Sittercity Inclusion & Diversity

Tell us about your experience as a woman in tech. What are some of the challenges you’ve faced, and how have you overcome them?

At the beginning of my QA career I was the only QA engineer across four squads balancing work while learning and navigating a unique and new career path. Since I had no bandwidth to take any educational courses, I learned through experience and a lot of failure. 

My career with Sittercity did not begin in engineering. Because of the career-focused culture at Sittercity, I was able to transition from customer service into QA, something I likely would not have had the opportunity to do at most organizations. With that transition, I had to work hard to earn the respect and buy-in of leadership and prove that I was capable and deserving of the opportunity. Thankfully, the constant support I received from my peers empowered me to continue to pursue my goals.

In recent initiatives, I have been challenged to grow further in my leadership abilities and get even further out of my comfort zone. This has empowered me to embrace that the process is not always pretty or perfect, but as long as I am learning, I am becoming a better version of myself.

One of the biggest challenges I have faced being a woman in tech is doing it while also being a new mom. I’ve had many battles with imposter syndrome as I navigate wanting to excel in my career while also desiring to be the best mom I can be to my daughter and making sure she remains number one. Having pushed through those boundaries, I’ve realized that I am capable of so much more than I would have ever imagined and I would not have been able to do it without all the support I have received along the way. 

What are your professional goals, and how has Sittercity enabled you to pursue them? 

My professional goal is to land in a leadership role within the QA function in some capacity. All of the managers I have had during my engineering career here have supported my desire to grow by making space for consistent dialogue surrounding my career development. This has challenged me to always be thinking about what is next.

From the start, Sittercity has supported me by affording me the opportunity to broaden my skill set and test the waters in QA, which ultimately opened the door for me to end up where I am now. Since Sittercity did not have a dedicated QA team at the time, it was an incredible learning opportunity for me to which I really had to start from the ground up.

In recent years, leadership has created space for “dev days,” which take place once a month and where engineers can focus on things we are passionate about learning outside of our sprint work and commitments. 

With our newest product offering preparing for launch, I have been given the opportunity to demonstrate my ability to lead the QA process from end to end for Sittercity. I have surprised myself at how much growth I’ve experienced in this process, which has led me to become more confident in my overall abilities.

How does Sittercity celebrate and empower women?

My experience with Sittercity as a QA engineer has been an overall positive one. The engineering team here is nothing but supportive of one another. I have never felt less than and never felt a shortage of respect in my role because I am a woman — the respect spreads among the entire team and I’ve always been received well and respected amongst my peers.

One thing Sittercity does that stands out to celebrate and empower women is regular participation in Women in Tech conferences throughout the years, as well as a heavy impact in the Marketplace Risk conference, annually. This diverse range of participation includes women at Sittercity from all departments, from engineering to product to trust and safety.