July 30, 2018

The IT industry is not only for men

Katarzyna Marchocka by

Gartner, a leading research and consulting firm, claims that global IT spending will reach $ 3.7 trillion in 2018. It is a 4.5% increase with respect to 2017. Despite a potential influence of Brexit, currency fluctuations and global recession, companies will keep investing in that sector since they predict growth in revenues. The pattern of expenses will change, but artificial intelligence will remain the main fuel for growth. Poland is becoming more and more attractive for IT investors. Why? One of the most important factors is human resources. We have a lot of young and knowledgeable experts in the field, including women, who finally gain recognition in this industry.

Do you operate in the IT sector and need services of a professional translator? Are you looking for an expert in your field who has substantial knowledge in the subject apart from translation skills? Contact SUPERTŁUMACZ, a reputable translation agency which has won the trust of numerous specialists and companies in the IT sector, including the Carrots Foundation.

What can you say about a Polish woman working in IT?

What do we know about Polish women who are brave enough to work in IT? When did they start their adventure with computers? What did they study? Are they keen on developing their skills? Where do they work? Are their salaries competitive in relation to other sectors? What is the average age of a female employee in this industry? The results of the research conducted by SW Research for Geek Girls Carrots provide answers to these and many more questions coming to our minds.

Are you ready to satisfy your curiosity…?

Curiosity is not the first step to hell as Poles would say – instead, it is the first step to IT

The average respondent in the Geek Girls Carrots survey had her first contact with a computer when she was between 8.9 and 9.6 years old. She became interested in computers at the age of 15.7-16.2.

Curiosity, peer group and family are the most common reasons for turning into this industry.

A rigid pattern of education…?

48% of IT women studied sciences, out of which 78% studied IT. It is worth emphasizing that 60% of them have a master’s degree.

In hindsight, are they satisfied with the choice of IT as their career path?

  • 86% are satisfied with their choice.
  • 78% would have made the same decision again.

An on-line course perhaps?

They do not stop at university studies, often choosing internship/apprenticeship, postgraduate studies or specialist language courses as an additional form of education. As a part of professional development, they are most open to on-line courses (as many as 75%), networking/meetups (50%) and specialist training (44%) while only 9% improve through executing projects.

IT brings satisfaction

As many as 72% of respondents in the GGC survey are satisfied with their job in IT. However, it must be noted that the majority of them (¾) used to work outside the industry. The average work experience in the sector is approximately 4.5 years.

While it is still the man’s world, women are becoming more prominent!

The ratio of men to women is 10 to 3.5 respectively. Looking back into the past, it is a good result nevertheless. 53% of women claim that it is more difficult for them – as opposed to men – to get by in the new technologies sector.

Stereotypes, unequal salaries and rejection of applications

Out of 1334 women from the IT industry who filled in the GGC survey, as many as 85% had experienced unequal treatment in terms of employment in IT. 61% of them received a lower salary than their male colleague in the same position, and 28% had their application rejected on the basis of gender. They were also victims of stereotypes.

A job with plenty of advantages

One of the biggest merits of working in this sector are the earnings, which are satisfactory to 89% of women. The opportunity to work in any place at any time is also among the biggest advantages, being valued by 80% of IT women. 77% of survey respondents also appreciate the relaxing atmosphere and loose work culture.

Good and steady jobs await women in IT

The survey shows that 94% of the respondents have a permanent job, 74% have signed a contract of employment with their employer and 5% work part-time.

The majority works in large technological enterprises, with most of them holding specialist positions. They also works as programmers, software testers, product owners, scrum masters, project managers or analysts.

Young age prevails

The average respondent working in IT in Poland is over 29 years old.

Destination: big cities

27% of them come from cities with more than 500 thousand inhabitants, and 65% currently live in such places. The biggest number of women in the IT sector in Poland live in Mazovia, Lower Silesian and Lesser Poland provinces.

This comes as no surprise given that international companies and smaller businesses looking for specialists in this sector are also based in these regions. In addition, technological and programming communities can be found there.

How much do women in IT earn?

Earnings vary. 19.7% of the respondents earn a net salary of between PLN 1500 and 3000, 20.1% between PLN 3000 and 4000, 16.4% between PLN 4000 and 5000, and 11.5% between PLN 5000 and 6000.

Women from Mazovia and Łódź provinces earn the most. In Mazovia, 40% of women earn a net salary of more than PLN 5000, and more than 11% make over PLN 8000.

Women from the eastern of Poland have the lowest earnings.

Reluctant to pursue a career outside Poland?

Only 9% of women in this sector have worked abroad. Those who decided to leave the country did out of the desire to learn new skills and polish their language or were tempted by the amount of earnings or challenges at a new job.

Every fifth female representative of this industry has children

Every fifth respondent of the Geek Girls Carrots survey has children. As many as 56% of mothers in the IT sector find it easy to combine career with raising children.

Don’t let the competition beat you and whenever you need to translate any type of material concerning the IT industry, bear in mind that professionalism and expert knowledge of the translator guarantee a translation without any mistakes.

IT in the global village, the role of translation in the industry

Information technologies have currently become an integral part of almost every sphere of human life and every type of modern equipment is a device with an integrated computer or an option to combine it within a computer-controlled system. As a general rule, documents relating to such equipment contain specific terminology that is comprehensible only to IT specialists, which poses a great challenge for technical translators.

Hence, IT translation has become a separate offshoot of translation. The cause of the complexity of top class IT translations and other technical subjects is the fact that professional linguists with background in humanities are not usually confident in such translations. Furthermore, due to the fast pace of the development of information technologies, it is necessary to constantly monitor the industry and keep abreast of innovations in order to maintain an adequate level of professionalism.

The enormous variety of translatable texts makes translation for the IT industry even more demanding. These texts include:

  • equipment manuals,
  • software,
  • technical descriptions,
  • articles,
  • press information,
  • comparative reviews,
  • and many more.

IT translators also deal with software localisation, which is particularly true for computer games.

Apart from professionalism in translation and professionalism in a specific IT field, translators must be truly interested in innovations and continuously develop their skills. This is the only way to guarantee the highest quality of translations. Do you need to translate a text of this type? Use the services of SUPERTŁUMACZ.

Check the quality of the following translation: “Women in IT” report in English.

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