The decision to choose a career in tech didn’t come spontaneously. Several members of my family worked in software development as developers, product owners or managers. I listened attentively to their discussions about industry trends and issues, until the day agility, and in particular the word “scrum”, came up. This subject caught my attention, and my curiosity led me not only to devour every available source of information to learn more about agile frameworks and their principles, but also to obtain professional certification in scrum mastering. Beyond my curiosity, I felt it was important to showcase my new skills.

Thanks to the desire of software engineering companies to be more “agile” in their project management processes and to adapt quickly to unforeseen changes, the opportunity to exercise the role of Scrum Master in the field quickly presented itself in this sector. And so my new adventure began.

Discovering new horizons… by stepping out of your comfort zone

To become a Scrum Master, I had to step out of my comfort zone in order to acquire new skills. I learned to reach out to others, to communicate better while maintaining a positive attitude, as well as to be very patient to see the results of the changes implemented.

Indeed, this job involves working in constant interaction with colleagues. A Scrum Master interacts with many people at once, technical and business experts. When I started out, alignment with these different stakeholders wasn’t always obvious, and it’s crucial to learn to listen to them, observe them, communicate with them regularly and analyze situations before acting.

The Scrum Master profession is all about managing human relationships. I’ve met and had to deal with very different personalities, experiences and expectations. The real challenge is to find the approach that will create the right dynamic to strengthen team cohesion and bring out collective intelligence, while promoting the well-being of each individual.

As you can see, moving into a new line of work involves stepping out of one’s comfort zone, and is a fine demonstration of courage, tenacity and adaptability. I’m extremely proud of it.

Feeling supported

In the beginning, support and kindness were particularly important. My colleagues at 3DS OUTSCALE made themselves available to answer questions about products and services, the technologies used, the technical tools available to the teams, and changes in organizational processes. This collaborative culture, combined with a remarkable responsiveness, helped me to find my bearings easily and to become operational quickly within my scope. What’s more, 3DS OUTSCALE encourages its employees to develop their skills, particularly through training. The company has given me the means to progress and to gain perspective.

A day in the life of a Scrum Master

First of all, I have to admit that there’s no such thing as a “typical” day! The day-to-day life of a Scrum Master is far from monotonous, and every day has its “surprises” and challenges to overcome. I’d also like to point out that the Scrum Master’s vision of his or her responsibilities depends on the personality and background of each person, the maturity of the team and the organization in agile. So, in practical terms, what are my missions?

My current mission is to help a development team set up the framework best suited to its environment: a framework that encourages inspection, adaptation, transparency and technical excellence, in order to maximize the team’s efficiency and set it on a course of continuous improvement.

To accomplish this mission, I support the team on a daily basis, ensuring that the workflow and processes defined upstream are smooth and that the objectives to be achieved for our product releases are clearly understood by developers and stakeholders. I also ensure that the team is focused on creating a quality product that brings value and meets the needs of customers and users.

One of my priorities is to protect the team from anything that might disrupt its operations. I help them to overcome the obstacles that hinder their progress and prevent them from performing at their best. The secret of success is to stay very close to the team to anticipate dysfunctions and find effective solutions collectively.

A Scrum Master can also act as a mediator in the event of disagreements or conflicts, and as a facilitator in creating and maintaining good communication with all product stakeholders and management.

Finally, as a coach, I’m also committed to developing an agile mindset within the organization: trusting teams, respecting and supporting their decisions and technological choices, and letting them accomplish their missions in complete self-management.

While technical skills can be an interesting asset, they are not indispensable. This role relies heavily on “common sense”, soft skills and the human qualities needed to communicate well, collaborate and support teams and structures in highlighting and resolving their problems. All these qualities match my personality, my agile mindset and my way of working, which makes my job pleasant, enjoyable, fulfilling and useful to me.

A word for women who want to work in the Tech sector

The tech sector is very promising and offers great opportunities for career development. If you’re an enthusiastic, curious woman, you’ll find your place and thrive in this field, rich in human and technical challenges!

Science fiction as a source of inspiration

Ever since I was a little girl, I’ve loved science fiction novels. My favorite writer is Ursula Le Guin. Her work The Left Hand of Night was a real discovery and a source of inspiration for me, as it shows that an SF novel can also address gender issues with a total absence of gendered roles. Madame Curie, the legendary scientist, has also been my idol since childhood. Her perseverance and patience in her quest for truth encouraged me when I encountered difficulties during my studies.

Per Aspera Ad Astra

Ever since high school, I’ve been fascinated by the French language and culture. As luck would have it, there were French classes at my high school, and in my final year we had the opportunity to study in France. I stayed in France and continued my studies in Rouen.

Despite spending almost six months practicing French with the other students, my first year in the preparatory class was quite complicated. I quickly found myself under pressure between student life, French classes and acclimatizing to this new life. At first, I didn’t have the time to talk to my classmates about the courses, the school or its organization. I didn’t manage to cope with all these changes, which led me to repeat my first year. This failure was quite hard to take psychologically. At first, I was tempted to give up, but thanks to the support of my family and friends, I persevered and graduated!

I began my professional experience at Acep Trylive, participating in the testing of a product that enabled people to try on glasses online, using augmented reality. My final internship was with Dell EMC. My main missions were to run automated tests in Python and ensure the technical feasibility of the VxRail server. During this internship, I also took part in the design of a data acquisition system.

It was my first internship in the field of quality assurance. Of course, my very first internship in website development in HTML, JavaScript and PHP was a very rewarding experience, but I find that writing code to check pages automatically is really something extraordinary, a bit like science fiction!

When I joined 3DS OUTSCALE, the company provided me with the information and training I needed to quickly feel at ease and progress in my job. My manager and colleagues were always patient in answering my questions.

Today, my job at 3DS OUTSCALE is to carry out automatic tests. I write the code that automatically starts checking the functioning of the elements on our product pages. This is faster and saves time. Once the tests are launched, I analyze their results, and when there are problems, we report them via tickets on our internal tools. I also run test campaigns on Jenkins or locally when my colleagues in the Development team are doing version updates, then synchronize the results on Testlink and analyze them to find error cases or bugs. It’s important for the other teams (UX, dev…) that we do the reporting.

I find this job very interesting. I feel fulfilled when the code I produce for testing works well. I finally feel a real sense of accomplishment. It’s important to believe in yourself and never give up!

I chose to pursue a career in technology at a very early age. I wanted to help people who were suffering in particular as a result of life’s accidents, or who were born with deformities that could be improved or resolved thanks to technology. This idea came to me after watching a report on post-war Vietnam. It showed children who, in order to survive, had to work and live near land infested with anti-personnel mines. According to the report, young children and adults ended up stepping on these mines and losing the use of a limb. I felt a deep sense of injustice for these people, who were not responsible for this war and who are still suffering such consequences today.

The myth of a “purely” technical job

Today, I’m Team Leader of an R&D development team. My responsibilities include organizing the team’s work to meet the various needs of our product development, and making decisions about the progress of projects. I’m involved in all phases of the project, as well as taking part in technical developments. I also try to challenge ideas and maintain a good atmosphere within the group.

My job gives me great satisfaction and I’m glad I chose it. I love what I do every day. I like the interaction with the team and teamwork… Solving problems and finding solutions… Developing a product to make it more efficient and innovative…

I really feel I’ve found a place where I feel useful and where my skills can be of use to others.

Dealing with entrenched stereotypes

Despite my rather positive experience of the job, I did encounter a few difficulties, mainly due to the fact that my work wasn’t always taken seriously. For example, during technical meetings with men, I was particularly shocked by the lack of credibility given to my presentations and answers to questions. To put it more clearly, when I presented our needs, the person opposite me from a partner company would turn to my male colleague to validate everything I was saying. I found this behavior extremely unpleasant and, above all, it’s important to know that this type of situation is a blow to one’s self-confidence.

Finding a job where I was finally respected enabled me to face up to these situations and overcome them emotionally. The kindness of the 3DS OUTSCALE staff really helped me to feel at ease in my job and in my profession. I met some wonderful people who helped me to grow and develop.

A word for women looking to work in the Tech sector

Technical professions and the tech sector more generally are generally dominated by men, and yet it’s a field of activity just like any other! If you like technology, if you like software development, there’s no difference between a man and a woman. We all have the same abilities and the same opportunities to do a great job!

At the same time, there are still very few young girls choosing the path of science and computer science. Furthermore, since the reform of the general and technological baccalaureate and high school in France, there has been a 28% decrease in female students in the sciences (between 2019 and 2021**).

Turning the Issue into a Growth Opportunity

What can we do as a company to promote diversity in the sector? When talking to our interns and apprentices, we quickly realize that they are often the few, and sometimes the only, women in a class predominantly composed of men. So, let’s start there. If we want to see more women in the tech sector, they must first choose suitable training.

That’s why we launched the OUTSCALE for Women initiative in 2020. The goal? To introduce young girls (in middle schools, high schools, and colleges) the IT sector and prove that these careers are also for them.

Our employees are sensitized, and we have created a dedicated team that works on topics related to the professional development of female employees and participates in activities organized with schools and our partner associations such as Elles bougent and Femmes Ingénieures.

Talking to young girls is important, but let’s not forget about women who want to change careers today. Many of them want to join the IT sector, and the path is not always easy.

The Women4Tech initiative precisely addresses this issue. The goal is to help women looking to change jobs by offering them internships and apprenticeships within our teams. Why internships and apprenticeships instead of permanent positions, you may ask? First, because we are still in the early stages of this initiative. Second, because people often follow short-term training programs of a few months, which may not provide them with the immediate skills to be operational. Therefore, it’s essential for them to gradually acquire skills. Internships and apprenticeships are good means to achieve that. Finally, because recruiting people requires training time and support from the teams and HR department.

Concrete Actions through Advocacy and Partnerships

Beyond internal awareness campaigns, we welcomed interns to introduce them to the Cloud sector.

Last year, we hosted the first virtual Open Doors Day with several training organizations. It brought together more than 200. Following this event, and as part of Women4Tech, we hired 3 interns in our development teams and 2 apprentices in our Networks and IT teams. One of the interns was hired on a permanent basis after her internship, and one intern continues as an apprentice.

Our recruits from the Women4Tech program

We organized a panel discussion dedicated to women in Cybersecurity in collaboration with Cisco. Four professionals shared their journeys, daily experiences, and vision for a more inclusive future for the industry and Cyber careers.

At the initiative of the Elles bougent association, we also participated in Elles bougent for career. This was to connect with  high school girls and to present the career opportunities and training programs.

We invite our employees to share their stories through personal testimonials:

• Victoire, R&D Team lead
• Xueyan, QA Engineer
• Manel, Scrum Master

If we want to see more women pursuing technical training and hire more of them, we must talk even more about our professions, and work hand in hand with training organizations, associations, and other companies.

The challenge is huge, but together, we raise our voices and make a difference!

Click here if you want to join OUTSCALE!