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Tech Inspired

Latest episodes

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May 24, 2022 • 24min

Tech Inspired with Anna Maria Blengino

​Meet Anna Maria, who is a Senior Director in IT Strategy and Innovation at Sunrise.  As a child she followed her curiosity to take things apart and put them back together. Inspired by her father and by her mathematics and physics teacher, she fell in love with technology. Consequently, she graduated as one of three women with an engineering degree and worked for the first couple years in construction. Anyway, at the end of the 1990s telecommunication was on the rise and captured Anna Maria’s interest. She started from the bottom as an industry (career) changer and continuously used her curiosity to explore the different options. Thus, she worked in different industries and countries; the jobs varied from hands-on to more strategical positions. Now, Anna Maria shares her career learnings from the last three decades with us. She mentions repeatedly that it is important to keep moving to stay on top of innovation. Listen to this episode to get the full insight from Anna Maria’s impressive career and her take on the future of telecommunication companies, digitalization, and new work. Finally, Anna Maria gushes about her favourite female role model. This woman is literally reaching for the stars yet outspoken about injustices and relatable in her life choices. Listen till the end, you might be inspired too. Connect with Anna Maria on LinkedIn. More about the #wetechtogether conference on 30th of September and 1st of October at Technopark in Zurich.
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Apr 19, 2022 • 29min

Tech Inspired with Sibel Atasoy Würsch

Meet Sibel, Head of Data at Frontify and a global citizen. Sibel lived most of her life outside Turkey, where she has been born and raised. Today she is responsible for all the data analytics tasks at Frontify. She joined a small and young team and built up a team of six today including data analysts and engineers. Sibel started her career in economics with the goal to be a professor, teacher or researcher in her professional life. Little did she know that an economic crisis gave her the opportunity to switch to tech. She moved to Boston to search for a job when a tech start-up gave her the chance to switch to tech. With her background in statistics from her studies, she was up for the challenge and got the chance to change her career into tech. She learned to program in R on the job and soon the contract became a permanent role. The startup was acquired by PayPal and she leveraged her knowledge even further to become part of the data world. However, being married to a Swiss citizen, they soon longed to go back to Europe and luckily she landed a new job with eBay in Switzerland. Sibel believes, the traditional way of getting a job by applying for an open position is going to remain. However, to be successful, this requires a mindset shift on both sides, the hiring company and the candidate. Applying for jobs enabled her to work for Ava Women and now Frontify. There are many ways into tech, and Sibel’s story is just another inspiring and empowering story for women in tech. Roles can be created nowadays and passion can open doors in unexpected ways. Are you looking to switch from academia to an industry job? Then listen to Sibel and her advice on how to switch careers. Connect with Sibel on LinkedIn.
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Mar 21, 2022 • 24min

Tech Inspired with Karina Stump

Meet Karina Stump, who is the Leader Category Management Supermarket at Digitec Galaxus. Previously, she worked for almost a decade in the luxury and fashion industry. There she had various roles from finance to marketing to management. In many of these jobs she had touch points with the tech world. Be it building a cv platform at university or leading a new pricing system at a well-known jewellery company. Despite limited contact with technology when growing up, her practical interest and curiosity in new tools and systems helped her get hands-on with new technologies. Again and again, Karina was able to create safe environments to try out and make experiences to learn about the structure and logic behind systems. She mentions that she is generally not the expert in discussions with IT people. However, she can challenge them because she understands the basics of a technology or system and advancing the discussion with this knowledge. Did you know that Digitec Galaxus offers over 3.5 million products in their online shop? Karina shares some bits about the need for automation, the use of artificial intelligence and marketing. What fascinates her the most about her job is the scale of the whole environment and the agile company culture at a tech company. Additionally, Karina talks in this episode about the future of e-commerce. There might even be the passing mention of the metaverse. On top, she shares why curiosity is her most important skill. Connect with Karina on LinkedIn Learn more about Digitec Galaxus in their company profile.
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Feb 22, 2022 • 23min

Tech Inspired with Maryia Kayser

Meet Maryia Kayser, Head of Software Development at Nexxiot, an IoT company. She studied Physics and Mathematics, then Economics and currently she is working in Software Development. Maryia became a Web Developer by fixing one thing on a website and continued coding the whole website. By chance she got into the Tech industry, but she does not want to change a bit of her journey so far. Maryia’s diverse background helped her navigate the different management and tech related challenges in her jobs. Her hard work paid off in a way that she was presented with opportunities at the right moment in time. Listen to this episode to learn more about her way into Tech and the values she looks for in her team and daily work. This includes recommendations how to figure out, if your new interest is also your passion, and how to approach people and thus grow your network. What Maryia likes about her job is the constant problem solving. Sometimes there is not the one right solution to issues but it is a process of optimisation. Luckily, she works for an IoT company that produces tracking devices to optimise supply chains. Thus, daily problem solving is part of the job. Further, their products are contributing to a more sustainable cargo business by reducing inefficient transports. If problem-solving and sustainability are your  passions too, do not wait and get in touch with Mariya. Connect with Maryia on LinkedIn
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Jan 18, 2022 • 24min

Tech Inspired with Leonie Flueckiger

Meet Leonie Flückiger, co-founder and CTO of Adresta and a former ETH Juniors team member. Leonie grew up in an environment without an immediate connection to the areas of MINT. She never saw herself as very intelligent and was struggling to get into the gymnasium. Soon enough however she discovered her motivation and passion to learn new things that opened up many potential career opportunities. Thanks to the career adviser, she discovered the field of Material Science and started studying it at ETH. During her studies, she got to know the ETH Juniors, a student consultancy of ETH Zurich. Thanks to one of the team members at that time, she landed her first project in the airline industry. Many more followed until she worked on an innovation project for an insurance company. This was the start of her entrepreneurial journey! Listen to this podcast with Leonie, a founder that is fascinated by the many possibilities of tech and her motivation and passion for a career in tech. Learn more about her journey and how she enables the watch and luxury industry to go new ways with technology. And why emotions and personal connections play a vital role in the future of tech! Connect with Leonie on LinkedIn. Amy Cuddy TED Talk - Fake it Till You Make it
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Dec 21, 2021 • 23min

Tech Inspired with Stefany Barker

Meet Stefany Barker, Software Engineer Team Lead and co-founder of many interesting initiatives and organizations. Besides being a co-founder with entrepreneurial skills, she has been an inspiring role model herself for me. Stefany and Priska have meet 5 years ago at a Female Founder event in Zurich and connected on the same experience - being a woman in the male-dominated world of tech! This experience has not only brought them together to strive for more diversity in tech. It was also the start of a supportive friendship. Today, Stefany works at Palantier, a software provider that focuses on analyzing big data. However, Stefany did not choose the path into tech right away. She actually started first studying economics and worked for a bit in the finance industry. It was actually her boss at that time, that recognized her interest in tech! And despite that both her parents were working in tech and did not think of this to be a career path for her! At this point, her path changed and she pivoted into tech. And from then on, she was ready to thrive in tech. Working for a startup, building up her own idea, co-founded Girls in Tech Switzerland, TechFace and WaaS and finally leading a team at Palantir! For Stefany it is very clear, that tech is the future. And so she knows where the most exciting area will be: everything around data! In this podcast, we get to know Stefany up close and personal, she shares with us why she admires the CMO of Netflix, Bozoma Saint Johns and sees her as one of the many female role models she has in life and talks about her most valuable skills (spoiler, these are not tech skills). Want to hear what is the most valuable advice she got and how she is living it? Listen now to this special podcast and learn from one of the biggest advocates for more diversity in tech and inspiring co-founder and role model! Connect with Stefany on LinkedIn Learn more about: Girls in Tech Switzerland WaaS Websites
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Nov 23, 2021 • 23min

Tech Inspired with Nicole Becker

Meet Nicole Becker, who is responsible for marketing, sales and partner management at BSI and embraces live as a mom and wife. She started her career in tech during the dot-com phase after finishing her studies in international economy. In her first job she realised that tech is her passion. However, her interest for tech started much earlier. Born and raised in eastern Germany, accessing a computer wasn't easy. Only by chance her father came into possession of a computer. And his forward thinking mindset allowed her to learn programing at an early stage. In this podcast we learn more about Nicole's career and how important sales is in tech. Nicole had the chance very early in her career to learn this, when she was approached to work for them. Nicole ventured further into the role as a Key Account Manager with a larger provider. Despite being a male-dominated area, she saw that there was a mindshift. People started to see the added value of having mixed teams at the negoiation table. Are you curious to learn more about the role of sales in tech? Want to know what Nicoles recommend to start a career in this area? And what are the skills you need to address the cumstomer needs? Spoiler alert, it is not the tech expertise you will need! Listen to this episode to hear from someone who did not see herself an expert thriving in this industry and what she recommends you to approach a career in tech. Get in touch with Nicole and connect with her on LinkedIn.
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Sep 20, 2021 • 23min

Tech Inspired with Roxanne Derhodge on Authentic Leadership

Meet Roxanne Derhodge, a Forbes Executive Council Member and Resiliency Keynote Speaker. We had the pleasure to invite her to our podcast and talk about authentic leadership. Roxanne has experienced authentic leadership when she was just a kid. She was watching her father leading a corporation looking after their employees first. Impressed by what she saw, she wanted to pursue a career doing exactly this. She wanted to help people to be at their best in what they were doing. Roxanne studied psychology and works today as a coach and consultant for companies, that have realised the importance of authenticity in leadership. We took the chance to talk to her about what it means to be an authentic leader, how one can find an authentic leader and how to become one yourself. Roxanne shares with us, how companies realise, that they need to change. But ever so often, they are not ready. In our talk, she showcase how a leader can change to put their employees at the core of the company. She helps you to understand, how you can become an authentic leader. Want to learn more from what she has experienced as daughter, leader, coach and consultant? Roxanne is the author of the book A Therapist Insider’s Guide on Relationships. The book provides in depth information and exercises for anyone who wants to enhance their relationship with someone else. Download it as eBook here. Her second book, Return on Relationships, is due to be published in Nov 2021. Find out more about Roxanne here or connect with her on LinkedIn. This talk was recorded in preparation of the #wetechtogether conference 2021, where we had the pleasure to invite different leaders talking about leadership. Check out the #wetechtogether conference here.
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Aug 24, 2021 • 17min

Tech Inspired with Petra Donka

Meet Petra Donka, a Software Development Team Lead and Software Engineer at Scandit in Zurich. She is going to be a speaker at the #wetechtogether conference 2021 and will talk about augmented reality solutions for modern enterprises. But before that, she shares with us, why she has switched from English Literature studies to Computer Science. Petra always considered herself as a geek person and had tech in her life since she was a kid. Because of that, she decided to first study literature as she wanted something special. Soon she realised, that tech suited her much more as this was coming more natural to her. Starting her career then at Scandit opened different opportunities for her to try new things. She was curious to learn new technology on the side and could use these skills and expertise at work. Want to know what is her most important advice to find a job, no matter if it is tech or not? Listen to this podcast episode to get the answer!
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Jul 20, 2021 • 32min

Tech Inspired with Claudia Bruce-Quartey

Meet Claudia, a Key Account Manager at Red Hat, the world’s leading  provider of enterprise open source solutions. She never wanted to work  in Tech nor Sales, and this is exactly what she does today! Her dream was to become a doctor, so she absorbed everything that had  to do with doctors. However, over time she realised that she had an  affinity for languages, society, culture and politics. She therefore  studied Political Science in Germany followed by a Masters in Public  Administration in France. Little did she know, that her career will leed her down a different  path. Once she searched for a job, she got approached by recruiter. She  ended up with a System Provider in Switzerland. A complete different  field in a country she almost knew nothing about. But this is Claudia –  she jumped at the opportunity without hesitation! Listen to her full story in this podcast, what she recommends on how  to break into tech and her simple but powerful advice for you! This  podcast not only inspires many women who want to change careers into  tech. This podcast is for everyone who hires in tech as well! Connect with Claudia on LinkedIn

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