How technology helped me build a career and raise my child with Sickle Cell

It was Day 3 on ward T11 at the University College London Hospital. My son lay sleeping, attached to an IV – a PCA unit that allows patients to receive opioids intravenously on demand, within set parameters, via a dedicated pump. While he rested, I was logged on to my digital workspace completing a document for a client bid. This is our normal. My son has Sickle Cell Anemia, which is a genetic blood condition.

He was diagnosed when he was two weeks old, and we have spent all his eight years living with the reality of the condition, which manifests in episodes of intense pain. Research into the condition is vastly underfunded, and we even started a charity to help with the search for positive health options.

Working in technology has enabled me to juggle work and my personal commitments in ways that I would have struggled with in many other industries. All the companies I have worked for during that time have provided employees with Citrix Workspace.

I fell into tech 18 years ago, and it was the best unplanned move I could have made. It has been fast paced, and no year has been the same because the innovation is constant. Working in technology has empowered me to fulfill my role as a mother and keep my career on track. I began my journey in technology working for a Citrix reseller, helping organizations ensure their employees had access to the data and line-of-business apps they needed, from anywhere. My message? Any, any, any – any location, any device, any person.

I was fortunate to be in an industry where remote and mobile working was widely accepted. After all, work is what you do, not where you are. You don’t have to be physically present at a desk in an office to be productive. As the mother of a child with a long-term health challenge, this was vital because it meant I could cater to the needs of my child whilst maintaining my career.

The COVID-19 pandemic has pushed organizations everywhere to ensure they have a strategy for mobility and business continuity. Our work at Citrix is now more important than ever, and I’m excited about what we do every day and how it helps organizations and real people like me, who are managing personal commitments while building a career. Unfortunately, only one in six tech specialists in the UK are women and only one in 10 IT leaders are women. Worse still, despite significant growth in the number of women working in IT roles, female representation in the technology sector has stalled over the last 10 years, research reveals. And in the U.S., women make up nearly half the workforce but hold only about a quarter of all computing roles.

It doesn’t have to be that way. I fell into technology nearly 20 years ago. In 2019, I joined Citrix as an Alliance Account Partner Manager because I love the Citrix brand and potential to transform the workspace. It has been a challenging and rewarding experience in so many ways. I would encourage more women to consider technology and more leaders to seek out and nurture the amazing talent that, for too long, has been overlooked and underrepresented in the field.It was Day 3 on ward T11 at the University College London Hospital. My son lay sleeping, attached to an IV – a PCA unit that allows patients to receive opioids intravenously on demand, within set parameters, via a dedicated pump. While he rested, I was logged on to my digital workspace completing a document for a client bid.

This is our normal. My son has Sickle Cell Anemia, which is a genetic blood condition. He was diagnosed when he was two weeks old, and we have spent all his eight years living with the reality of the condition, which manifests in episodes of intense pain. Research into the condition is vastly underfunded, and we even started a charity to help with the search for positive health options. Working in technology has enabled me to juggle work and my personal commitments in ways that I would have struggled with in many other industries. All the companies I have worked for during that time have provided employees with Citrix Workspace. I fell into tech 18 years ago, and it was the best unplanned move I could have made. It has been fast-paced, and no year has been the same because innovation is constant.

Working in technology has empowered me to fulfil my role as a mother and keep my career on track. I began my journey in technology working for a Citrix reseller, helping organizations ensure their employees had access to the data and line-of-business apps they needed, from anywhere. My message? Any, any, any – any location, any device, any person. I was fortunate to be in an industry where remote and mobile working was widely accepted. After all, work is what you do, not where you are. You don’t have to be physically present at a desk in an office to be productive. As the mother of a child with a long-term health challenge, this was vital because it meant I could cater to my child’s needs whilst maintaining my career.

The COVID-19 pandemic has pushed organizations everywhere to ensure they have a strategy for mobility and business continuity. Our work at Citrix is now more important than ever, and I’m excited about what we do every day and how it helps organizations and real people like me, who are managing personal commitments while building a career. Unfortunately, only one in six tech specialists in the UK are women and only one in 10 IT leaders are women. Worse still, despite significant growth in the number of women in IT roles, female representation in the technology sector has stalled over the last 10 years, research reveals. And in the U.S., women make up nearly half the workforce but hold only about a quarter of all computing roles. It doesn’t have to be that way.

I fell into technology nearly 20 years ago. In 2019, I joined Citrix as an Alliance Account Partner Manager because I love the Citrix brand and its potential to transform the workspace. It has been a challenging and rewarding experience in so many ways. I would encourage more women to consider technology and more leaders to seek out and nurture the amazing talent that, for too long, has been overlooked and underrepresented in the field.