Voice of Experience: Alaina Percival, CEO, Women Who Code

“When you see someone doing a great job, applaud her,” advises Alaina Percival, the CEO of Women Who Code. “It’s more difficult for women to talk about their career successes, but if you don’t, no one will know to recruit you, ask you to speak at their conference or invite you to be on their board. Being able to publicly discuss your career success is crucial to advancement.”

Percival knows from experience the importance of shining a light on your strengths. She began her career in the footwear industry with a job at Puma running their niche products division, which included collaborating with designers and overseeing any major projects that weren’t shoe related.

While there, she learned an important skill – having to secure deliverables from people who were far senior to her in the organization. That dynamic meant that she couldn’t tell them what to do, so she had to figure out how to make them want to do it. “It was a skill that has translated well to my current role, since Women who Code is a volunteer-driven organization,” Percival says. “We can’t tell people what they have to do, we have to inspire them to want to work toward its missions.”

After Puma, she decided to return to school to earn her MBA and then went to a small women’s performance shoe company as corporate brand manager for women-specific volleyball and basketball shoes. Her major challenge there was helping the niche company compete with brands like Nike, only without their resources.

From Footwear to Tech

Eventually, she decided to move on from footwear, and begin to consider cities where she’d like to live. She chose San Francisco because of its many opportunities in the tech industry. “It was a struggle because I’d always worked with footwear, but I felt like I needed to switch gears and start over and find my path.”

She started consulting with tech companies and then became engulfed with Women Who Code, just as it was getting started. After teaching herself how to code, she began organizing events and finding sponsors; she found that her background in community development lent itself well to scaling and it became a passion project for her. At the time, she was working for a startup, and then when it got acquired by Yahoo, it provide the opportunity to bring Women Who Code into her next day job, where she was running the charitable arm of Riviera Partners.

“I was working with a lot of engineering executives, but fewer than 5 percent of them were women. I saw the experiences and opportunities they had and started bringing those into Women Who Code’s programs. That is where Women Who Code’s mission of inspiring women excel in their careers was formed and how I knew we could make a difference.”

Within a few months, she had filed for non-profit status and a trademark and built out a budget, and then realized that in nights and weekends, she was essentially running a huge organization that deserved the opportunity to shine. She decided to leave her day job and focus exclusively on Women Who Code.

Making a Difference Through Women Who Code

And that is the achievement she is most proud of so far: the impact Women Who Code is having on the careers of its leaders in the tech industry – their careers are ascending with awards, board appointments, press mentions and invitations to speak at conferences.

“The most exciting part is that the Women Who Code leaders whom we are helping empower are women who are dedicated to seeing other women excel. Their influence will impact the industry exponentially,” Percival says.

Looking at the industry as a whole, she sees that Women Who Code holds an important role in the landscape: already, they are seeing the benefits of reaching out to women and girls to showcase technology careers. Although they have made huge strides in attracting talented women to the field, they are still leaving at too high of a rate. “The conversation now needs to be about creating a better place for women in the industry and helping them navigate their career path. When women do enter the industry, there are not enough role models and they don’t see women well represented at the individual contributor level.”

The group has a weekly publication called Code Review that highlights everyday career successes of women – whether they have won an award, landed a new job or promotion or launched a new product. “We want to champion these women and create the feeling that it’s normal to share your successes, since it can be harder for women.”

Advice for Young Women: Code

According to Percival, all industries are becoming “technology industries,” whether it’s finance or footwear, so increasingly future executives will be those who have a background and understanding of technology. She herself wishes she had learned to code earlier and she urges women to learn the basics, by even taking one coding class. “In areas where women are underrepresented, the issue will only be exacerbated as we see top jobs going to those with a background in tech. It is essential they learn skills like coding as early as possible.”

In addition, she advises women to always set goals, whether they are clear on what they want to do or not. “Lay out that goal and work toward it; you can always change your mind later,” she says. And she underscores the importance of building a network authentically. “Approaching networking as relationship building is key, because then those people become more than just contacts: they become friends and your allies whether you need help in two weeks or two years.”

How Companies Can Win In the Talent Quest

She also believes that companies have a responsibility in the drive to bring more women into the field, and she advises them to really spend time thinking through how they can attract and retain women.

One key area is to make sure they are paying women fairly. She recommends companies analyze salaries and make changes if there are discrepancies that are gender-related. “If there’s an across-the-board percentage of people getting paid less, it’s expensive not to balance that out,” she says. Otherwise, companies will lose out on the women in the last 15 years of their career when they can provide the most value to the company and act as role models and mentors.

“You can’t afford to lose them when they’re the most experienced.”

By Cathie Ericson