Wow. We had incredible response to our first series on Celebrating Women at Rulesware—including a slew of applications from (and a couple of hires of) amazing women interested in working with us—so we really had to do it again.
Supporting women in technology, and championing equality in the workplace, are issues dear to our hearts at Rulesware. And as we look around at our teams, we’re proud to see more and more talented women of various background joining our ranks, at all levels, in our U.S., Mexico, and El Salvador offices. We still have a very long way to go as a company and an industry to achieve true equality, but we are increasingly optimistic. We hope that you are, too.
And yes, we’re still hiring! We encourage amazing women (you know who you are) to get in touch. Please take a look at our opportunities in Mexico and at all offices.
Rukayah McQueen, QA Senior Consultant
I like the diversity within Rulesware. I recognize that people with different backgrounds, skills, attitudes and experiences bring fresh ideas and perceptions to the team whether its developing the practice or working on a external project.
In terms of the core values we live by, collaboration resonates most strongly for me. During my last project, the Development and QA team worked together throughout the sprint to ensure the team turnover clean code, and we reviewed test scenarios and data in working sessions. Development was running QA scenarios in development while working closely with the testers. Once the code was deployed to QA, development assisted QA if needed with testing. The developers and together on user stories and scheduled work sessions during the sprint. This teamwork helped the us to finish on time.
Professionally speaking, I am proud that I was able to work with awesome individuals in which we completed projects successfully without any serious production issues on the client side. Also, my healthcare experience has helped the team and client during our requirements sessions. Going forward, I am looking to fine tune my automation skills because QA automation is becoming common also I am looking to work on my leadership skills to one day lead the QA Practice.
My advice to women considering a career in IT is this: do not feel intimidated by this male-dominated field! This industry needs more diversity and I’ve found that the majority welcomes it.
Lynette Clark, Delivery Director
As a Delivery Director at Rulesware I have responsibility for supporting our clients’ success with their Pega and BPM implementations through the successful, quality delivery of our projects and services. I also have responsibility for a portfolio of our Ruleware clients, comprised of 2-3 clients with active projects at any given time. I love the people I work with and the work I do! It is challenging, hard, exciting, complicated, and very satisfying when I see growth at all levels, both individual and as a group – from our entry level to very senior employees AND our clients.
Rulesware was started because the founding partners knew they could deliver Pega implementations better than others. Our Rulesware culture is grown from that vision. Every day each of us are encouraged, enabled, required and supported to use our talents and creativity to deliver our best work. We’re supported when our best might not have achieved the objective and we stumble. We are given coaching, mentoring, on-the-job training, and ‘safe places’ to learn from those stumbles to get it right the next time.
I started out as a programmer/developer writing Cobol programs. I wasn’t very good at it, but I did learn along the way that I have a passion for helping and enabling others to find what they are good at and support their growth. The majority of my career has been in leadership positions, leading and guiding teams of various sizes, cultures, geographies, etc. in both consulting and non-consulting organizations. I’ve worked in IT and Business Consulting my entire career across multiple industries (manufacturing – chemical and automotive, pharmaceutical, healthcare, retail) and many organizational functions (supply chain, claims, warranty, IT, PMO, engineering, call centers, etc).
Professionally speaking, I’m most proud of overcoming my lack of confidence. I recently caught up with a friend that I had worked with many years ago. Multiple times throughout the conversation he stopped me, or just simply commented, about how confident I was during our conversation and how different that was from when we worked together 10+ years ago. Achieving this newfound level of confidence in myself allows me to focus on bringing my knowledge, experience, and thought leadership to my work without worrying if I am saying the right thing or at risk of sounding silly. I’m good at what I do because I love what I do, I know I can do it, and I know I can do it with grace, humility, and genuineness.
To other women considering the IT industry, I’d say: This is hard work, but it sure can be rewarding! Look for the challenges, don’t shy away from them. That is how you will grow. Know you will have to make choices: make them deliberate choices, own the consequences of your choice, and don’t second-guess yourself. You will stumble and sometimes fail. Do that gracefully, accept the mistake, reflect and learn from it, and move on.
Emma Payne, VP, Operations
I’m responsible for the “back office” operations of the company including HR, Marketing & Process Improvement initiatives. Having the opportunity to work closely with our near-shore engineers is a highlight for me. I have enjoyed getting to know El Salvador, and seeing incredibly bright, humble & enterprising people build a strong, close-knit operation. More broadly, I’m someone who loves change. I’ve spent my career helping small companies to grow and love that things are always evolving at Rulesware. As I tell my team all the time – especially when things are stressful – “well, at least you’re not bored.’
Last year we rolled out new core values for Rulesware, one of which is TRANSPARENCY. For me this is the most ambitious and important core value at Rulesware, but it’s also the most difficult to implement. As Don Tapscott said, “If you’re going to be naked you’ve got to be buff” … so the work of streamlining our processes and making them consistent has been really important and fulfilling work for me.
In terms of my background, I launched my first web start-up before Netscape was created, and have worked in web & mobile development for many years since then, founding & leading both non-profit and for-profit tech organizations. I founded and led a non-profit organization called the Wired Woman Society, that focused on educating and advancing women in technology careers. Wired Woman delivered an amazing range of services for 17 years, before being acquired. We helped many, many women to kick off careers in everything from special effects to software development and animation, and the women I worked with there remain my closest friends and colleagues.
My advice to other women considering IT: Remove the word “just” from your vocabulary. I still see it in my email drafts every day, and make a point of removing it every time it appears.
Molly Eddington, Delivery Practice Lead
Aside for working as a scrum master on client projects, I am the practice lead for the delivery practice. I also work in conjunction with the other practice leads to ensure our practices are set up for success, in terms of adopting best practices, ensuring training and career development needs are met. I like the variety that my role presents me, as it allows me to continue working with clients and utilize my many years of project delivery knowledge, and at the same time be a contributor in the success of the company by focusing on our practices.
What resonates with me most about Rulesware’s culture is that every employee in the company is treated like a member of the family. We are not just numbers to Human Resources. We are recognized as adding value to the success of the company and encouraged to always be involved in the growth of our company. I like that there is a very healthy balance of “work” vs “play”, which is so very important not only for our employees but also their families.
I have worn many different hats over my career starting as a business analyst then moving over and then shifting over to be a pega developer, then changing to a pega business architect. Not long after I moved into management and have had roles in both the service delivery and project management spaces. I’m most proud of making the decision to finally join Rulesware!
I think the IT industry has changed in many ways over the years and what was known as the traditional developer/ engineer role has really changed and transformed itself with the introduction of agile software development. With this methodology, as a engineer you are not just coding, you are working in a team, discussing and making decisions together, working directly with product owners where you can provide your suggestions and ideas. Essentially you are in a very collaborative setting, which can be fun and exciting.
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Interested in learning more about the career opportunities for amazing women — and everybody amazing — at Rulesware? We welcome you to get in touch.