Retraining is a very good way to enter IT. We see and hear this more and more. Nezaket Mun knows all about that. This Salesforce consultant is the NL News of the Week. However, she was not in marketing, like many, but in the hospitality industry! She now sets up business processes at companies that use Salesforce and she is also a role model for the Equals campaign, sponsored by the Municipality of Utrecht. This is her story.
Nezaket is a Salesforce consultant at 2ManyDigits, but she could not have predicted that 10 years ago. “I’m from Groningen, but I really didn’t want to study there. Instead, I went for Marketing and Communications in Rotterdam. I didn’t finish my studies because I had to start working. I worked in the catering industry. I did that for 15 years.”
TechGrounds
She retrained two years ago through Techgrounds. It was one of the best decisions she could have made at that moment. “It was corona time and during the last lockdown I decided to retrain. The first thing to close was always the catering industry, but I had been looking for a while. My sister is in marketing at a tech company and my brother is in cybersecurity. Both advised me to work in IT because they were looking for people and the work was fun. It was precisely because of the lockdown that I had the time, so I ended up at Techgrounds. Within 5 months you will have all your basic certificates for Salesforce. You can start working with that basis. But of course it is also about experience.”
Nezaket Mun
Nezaket had also looked at traineeships, but they require an HBO diploma and require you to study for two years, be seconded for two years and then you will be on another four years, says Nezaket. “I applied many times but was invited 0 times. Then I came across Techgrounds: it’s for women, it’s free and five months, great. Before the training started you were already matched with an employer and I am still there now. I am very happy with it and should have done this much earlier.” Nezaket Mun is even a Techgrounds Ambassador to inspire other people to do it too.
Salesforce consultant
Now she is a Salesforce consultant and that suits her well. Actually a logical choice: she loves gaming and once put together a computer herself. “At first I thought I wouldn’t be able to go into IT. I immediately thought about coding and all the technical stuff that comes with it, but you don’t have to be a techie. Now I set up business processes of companies for their Salesforce software, without coding! This can be arranged completely the way people want. In addition, there are enough seniors to teach me the tricks of the trade.”
Yet there is still a long way to go when it comes to women in IT. “It is super important that we ask ourselves: how do we ensure that our sector remains diverse? I have personally experienced that I was not completely considered a full-fledged person compared to a male colleague. Maybe because I’m a woman or because I had less experience. While we both said the same thing. You see these kinds of things more often in the business world than in the catering industry, for example. But we can change this if we all, including the men around us, speak up when something like this happens. By working together towards this goal, we can only make the IT world better and more innovative.”
No permission
Extra reason for her to put women on the map in her ambassadorship for Techgrounds. “I give Q&As for Pathways Orientation Days and retraining students who are still in doubt. I recently gave a workshop on scrum to new students and we do hackathons.” What does this Salesforce consultant especially notice when she talks to women? “Women are much more perfectionistic: I can’t do it. I’m not smart enough. I’m not ready. I recognize that, but I realize that if ten years of experience is asked, a woman with 9 years of experience will drop out, while a man with 5 years of experience will respond. Too often we ask for permission instead of just doing it. In addition, we compare ourselves too much with others. I am 33 years old and I have no husband or child. You also notice that in IT, Oh someone has more certificates, but just do it at your own pace. As long as you understand it in the end. Create your own timeline.”
Finally, she advises women specifically for the role of consultant to ask questions carefully and to keep asking them. “We tend to fill things in quickly and that is dangerous in this work, even if we do it out of good will.”
Books and people that Nezaket recommends following/reading:
–Abdelhamid Idrissi
–Jonas Gundersen
-Book: Socrates on Sneakers by Elke Wiss
Photographer: Megan Jane Simons ©
