What are the challenges that accompany being a woman leader in technology? How can you be an ally for women in your workplace? How do you overcome imposter syndrome? These are just a few of the questions Christine Awad—the Director of Engineering at Facebook—so kindly answers in this episode of Simple Leadership.
Christine Joined Facebook 6.5 years ago as a software engineer on the Facebook Video team and then transitioned to be an engineering manager supporting Video Creator Tools. She led the engineering team for Facebook Watch from its initial launch to being used by more than 1.25 billion users monthly around the world. She is currently supporting the engineering team building Video Chat and Rooms across Messenger, Instagram, and Facebook. Originally from Egypt, she went to school there and did an internship at Facebook in 2014 before joining full-time.
Special thanks to Kandace Korver for helping produce this episode!
Outline of This Episode
[1:37] Get to know Christine Awad
[3:25] The transition to management
[6:46] Mistakes that Christine’s learned from
[9:38] Statistics about women in tech
[14:37] Christine’s negative experiences
[19:40] The topic of imposter syndrome
[25:30] Covid-19’s impact on women in the workplace
[30:13] Two Facebook programs to highlight
[31:04] The importance of support systems
[35:10] How to navigate the interview process
[39:39] How to connect with Christine Awad
Christine’s transition to management
Christine specifically remembers not wanting to be in any sort of leadership position. She loved coding and didn’t want to be stuck in meetings 24/7. But her manager at the time said she had great leadership capabilities and would make a great manager. When her manager went on parental leave, she was asked to do one-on-ones with her team while he was out. She discovered that people were having crucial conversations with their managers.
She had a new grad come in and wanted to learn the path from E3 to E4. This person took her recommendations and made changes and moved up the ladder. Another female colleague pointed out that people talked over her in meetings. Christine had a similar experience but had an ally who helped her voice become heard. Christine was able to be that for her. She began to feel a sense of fulfillment that she hadn’t before. She felt that her greatest accomplishments were working with her colleagues, not the products she completed.
What are some of the mistakes Christine made in the beginning that she learned from? Keep listening to hear her experience!
Diversity & inclusion in tech
According to Peer Research, women make up 46% of the workforce but only 14% are in software in engineering. 3% of computer-related jobs are held by African American women, 6% by Asian women, and 2% by Hispanic women. 50% have experienced gender discrimination at work. In 2016, women-led businesses only made up 4.9% of VC-backed deals.
Many companies implement courses about discrimination, managing bias, managing inclusion, and classes about being an ally. All of these things are good—but are they enough? Christine points out that it’s also helpful to see people in the room that look like you.
Often being the only woman in the room made Christine more ambitious. When Christine was young, she was also the first person to show up to her math class. Boys thought she was different because she liked math. So she saw it as a challenge to become better. She wants to be a reason for people to believe that women can thrive in these jobs. But other women in leadership positions feel like it’s a large burden.
Christine is in rooms where she’s the only woman. She’s in rooms where there are conversations about who to hire or who to promote to leadership positions. She tries to sponsor other women whenever possible.
