herHACK: hacks to launch your career

The start of November 2021 saw “herHACK20.21 – a female-led hackathon” take place. Around 200 women attended and took part in developing solutions to challenges that had been prepared in advance. UBS was one of seven companies to submit a concrete challenge and project idea together with YES, Young Enterprise Switzerland. Each team was tasked with creating a robot to help young people practice job interviews. The robot had to be able to react to the content and tone of the user’s speech and give follow-up feedback and tips. To discover more about hackathons, the UBS/YES challenge and herHACK20.21, check out the article “herHACK20.21 – the largest female-led hackathon”.

The team had to devise solutions that both respected the UN Sustainable Development Goals and gave practical insight into a career in information and communication technology (ICT). Sonia Vitulano, Senior Project Officer at UBS, oversaw the three teams that took part in the UBS/YES challenge. UBS Women’s Wealth spoke to her about her impressions, experiences and career tips for young women.

The role of scrum master is very broad and is defined slightly differently depending on the company and situation. To put it simply, I mentored the teams. I motivated the women during the two days and ensured that they stayed focused and always kept their eye on the ball. The idea behind scrum is to work incrementally, in other words, to complete and deliver more intermediate steps. That way you don’t get caught up in the details. Scrum shows that you can make progress even with imperfect solutions and celebrate a greater number of small breakthroughs.

Each team had 36 hours to present a solution for their respective challenge in the form of a prototype. To do this, they developed applications, some of which were web-based. To make matters even trickier, every hackathon solution had to be in line with at least one of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals. Our teams had to meet as many as three of these: goal 4 (Quality Education), goal 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth) and goal 10 (Reduced Inequalities). It was exciting to see how differently each of the three teams approached the challenge, although they all produced really great results. One of the teams even came in second in the overall standings and won a silver medal!

The entire ICT sector is undergoing major change. Although there are now more women working in ICT, it is still the case that women are more likely to take an active role when they are amongst themselves. A women-only hackathon can help to boost their self-confidence. That is why it is important for women to encounter these situations early on, as it will encourage them to get more involved in mixed-gender hackathons and in their everyday working lives.

It was purely by chance, really. I used to work in the back office carrying out administrative and organizational duties. During a two-week internship at UBS, I was given the opportunity to trial user acceptance tests for a prototype application, which gave me insight into the world of ICT. I really enjoyed it and things just took off from there. Today I can look back on 16 years of experience working in ICT.

The herHACK definitely pulled in women unfamiliar with the field, including a lot of young female students between 18 and 22. But it was really mixed. Of course, you need to be aware that the real world is different from a hackathon – things are more complicated and take longer, so it takes patience before you can see the end product. But hackathons are a good way to get an insight into the profession. They also reveal that women interested in IT come from a cross section of society. It isn’t only nerds who work in the ICT industry. That’s just a stereotype.

Yes, that women get cold quicker! That’s the only stereotype that was proven true at herHACK (laughs). I guess because it was in a warehouse and there was no heating.

First of all, we need to do away with the notion of male- and female-dominated fields. What matters in the end is that you do what you love. If you are passionate about what you do, this will radiate like sunshine, making it easier for you to stand out and have confidence in yourself. Moreover, women should be self-confident and adopt a positive mindset. If you want something but do nothing about it, the answer is already “no,” so you need to try to get a “yes.” And lastly, active networking is a good way to break down barriers, identify common ground and find inspiration. I saw a lot of women doing this at the hackathon.