Tech is an amazing career for women, but what’s the best way to break in? As part of our series talking to people who’ve retrained through study at Yoobee College of Creative Innovation, Karen Jin tells Jihee Junn how she made the switch with the help of Yoobee’s expert tutors.

Until recently, Karen Jin hadn’t really considered a career in tech. In university she’d studied business, and worked in banking and later marketing after moving to New Zealand from China in 2015. It wasn’t until Covid-19 hit that she decided it was time to try something new.

In 2021, Jin enrolled in Yoobee’s Bachelor of Software Engineering – a multidisciplinary three year degree specialising in game development, cyber security, cloud computing and artificial intelligence. Focused on practical, project-based learning and developing real-world skills, the course enabled Jin to quickly become versed in the basics of software engineering as well as gaining extra skills in AI as her specialist subject.

A pivotal moment in Jin’s journey was being awarded the Yoobee & Datacom Women in Tech Scholarship, which fully covered her tuition and recognised her potential and passion for the tech industry. This scholarship also opened the door to a valuable internship opportunity at Datacom, which she began in her second year.

After graduating in 2023, Jin converted her internship into full time employment. Today, she’s an employee in Datacom’s cloud division as part of its data and analytics team, where she continues to expand her tech industry knowledge and expertise. Looking back on her journey from marketing account manager to data and analytics whizz, Jin explains how she became interested in tech, what studying at Yoobee was really like, and what she reckons needs to be done to get more women into STEM.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What inspired you to change careers and retrain in tech?

Before I was working as an account manager at a marketing agency for about two years. The agency focused on digital marketing and my role was hands-on, helping clients develop their websites. I realised it was the technology behind their website or app that I found really interesting.

When Covid hit New Zealand, it got me to rethink my career path. I wanted to try something new and I figured that tech was something I could try out. I looked up different study options online and found Yoobee.

What was behind your decision to study at Yoobee?

When I was doing research on technology degrees I found some of them were just one-year short courses. But for me, I felt like I needed a three-year bachelor’s degree to lay the foundations and give me more time to learn.

I also picked Yoobee because in the first year there are no specialities. You build up a foundation of knowledge about programming languages and how to build applications. Then in the second year you get a choice of what you want to specialise in, like game development, cloud computing, cybersecurity and artificial intelligence. And at that time, I was interested in studying AI.

What was your experience studying at Yoobee like? What sort of things did you learn during your course?

Compared to other degrees I’ve done, Yoobee was very hands-on. They still teach you theory but there’s more focus on the practical side of things, like how you can actually program or build an application instead of spending the semester just telling you about the theory of this programming language without ever typing any code.

I think that’s why I really enjoyed the course, especially in my first year because you got to see what you built. In my first paper, I built a very simple program and later on I could add more functions and make it more robust so I could see I was growing and learning.

Were there any Yoobee tutors you felt had a particularly positive impact on your studies?

The first person who comes to mind is Regan Music, my web tutor from the first year. His teaching style was very hands-on and interactive, and he showed great patience and encouragement when answering questions, even if they were outside his subject area. For example, one time I was curious about developing a mobile mini program. It was beyond the first-year curriculum, but he listened to my questions and spent a long time with me explaining JavaScript and other related development tools I’d need. His knowledge, diverse experience, and willingness to teach really motivated me to learn more.

The other is Pia Desai, my C++ tutor in the first year. She was really good at explaining complex concepts, using examples, and taught us industry best practices for C++ programming. She shared information and knowledge that broadened our horizons and was always very happy to answer questions.

Tell me about the Yoobee and Datacom Women in Tech Scholarship that you received at the start of your degree. How did the scholarship help you during your studies?

I saw this scholarship when I applied to Yoobee, and wrote a letter explaining why I wanted and deserved this scholarship which was then sent to a panel to decide. I was very lucky I got this scholarship. It paid for 100% of my tuition fees and I also got a free laptop. It also opened up the opportunity for me to do my internship at Datacom later on.

Since graduating last year, you’ve since moved on to a full-time role at Datacom. How are you finding your new career and do you have any plans for the future?

Currently I’m working at Datacom cloud in the data and analytics team. I’m really enjoying working here. I feel like right now, I’m in a really good team. My team members are very supportive, and my managers are very understanding of me and will push me. I think there are still a lot of things for me to learn so I think for at least the next three years, my plan is to just keep learning and growing in my current role.

With tech being such a traditionally male-dominated sector, what do you think needs to be done to get more women into the industry?

In terms of companies and institutions, they need to focus on being more diverse and recruiting more women into the company. At Datacom, I know from my manager that as a woman working in the team, I bring a different perspective. They really see that as something valuable because, generally speaking, men tend to see things in one way and women tend to see things in a different way.

For the education sector, I think it needs to start very early, maybe even from early childhood or primary school. I feel like teachers play a very important role by not stereotyping. Teachers should encourage both girls and boys to study STEM and let them try out different things because if you just tell girls they should do marketing or accounting – which are more female-dominated areas – this idea gets stuck in the kids’ minds and they probably just go for that route. But if you give them the opportunity to just explore different things like tech, they might find that’s something they really enjoy.

I think the media is important too. The media these days are doing a good job talking about the roles being held by women in tech, and I think with all this media coverage, parents will probably see [that women can work in tech] – which is important, because parents also play a role in what their kids do when they grow up.

Lastly, what would you say to those considering training or retraining in tech like yourself?

Just do it. What’s the worst case scenario? Maybe you find it’s something you like. So just try it out. You only live once, right?