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Are STEM Recruitment Processes Pushing Women Away?

Women-in-STEM

Every February 11th, the world celebrates the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, a reminder that despite progress, the gender gap in STEM, especially in IT roles, remains a pressing issue. So, while women now make up 28% of the STEM workforce, IT professions continue to see some of the lowest representation, hovering around 19% for IT professionals and 23% for IT technicians.

This is not just a diversity issue, it’s a business challenge. With over 1 million STEM jobs added in the last seven years, companies struggling to find talent must rethink how they attract, recruit, and retain women in IT roles.

Also read our article about 20 Amazing Women Leading Europe’s Tech Revolution

👩‍💻 How Companies Can Attract More Women into STEM Roles

📝 Revamp Job Descriptions and Hiring Criteria

Studies show that women tend to apply for jobs only when they meet 100% of the listed requirements, while men apply when they meet around 60%.

Thus, avoid overloaded job descriptions that list excessive “nice-to-have” skills and focus on the core competencies required for success.

Also, use gender-neutral language and highlight a company’s commitment to diversity.

♀️ Promote Female Role Models and Mentorship

Representation matters. Women are more likely to pursue IT careers when they see successful female leaders in the field.

So, establish mentorship programs where women in junior roles can connect with senior female IT professionals.

Also, encourage internal and external thought leadership opportunities for women (e.g., conference speaking engagements, LinkedIn articles, webinars).

⚖️ Offer More Inclusive Workplace Policies

Firstly, flexible work arrangements (hybrid/remote work, flexible hours) help accommodate work-life balance, which can be a deciding factor for many women in IT.

Parental leave policies should also be inclusive and well-communicated.

Lastly, ensure a safe and supportive work culture, including clear policies against gender bias and harassment.

Are Recruitment Processes Pushing Women Away?

Women in STEM
Photo source: www.stemwomen.com

Even well-intentioned hiring practices can unintentionally discourage female candidates. So here’s how companies can fix that:

📙Rethink Technical Assessments: Traditional whiteboard coding tests or high-pressure exams can be intimidating and don’t always measure real-world problem-solving skills. Consider project-based assessments instead.

🤖 Bias in Resume Screening: AI-driven recruitment tools can also reinforce existing biases. Thus, ensure hiring algorithms are regularly audited for fairness.

👩🏽‍💻Interview Panels: Last, if all interviewers are male, it might send the wrong message. So include diverse interview panels to make candidates feel represented and valued.

5 Successful Initiatives to increase the representation of women in IT roles

Here are some real-world initiatives by companies that have successfully worked to increase the representation of women in IT roles:

1. Cisco

A company demonstrating a strong commitment to promoting women in technology through several initiatives:

  • Cisco Global Women’s Network: Evolving from the former Women’s Action Network, this organization boasts thousands of members and collaborates with Cisco’s Office of Inclusion and Collaboration.
  • Women of Impact Conference: An annual event organized expecting around 15,000 participants across 100 locations. The conference addresses challenges women face in the workplace, discusses new campaigns, and fosters support among attendees to drive diversity in tech.
  • Employee Resource Groups (ERGs): Cisco has several ERGs, including the Cisco Asian Affinity Network, Cisco Black Employee Network, and Cisco Disability Awareness Network, promoting inclusivity across various demographics.
Women of Impact Conference- CISCO
Photo source: https://registration.socio.events/e/2024woicarolinas

2. Microsoft

Microsoft engages in various programs aimed at attracting, recruiting, retaining, and developing women globally in the technology field:

  • Educational Partnerships: Promotes the study of computer science at female colleges and other universities to build a pipeline of female tech talent.
  • Investment in Women-Focused Organizations: Invests in organizations that support women, seeks out women suppliers, and provides support to women once employed at Microsoft.
  • Inclusive Culture: Challenges employees to embrace changes, such as redefining performance and development approaches, to foster cultural empathy and inclusivity.
Photo source: microsoft

3. IBM

IBM has implemented strategies to provide women and underrepresented groups with opportunities to reach their potential:

  • Technology Camps: Since 1999, IBM has organized technology camps staffed by women volunteers, partnering with organizations like Girls Who Code to recruit girls aged 12 to 18 for coding programs.
  • Leadership Development Programs: Offers programs such as the Building Relationships and Influence Leadership Program for women with executive potential, featuring sessions with speakers who have progressed into executive roles.
  • Mid-Career Support: Provides programs for mid-career women to have sponsors or coaches to prepare them for the next milestones in their careers.
IBM Technology Camps
Photo source: IBM Blogs

4. HCL Technologies

Under the leadership of Roshni Nadar Malhotra, HCL Technologies has set ambitious goals for gender diversity:

  • Gender Diversity Goal: Aims for 40% female representation in the workforce by 2030.
  • Advocacy for Gender Diversity: Roshni Nadar Malhotra is a strong advocate for gender diversity, integrating her personal and professional life to effect positive change.
The Vice President, Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu addressing the gathering during his visit to the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, in New Delhi on February 14, 2018.

5. Logitech

Delphine Donné, VP/General Manager for Logitech Personal Workspace Solutions, has fostered an inclusive environment:

  • Inclusive Leadership: Under Donné’s leadership, Logitech has achieved a roughly 50/50 male-to-female ratio in leadership, fostering creativity and innovation.
  • Diverse Teams: Advocates for diversity beyond gender, emphasizing benefits from a mix of ages, nationalities, and backgrounds.
Photo source: Delphine Donné | LinkedIn

Finally, these initiatives demonstrate that with deliberate action and commitment, companies can make significant strides in closing the gender gap in IT.

What can IT Recruitment Company do?🤔

As IT recruitment companies, there are various initiatives to promote women’s participation in STEM fields you can partner with. So here are some notable examples:

1. Rewriting the Code (RTC)

rewriting the code logo

RTC is a nonprofit organization that collaborates with over 25 tech leaders to enhance diversity in hiring. They provide IT recruitment firms with access to a global network of more than 31,000 women in technology, ranging from undergraduates to early-career professionals.

Thus by partnering with RTC, recruitment companies can:

  • Enhance Recruiting Capabilities: Directly connect with underrepresented talent through events, workshops, and a dedicated talent portal.
  • Improve Retention Rates: Engage with a community committed to supporting women in tech, fostering a more inclusive workplace culture.
  • Strengthen Employer Branding: Demonstrate a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, making the company more attractive to potential candidates.

For instance, companies like Duolingo and Palantir have partnered with RTC to increase the diversity of their hiring pipelines, resulting in significant improvements in the representation of women in their tech roles.

2. Girls Who Code

Girls who code logo

While not an IT recruitment company per se, Girls Who Code is a notable organization that aims to close the gender gap in technology by equipping young women with computing skills. They run programs during the academic year, teaching high school girls programming, robotics, and web design.

IT recruitment firms can collaborate with such organizations to:

  • Expand Talent Pipelines: By supporting and engaging with programs that prepare young women for tech careers, recruitment companies can access a broader pool of qualified female candidates.
  • Enhance Community Engagement: Demonstrating support for initiatives that promote women in STEM can improve the company’s reputation and attract more female candidates.

Thus, these initiatives illustrate how IT recruitment companies can actively promote women’s participation in STEM fields, leading to a more diverse and innovative workforce.

Awareness is not enough: time to action

The International Day of Women and Girls in Science is a powerful reminder that it is time to action. Companies can’t afford to wait until 2070 for gender parity in STEM.

Thus, by taking deliberate actions, businesses can create an IT workforce that is both diverse and future-ready.

📜Reminder of actions:

🔍 Rethink Job Descriptions

Firstly, avoid unnecessary barriers that might discourage female applicants.

🌟 Support Female Role Models

Then, promote mentorship and leadership opportunities for women in tech.

🏢 Improve Workplace Policies

Also, implement flexible work options and inclusive parental leave.

🚀 Ensure Bias-Free Hiring

Finally, audit recruitment processes to remove unconscious bias.

Looking to build a more inclusive IT team? Our recruitment experts can help you find and retain top female tech talent.

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About us Featured Podcast Interviews

Two Months into My First Software Developer Job

Two months into her first software developer job, Olena Drugalya chats with us about her beginnings and what other debuting developers should expect.

Olena Drugalya recently went from being a stay-at-home mom to landing her first software developer job, joining Novatec Consulting as a junior software engineer. Two months into the role, she chats with us about her beginnings, first learnings, and what other people starting their web developer career should expect from the first weeks at the job.

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Congrats on first software developer job? What projects have you been working on so far?

I’m actually not working on any client-facing projects right now because I’m still in the learning phase. Novatec has a Talent Hub, and every new employee in the software engineering department starts there. We spend a lot of time learning, as the project we will be involved in later require a lot of additional skills and knowledge of languages and frameworks. So, they want to be sure that we know all these things in advance.

What’s the talent hub like?

There are a lot of new developers in the hub: juniors, trainees, students… And we work together on pretty much the same program. We learn back-end, Java, Kotlin and some frameworks, but we also learn front-end tools and frameworks. Then, in the end, we are given a project to do by ourselves, and we present it and show everything that we have learned so far.

Some need two months to complete the program, others need more time. It really depends on the person, but it usually takes no more than six months. We need to deeply understand the concepts and processes, so we can use as much time as we need to learn. They don’t rush us. I really love Novatec’s idea of the talent hub.

Pretty cool, isn’t it? Sounds like a great way to get started.

Yes. I was so happy when they took me in. This was something I was looking for because I don’t have that much experience and they give us the possibility to learn and cooperate with other developers and see what the process of development is really like.

We participate in all the company meetings, as well as in sprints and refinements. So, from the first day, we can see what the other developers are doing and how they manage the development process. We are not taking part in it yet, but we are already aware of what the project looks like from the inside and how people are working on it, and this is a very valuable experience.

What are you finding to be the most challenging part of this learning process?

The most challenging for me probably has been working on a project inside a team. Before this, I was doing everything by myself. So, if I had a project to get done, it was just me doing all the thinking, projecting via framing and coding. Now it’s just a bit different situation.

You have other developers in your team, and the planning of the project takes more time than the coding part itself. That’s because it needs to be divided into small parts, and everyone in your team needs to understand what their task is and what they’re going to do.

And I bet you learned many things as a result.

Yes. I learned how to develop the user story, how to create a ticket, how to cooperate with other developers using GitLab and all these things which I would have never learned by, for example, being a freelancer.

You mentioned you’re learning back-end, and your previous training was in front-end tech. How is going full-stack like?

I was lucky because was able to handle the back-end pretty well because I had some experience with C#. So, Java was not that difficult for me, but still, it took me probably a month to dive deeper into it, to go beyond the basics and learn new stuff. Then it became easier when I started with Kotlin and the various back-end frameworks. The most challenging part was Java itself.

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How was the experience of going through the onboarding process? Was there something in particular that positively surprised you?

I was really surprised with it all, as that the onboarding process was really well organised. Everything was on time and there were so many people presented their teams and projects. They were telling us with enthusiasm and happiness, explaining how they were handling things and that they were happy to see us at the company. That was very inspiring and surprising in a positive way.

What advice would you give to others just starting with their web developer career?

For the junior developers who are just starting their web developer career, I think the most valuable advice I could give is: don’t be afraid to ask questions. Everything you want to know, everything you are not sure about, just ask. There are a lot of people who will help you, who will guide you and mentor you.  

In a good software engineering team, they all want you to succeed. That’s the beauty of cooperation. Everyone helps each other out when they are working on a joint project.

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What about work-life balance? Starting a new job can be stressful. How are you doing with it all? Are you working from home, or at the office?

Work-life balance is pretty much on schedule and going well. We’re still working from home remotely, but we can go into the office if we feel like we want to socialize with other colleagues. So, from time to time, we meet at the office. I do like work from home, as that way I don’t have to spend that much time in traffic to go to the office and back.

You were blogging quite a lot before starting your first job as a software developer. How is blogging given how busy you must be? Are your new experiences prompting you to write about new topics?

Yes, it’s difficult now with the content. I know there are a lot of people on Twitter who juggle their work with content creating, family and everything, but it was difficult for me these first two months. It being a new job, and my first software developer job, I wanted to get to know everything, to learn as much as possible. And that didn’t leave too much time for content creation.

So, my blog is still where it was before, but still coming up with ideas. At Novatec we also have the possibility to write blogs, so I will probably think about that as well. I would like to pick up blogging again soon and write about all the new back-end tech I am learning to use, about Java and Kotlin – there are so many topics waiting to be written about.

Check out more of our interviews from our podcast episodes.

For more guidance in your web developer career, make sure to follow Olena on Twitter and LinkedIn and don’t forget to check out her blog and Hashnode activity.

Need more tips on how to find a job in IT? Check out our IT job hunting guide.

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From Stay-at-Home Mom to Full-Time Web Developer: An Interview with Olena Drugalya

Our interview with Olena Drugalya, a self-taught front-end developer who just recently managed to go from being a stay-at-home mom to a full-time dev.

The first part of our interview with Olena Drugalya, a Berlin-based, self-taught front-end developer who just recently managed to go from being a stay-at-home mom to a full-time dev. Born in Ukraine and having lived and worked across Europe, Olena discusses her transition into tech, the barriers she encountered along the way and how other women can overcome them.

Learn of Olena’s progress with her account after two months into her first developer job.

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Interview with Olena Drugalya: Congrats on your new job! You made it. How did you go from stay-at-home mom to full-time developer?

Thank you! My transition into tech was a long and winding road of failure, hard work and, eventually, success. So, let’s start from the beginning.

I graduated in linguistics and law, but I never worked as a lawyer. Fresh out of university, I found a job at a trading company as a translator, as there was a huge demand for speakers of foreign languages at that time in Ukraine. I worked in the company for 10 years and was promoted a couple of times, ultimately becoming an executive manager.

What happened then?

Then I met my husband and we got married. We moved to another town, and I worked remotely for some time, but it didn’t go too well because my daughter was born, and I didn’t take maternity leave. Not long after that, I was already burned out from the job, from having a baby, from the move. So, I quit my job.

But, after some time, my daughter had grown older, and I started to think about what I would like to do next in my life, my career possibilities, etc.

My husband is a software developer, so he suggested that maybe I could find a development job in our city. There was a coding academy that offered a course on software development on the weekends, so that worked for me as my husband could watch my daughter during the weekends. I learned there for two years and graduated as a .NET developer. After that I graduated, I participated in several projects. I even built an online game and actually got some money for it. So, I was like, OK, I can do it.

And then…

Then I decided to try to get a job at a company, not just freelancing. But at that time, in Ukraine, it was very difficult for a woman to enter the tech world if she didn’t have a computer science degree. So, I had a couple of interviews, and that was a failure. A total disaster.

So, after a range of failed interviews that got me discouraged, I decided that tech was not for me. I always thought that, for being a developer, you needed a special mindset, and that I just didn’t have it. And everyone around me seemed to think the same, except, of course, for my husband. But I was too unmotivated and frustrated. So, I stopped. I decided it was not for me, that I would try something else.

Women in tech

We moved to Denmark, where I got a job as an office manager. I was quite happy with the job, since we had just moved in, and I could learn Danish and do something useful instead just sitting at home. But while working there, I realised that, in western Europe, the situation with women in tech is totally different. In fact, tech companies encourage and offer women enormous possibilities in the tech industry. That made me think about tech again, and I decided to give it another shot. This time I started with web development and that’s what I’m doing right now. We moved to Berlin, and I recently got a job as a junior software developer at IT services provider Novatec. And I love it.

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You mentioned how hard the interview process was at times. What would you say to people who are going through failed interview after failed interview? How can they keep their spirits up?

Above all, that you just must keep going no matter what. If you really want this job, if you really want to work in tech or in any other industry, you just need to learn from your failures and just move on and try again. Failing at an interview doesn’t mean that you are not good in what you are doing. Sometimes there is just a better candidate, or the company has a different profile in mind. It often just means it’s not the right time or the right company for you because they are looking for something else.

Do you think your background in humanities has helped you in tech?

Absolutely. Knowing a lot of languages, for example, has helped me a lot. Speaking English is a big plus in this industry, and I can speak German too. There are a lot of wonderful developers out there who are missing out on great opportunities because they don’t know languages. All technology now is made in English. Plus, if you know how to learn a language, you know how to quickly learn new structures and words. You can directly apply that to learning a programming language. You learn the grammar, the syntax. The same goes for fluency. In order to get fluent, you just need to write code often. You just need to treat programming just like any other language.

How do you combine your job, learning and raising kids, especially during lockdown?

You need to have a daily routine. Otherwise, you will always feel like you don’t have enough time. I was lucky to have the help of my husband. When my son was little, I usually studied for two hours after he went to bed.

That was, of course, tiresome, because usually you don’t feel fresh anymore in the evenings. But I had no other choice. But the first lockdown actually helped me a lot with goals, as my husband started to work from home, and we shared the time with the kids. From morning until noon, he was with the kids, and I was with the kids from noon until the evening. I had my two or three hours to myself every day, and that was fantastic. Then I jumped right away into the 100 days of code challenge. I made a habit of coding every day for at least one hour. And I have been doing it every single day since. So, yes, the daily routine is very important.

You are very active in the dev community, sharing development tips and your journey into tech. Why do you enjoy blogging, how has it helped you?

I started my blog when I started my studies as a web developer. First, I wanted people just to know my story about being a stay-at-home mom and learning web development. I was hopeful it could encourage other women like me who were afraid of transitioning into tech. But as I proceeded with the study, I started to write posts about topics I was learning at the time.

I thought that many blog posts or YouTube videos out there were not really that beginner-friendly, often being written in a rather complicated language. So, I decided to try to write down these difficult concepts just in a simple language, just for myself. If you manage to understand something by writing about it, you actually learn it more deeply. Then I saw others were struggling with the same problems and decided to share these materials with the broader community.  

I encourage everyone to start writing the blog. It’s one of the best ways to learn by yourself because you need to research something and then you have to explain what it is and what it does, and how you can use it. It’s also a great way of holding yourself accountable and make sure you keep progressing towards your goals.

Check out more of our interviews from our podcast episodes.

Make sure to follow Olena’s blog and Hashnode activity.

You can also follow her on Twitter and LinkedIn.

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Featured IT Decision-makers Talent strategy

20 Amazing Women Leading Europe’s Tech Revolution

20 Amazing Women Leading Europe’s Tech Revolution
The IT gender gap remains a big issue. We celebrate International Women's Day by looking at some of the amazing women leading Europe’s tech revolution

One more year, International Women’s Day prompts the public eye to focus on a problem for which a single day of reflection is never enough. The gender gap in IT remains broad reaching across industries and roles. Despite improvements, the women-to-men ratio is still lower than in other sectors. Furthermore, 44% of female IT professionals acknowledge that men climb up the career ladder at a faster pace than they do. That’s why we wanted to give a nod to some of the amazing women leading Europe’s tech revolution. 

Suffice to say a list of 20 is merely a starting point regarding women in Tech. So, stay tuned throughout this month for additional articles highlighting the many adventures of female technologists across Europe.  

Discover 20 Amazing Women Leading Europe’s Tech Revolution

Maggie Philbin – United Kingdom 

CEO TeenTech CIC 

Firstly, Maggie Philbin, a long-time science and technology reporter for the BB. Philbin is indeed a passionate technology advocate who founded and directs TeenTech CIC, a series of events aimed at helping young people and their support network understand the breadth of STEM careers and the skills needed to pursue them.  

Maja Pantic – United Kingdom 

AI Scientific Research Lead at Facebook & Professor at Imperial College London 

Secondly, an authority in artificial intelligence specialising in the machine analysis of human non-verbal behaviour and its application to human-computer, human-robot, and computer-mediated human-human interaction. Pantic also combines teaching at the Imperial College with research for Facebook London. 

Zoe Adamovicz – Germany 

Co-Founder & CEO at Neufund 

Then, a serial entrepreneur, Adamovicz has founded many successful technology companies including Neufund, a blockchain-based investment platform connecting innovators and investors to fund and launch innovative ventures. She’s also a mentor at Gaza Sky Geeks, supporting tech entrepreneurship in the area. 

Jasmine Anteunis – France 

Chief Product Officer – SAP Conversational AI and co-founder at Recast.AI (exit SAP)  

Further, Anteunis founded AI chatbot company Recast AI in 2015, bought by ERP giant SAP in 2018. Also known as the SAP Conversational AI, the tool lets businesses deploy powerful conversational interfaces with comprehensive, end-to-end bot building. 

Chantelle Bell – United Kingdom 

Co-founder at Syrona Health 

Moreover, having founded Syrona Health in 2018, Bell is a British entrepreneur who has built the digital female health platform to democratise women’s health and help women monitor their chronic gynaecological and uterine conditions.  

Sue Black – United Kingdom 

Professor of Computer Science and Technology Evangelist, Durham University 

Dr Black is a digital skills expert, social entrepreneur and also international keynote speaker well known for her activism around social inclusion and advancing women’s role in IT. Moreover, she led the successful campaign to save Bletchley Park, the World War II code-breaking site. 

Francesca Bria – Italy 

Chairwoman/President CDP Venture Capital SGR- Fondo Nazionale Innovazione at CDP Cassa Depositi e Prestiti 

In addition, Bria is a digital rights champion leading Europe’s DECODE data sovereignty project. Moreover, she is an expert in digital cities and rights, serving as a senior adviser on these issues for the United Nations. She is also the former chief digital technology and innovation lead for the city of Barcelona.  

Margrethe Vestager – Belgium 

European Commissioner for Competition and Executive Vice-President of the European Commission 

Then, Vestager is a Danish politician serving as the European Commissioner for Competition and Executive Vice President of the commission for A Europe Fit for the Digital Age. She also leads Europe’s anti-trust efforts, holding the world’s biggest tech companies to account. 

Corinne Vigreux – Netherlands  

Founder, Codam College and co-founder and CMO at TomTom 

Then, we continue this list with a co-founder and chief marketing officer of GPS pioneer TomTom, Vigreux is an active campaigner for women in the workforce and better social mobility through education. Also, in 2018, she founded Codam College, an Amsterdam-based coding school with a revolutionary peer-to-peer value proposition. 

Kinga Stanislawska – United Kingdom 

Co-founder and Managing Partner at Experior Venture Fund 

Last but not least, Stanislawska is the co-founder of the Polish venture capital fund Experior Venture Fund, Europe’s first VC founded exclusively by women. She is also the founder of the European Women in VC community, which comprises nearly 250 senior VC professionals from over 20 European countries. 

Betül Susamis Unaran – Switzerland 

Chief Strategy and Digital Officer, Executive Board Member at Zur Rose Group 

Unaran leads the digital efforts of the Zur Rose Group, Europe’s biggest eCommerce player in the healthcare space. She is driven by her mission to make a difference in people’s lives through data and digital initiatives that transform the lives of patients. 

Raffaela Rein – Germany   

Founder of WildWildVentures and CareerFoundry 

Raffaela Rein is a German start-up entrepreneur who founded venture lab WildWildVentures and CareerFoundry, a leading school focusing on careers in the digital economy. She also sits at the board of the German Start-Ups Association. 

Luz Rello – Spain 

Founder of Change Dyslexia and Accessibility Consultant at Apple 

The first Spanish person to receive the European Young Researchers’ award, Luz Rello is founder and CEO of Change Dyslexia, an organisation helping screen and treat dyslexia through a research-based platform. She is also an accessibility consultant for Apple. 

Colette Ballou – United Kingdom 

Investor at Ballou Capital and Chairman at Ballou 

Named one of Europe’s Most Influential Women in the Start-up & VC Space by EU Start-ups, Colette Ballou is a serial investor and frequent speaker on the topic of angel investing. Her successful communications and strategy agency, Ballou, allowed her to invest in an impressive range of start-ups. 

Karen Boers – Belgium  

Co-founder at BeCode, BeCentral and Boers & Peusens 

Boers is a passionate social entrepreneur who has founded and established a series of projects focusing on empowering others and help them achieve their dreams and goals. These include BeCode, a coding school centred on re-skilling talents into web development and other in-demand IT careers.  

Moojan Asghari – France 

Founder & CEO at Thousand Eyes On Me and co-founder of Women in AI 

Asghari founded the personal branding and development platform Thousand Eyes On Me to help women and minorities unleash their full potential and move up the career ladder. She is also the co-founder of Women in AI, a global network of female artificial intelligence experts. 

Lauren Kisser – United Kingdom 

Director, Alexa AI – Knowledge International at Amazon 

Formerly the director of engineering at Amazon Web Services, AWS S3, Lauren Kisser is now the Director of the company’s Alexa AI – Knowledge International. She is a self-described STEMinista and diversity champion who sees gender diversity as the key to power tech innovation. 

Nell Watson – United Kingdom 

AI Ethics expert at IEEE Standards Association, Singularity University 

Watson is an interdisciplinary researcher in emerging technologies including machine vision and AI. She focuses on AI ethics, working with the IEEE Standards Association and the Atlantic Council, among others. She is also AI Faculty at Singularity University and chairs various prosocial organisations. 

Mary-Jo de Leeuw – Netherlands 

Director Cybersecurity Advocacy EMEA at (ISC)² 

Mrs De Leeuw is a career cybersecurity consultant and serial entrepreneur whose work and affiliations include serving as the director of cybersecurity advocacy for EMEA at training and certifications organisation (ISC)².  

Sonja Betschart – Switzerland 

Co-Founder and Chief Entrepreneurship Officer at WeRobotics 

Betschart is a “tech for good” entrepreneur focused on using emerging technologies to empower and people, businesses and communities. She co-founded and leads WeRobotics, a non-profit organisation committed to solving local problems through robotics.  

Want to read more about women in Tech ? Discover our article: Women in Tech: Women Must Claim Their Spot in the IT World

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Top 10 Developers in Belgium to Follow on Twitter

Top 10 Developers in Belgium to Follow on Twitter
Discover out Top 10 of Developers in Belgium to Follow on Twitter with Mission Control Center by Mindquest. All of them are worth your attention

Discover out Top 10 of Developers in Belgium to Follow on Twitter. If you are a developer from Belgium ; are looking to become one ; or are simply interested in the topic of web and app creation ; here’s a list with the local experts you should be following on Twitter.

In no particular order. Some are self-taught devs sharing their experiences and advice, others are public speakers and minority advocates. All of them are worth your attention.

Also discover the top 10 of the Best Software Developers in the UK to Follow Online

Top 10 of Developers in Belgium to Follow on Twitter

1. Eva Dee

@GirlsCodeMK

Eva is an open source and JavaScript expert working as a developer for the video platform VIBBIO. She is an alumna of Rails Girls Summer of Code. A global fellowship program for women and non-binary coders whose aim is to make the open-source community more diverse. Eva also runs a blog, includeJS, where she writes about her journey as a self-taught dev.

2. Pieter Gheysens

@pietergheysens

Pieter is one of the most active members of the Belgian Visual Studio community, leading the country’s 1,200-member-strong user group. Pieter is also a co-founder of Techorama, a deep knowledge IT conference that attracts about 1,700 every year. A certified Visual Studio MVP and Scrum Master, he has a training and consultancy business (Sparkles) focusing on ALM solutions.

3. Louis Hoebregts 

@Mamboleoo

Louis is a front-end specialist who describes himself as more of a doctor/physiotherapist of everything front-end. He is one of the organisers of Creative Front-End Belgium, a space for local developers to meet and talk shop. And he’s always working to help the community with his expert insight. He posts regular content on his site mamboleoo and runs a newsletter about SVG.

4. Brenda Michelle

@MichellleBrenda

Although technically from California, Brenda is a Belgium-based front-end developer working towards becoming a full-stack developer. Brenda provides web design services and shares regular tips and tricks to help out other developers. She is also a stay-at-home mom juggling entrepreneurship, learning and motherhood all at the same time. You can check her work and posts here.

5. Jachim Coudenys

@coudenysj

Jachim is a PHP expert working as a developer for Combell. He is a Zend Certified Engineer and conference speaker. He is passionate about helping the developer community, serving as a coach for CodeDojo Belgium and enabling his local PHP user group. You can find out more about his work and views on his site.

6. Freek Van der Herten

@freekmurze

Freek is a Belgian PHP superstar working as a developer and package creator at web-design agency Spatie. In addition to having built and running various well-established web solutions, Freek is an organiser of Full Stack Europe. Full Stack Europe is a yearly conference that caters to the entire development team across stacks. He blogs at Freek.dev.

7. Dries Vints

@driesvints 

Dries is a PHP developer working for the Laravel framework, where he maintains the community portal and builds components like the Blade UI Kit. Like Freek, Dries is an organiser of Full Stack Europe, as well as of, Full Stack Belgium. You can follow his work and adventures on his personal site.

8. Bart Reunes

@MetalArend

Bart is a web developer at up-time-as-a service company Nucleus. As a quality assurance engineer, he focuses on developing fool-proof and extendable web applications on- and offline. In this regard, Bart works to help other web devs by maintaining the PHP Quality Assurance and organising the local PHP community. He also volunteers for the Red Cross and CodeDojo Belgium.

9. Pieter Herman

@bepieter

Pieter is a full-stack engineer living in Antwerp. Passionate about new technologies, he has extensive experience managing the complete project lifecycle from requirements gathering through to implementation. His blog posts have been echoed by publications such as Forbes. You can find more about his adventures here.

10. Kenneth Schabrechts

@schabrechtsk 

Kenneth is an independent software developer and technical lead at development and consultancy firm Agilix. He is an active member of the Belgian development community. Taking part as a public speaker and regularly posting content on his blog.