is why I want to share what I know to them,” the female tech worker said.

To Putthira, Technovation is her recommended program for young girls, who are interested in business and coding, since the program will give them the opportunity to show out their talent, and ability in using technology.

“To me, I.T. is a great subject, no matter how society puts pressure on you as a girl, try it is better than never. I hope to see many more girls can code. Surely they won’t know how awesome it is until they hit the keyboard.”

Putthira agrees that some female high school students would not dare to choose I.T. for their major at university since they do not have any idea what it is all about, and perceive that this major is only for men.

She remembered when she was a freshman in I.T., she did not even know what I.T. was all about even she was granted a full scholarship to study this major. Moreover, her parents (now at her side) did not support her at all at the beginning.

It was her curiosity, which defined her fate. She always wondered why IT is only for men. Thus at the end of the day, she let herself decide the way despite her parents’ denial.

“But when I started my freshman life as an IT student, I almost wanted to quit because I could not catch up with the lesson, particularly with the coding and Fundamental Computer concepts,” she said – smiling.

She was disappointed, but she did not give up. She spent 2 hours after class in the evening to attend extra class near Bak Touk until she started to fall deeper in her curiosity of her major again, and became one of the outstanding students in the class.

As more and more female staffs are actively working in I.T. industry, and some companies also start to prioritize and encourage women to apply for the job, Putthira could see the hopeful future and opportunity in tech for women.

“The presence of women in tech field is very important and I suggest all parents to encourage children to study what they loves specifically in science-related major,” Putthira finally said.

Tes Putthira, testing a new developed smart phone app.  
Photo: AOMPUL/Som Panha

One of a smart phone apps developed by Putthira and her team.  
Photo: AOMPUL/Som Panha

by Sar Pisey