Role Model Interview vol.29 Louise Jones
Women in Technology Japan (WITJ)’s mission is to close the gender gap in tech and promote diversity and inclusion in Japan.
Our goal is to create a world where women can have the courage to truly shine and find employment in their ideal profession or industry and help as many women as possible to know about the possibilities of working in the IT industry.
This series features people working on the cutting edge of the IT industry, sharing their enthusiasm, thoughts, experiences, and stories.
In this edition, we feature Louise, working in Rakuten as Senior Manager. What’s her story about moving to Japan, biggest challenges and what’s the hint to create a diverse environment?
Q1. Please tell us about yourself!
Hello, I’m Louise. I’m originally from the UK and am now based in Japan. I’ve been working in the technology industry for about 10 years, starting at Samsung Electronics European HQ just outside London, then moving to British drop shipping software start-up Virtualstock, and now working for Rakuten Payment, Inc.in Tokyo.
I currently work as Senior Manager at Rakuten Payment, whereI support a team of over 45 people located in Tokyo, Japan, and Bengaluru, India. We focus on bringing innovative features to Rakuten customers and merchants and our team has functions covering frontend, backend, mobile, and QA engineering as well as project management, product management, data science, and UIUX.
Q2. Amazing career! Why did you move to Japan?
I was open to various geographical locations, and as I researched, I came across Rakuten’s Project Manager role.
Q3. How did you start working in the tech industry?
I studied Politics, Psychology and Sociology at university. After graduating, I tried various jobs, including working in a PR agency and a think tank. Despite an interest in technology, I thought my skillset wouldn’t be technical enough to work in the industry.
However, as I explored job opportunities, I started to realise that the skills I had in communication and logical thinking in a cross-cultural environment are needed by technology companies and that there is more to the industry than hands-on coding and manufacturing (which are of course admirable and essential roles). I found a niche for myself where I could add real value and learn more about technology at the same time.
Q4. What was most challenging when you were building your career path?
Probably the most challenging period was at the start – when I graduated university. I wasn’t sure what I would be good at professionally or what I wanted to do. Job opportunities were scarce and highly competitive. I think it’s a struggle many people have. I worked through it by trying different industries, companies and roles and being open and flexible to find the right fit.
Further into my career, I think the challenge has been prioritising which skills to develop and finding ways to do that on the job as much as possible. Structured learning is also incredibly valuable but time for it can be limited so I think it’s important to find ways to build learning and self-development into my daily work.
Q5. Great insights and tips on building the career path! How did you become a senior manager?
After coming to Tokyo, I spent the first couple of years focused on delivering my projects and understanding as much as possible about our services and goals. I grew step by step in the company and over 4 years I worked my way up to my current role as Senior Manager. Now I manage people fulfilling various roles, some of which are quite different and more technically specialised than my own skillset.
Q6. Everybody has their own style – but for you, what’s the key to becoming a successful manager?
I think the keys to that are to listen, to understand the concepts and to bring the right experts. It is absolutely essential to understand the work at the conceptual level – you cannot support your team if you don’t know what they are doing and why. I also know I cannot be a specialist in everything so, for example, to handle technical details, I focus on bringing the right team members into the right projects and listening to their expert opinions. That is a management skill in which I can build my expertise. Of course, part of this is also providing training and other growth opportunities to allow members to develop into those experts, something on which I place a lot of emphasis.
Q7. I love it! Why do you think diversity is important and what can we do to create a diverse environment?
Cultural diversity brings many different approaches and a richer selection of solutions from which to choose from. The important thing is to create a safe environment that lets everyone be themselves. Communicate shared values and respect each other.
Q8. In order to close the gender gap, what could be helpful?
I believe there are various approaches. Firstly, mentoring. In my experience, having people who are more senior, more experienced and/or more knowledgeable who I can trust to share concerns and ask questions allowed me to develop my judgement and confidence so I could solve problems at a higher level more quickly. Many women struggle to get this type of mentoring for a variety of reasons. Companies need to encourage managers to take on mentoring and support them to feel secure and confident as mentors to a diverse range of employees.
Secondly and relatedly, allyship is extremely valuable for promoting diversity and inclusion at work. Be aware of the language used in the company and work to make sure everyone feels welcome. Allyship means not only women supporting women but everyone advocating for all forms of diversity. Change can move faster and benefit more people if everyone is involved.
Thirdly, we need to encourage more applications from women to technology teams and companies – we can’t hire people who don’t apply! I think to help get those applications in, companies need to emphasise the skills they are looking for and offer more support to build any specific technical or domain knowledge after joining. That needs to be reflected in job descriptions, which should be less rigid. And as a society, we need to encourage women to apply to jobs even when they don’t match all the on-paper requirements. There’s a great article about this in HBR – it’s not that women lack confidence, it’s that women think they have to follow the written requirements exactly when they don’t. https://hbr.org/2014/08/why-women-dont-apply-for-jobs-unless-theyre-100-qualified
Realising this was a game-changer for me and I have tried to support others to do the same when advising on hiring and through mentoring.
Q9. Thank you for amazing insights! What’s your career/life goals?
I want to make a meaningful, positive impact.
To translate that to my career, my current goals are to make the services that we need for daily life faster, cheaper, more secure, more accessible and more convenient.
I believe promoting a diverse, supportive and empowering team setting is essential to achieving that goal and over my career I would like to be a leader in creating such environments.
WITJ hopes that this role model story will inspire and encourage you to shine and find your dream job or industry.
If you are interested in collaborating with WITJ or sponsoring an event, please fill out our contact form or contact us directly at info@womenintech.jp