Software Engineer Talks Career Pathways
Helena Soukupova, Software Engineer at OneLogin, loves helping people grow. She has a passion for the people-software relationship and is dedicated to improving the OneLogin Developer Experience.
Pathway to Software Engineering
Moving from Talent Acquisition Lead to a Software Engineer takes initiative and dedication. What strategies did you implement to move up at OneLogin? Did it require any internal networking?
I have spent the past few years as a recruiter at OneLogin, specializing in recruiting for our tech teams: Engineering and Product. This was a great opportunity for me to see and learn a lot. I was involved in leading the path of the code-review step within the interview process of our Engineering talent. I was able to discuss their needs, and get to know them better through our daily interactions. They were great in encouraging me to go and start working on my coding skills. My job within the talent team was evolving and I started building my network within the company as well as outside of the company. I felt comfortable enough to ask about small opportunities to cooperate with the DevEx (Developer Experience) group, and I started to work on small projects before I graduated from the Bootcamp.
Was there a definite moment/event that led you into an engineering path?
OneLogin has a great team of people who are encouraging to others and open to mentoring people to grow, follow their passions and start working on projects which will make them happy. A set of small impulses led me to the point where I started just playing small coding games, and I liked it. With the COVID situation, I decided to put my energy and effort into learning how to code. I have great colleagues who went through a similar path and they were a huge inspiration for me. I want to mention people like Dominick Caponi and Andrew Mciver who started their engineering career path within bootcamps, and now they are two of the best engineering managers. My great friend, Stefanie Lynch, also went through Bootcamp and she was the right women-engineer-inspirational mentor for me. My husband is supporting me a lot as well as my best instructor/mentor/buddy in crime and, frankly, I can’t imagine anyone better for my engineering journey.
What is something you wished you knew at the beginning of your career that you know now?
“Make an effort to be in touch with the people you already have in your network. Attend as many remote events as you can: networking events, interest groups, etc.”
Having connections and support is incredibly important. With everyone working remotely today it can be difficult to foster and maintain these relationships. Make an effort to be in touch with the people you already have in your network. Attend as many remote events as you can: networking events, interest groups, etc. For me, maintaining remote relationships is pretty natural because we moved to the U.S. four years ago. I’m pretty proud of how much I’m in touch with people in Czech Republic and EU because the global network is something that helps you to grow and to see the beauty and colorfulness of the diverse world.
Growing Your Network
How can you foster key connections and meet new people across your industry in the remote world?
When I started my career within the U. S. job market about 3 years ago, my first step was to reach out to the Czech people community in the Bay Area. Next, I worked with a German freelancer’s platform for Software Engineers where I was focused on recruiting. After these steps, I started work at OneLogin as the Talent team member. Talent is a great space for you to grow your network from scratch and especially within middle-sized companies because there are a lot of opportunities. It’s up to you to take them and build on them. I have organized and led engineering networking events, as well as attended 3rd party networking events which are great occasions for growing your network.
How can you continue to have visibility with key leaders and stakeholders within your organization while working remotely?
To have continued visibility, be in touch with your network, foster your relationships, be ready to help others, be open to other people's perspectives and feedback, and bring your best. This is the right way to achieve not just visibility, but also build great and honest relationships which are truly important especially in the remote work environment.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
When it comes to recruiting engineers from different backgrounds, what do companies get right? What do they get wrong?
I have learned that for engineers the most significant value is an honest approach from the team - starting with the first touch from recruiters until the final negotiation and onboarding of the new team member. Software Engineers are looking for challenges, opportunities to grow, and to work within a team of inspirational leaders, and the culture of the team and company is an important aspect as well.
“Equality is truly important and different perspectives are vital for every team. Be ready to find these perspectives and apply them to your solution.”
What advice do you have for engineers that want to build an inclusive engineering culture? What does that mean to you?
Inclusive engineering culture is a culture that is open and honest and able to learn, to listen, to accept differences as well as some failures and learn from them. Equality is truly important and different perspectives are vital for every team. Be ready to find these perspectives and apply them to your solution. This is the way to enrich yourself, your team, network, company, and family.
Is there anything else you’d like to share with ModelExpand readers?
I am looking forward to finding more people around me who are ready to encourage people to learn coding skills because these skills are becoming more and more vital. I want to help as much as possible to grow the women-engineer presence and encourage people not to be scared of changing their careers even if they are “older” or without a technical background. I feel that this can bring fresh-minded people with a unique perspective to the tech world.
Helena will be sharing more about her experience at ModelExpand’s upcoming Women In Leadership Breakfast: How to Grow Your Network in 2021. The ModelExpand Women In Leadership Breakfast Series provides a space for women to connect, inspire and uplift one another. Check out our upcoming events here or learn more about our sponsorship opportunities.
ModelExpand: ModelExpand is an inclusive recruiting strategy firm that helps companies build diverse and inclusive workplaces through strategic consulting, workshops, and events.
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