“I try to be part of the solution”

Arnaud Pichery, VP Engineering at Dataiku, is a mix between an engineer coming from the traditional French educational system and a self-taught person. He developed computer programs in his childhood and always studied with the idea to work in software development. Now with a successful career, he also tries to do his part in changing the industry.

Trust the personality more than academic achievements

After 17 years working for the same company, I was appealed by the product and the culture of Dataiku, an organization where I wouldn’t need a lot of paperwork and energy for changing little things. And, although small in size at the time, Dataiku was growing fast. 

As a VP Engineering, most of my job requires me to grow and manage a team. At Dataiku, we don’t take academic achievements as a first step for hiring people. One of the first Account Executives who was hired in Paris used to be an opera singer. She wasn’t really the archetype of a salesperson but she rapidly gained the trust of our clients as they had the feeling she was trying to help them rather than just selling them a software. It’s a good example of Dataiku’s international and open mindset, with French founders and headquarters in NYC, in which we always take the good parts of both cultures. For instance, we prefer to trust someone based on their personality. 

Life is a balance

I regularly attend the events organized by Duchess France and I like their approach. Their goal is to put the spotlight on female software engineers. They also encourage women to negotiate their salary when they change jobs, ask for raises and promotions. If we want to reach equal compensation, I think we need women to ask as often as men do. Inside Dataiku, we have just launched an employee-led Diversity Equity Advisory council that I am part of. Our goal is to work on improving internal processes along with the executive team. On top of that, we train managers on unconscious bias, because even if we think what we do is right, we still have a lot of bias.

Software engineer is also a great job for women

However, I am still skeptical about the little progress made in the industry on the gender-parity front. There are only 15% of women working in IT. We need a larger pool of women candidates. We should encourage them early to take the path of STEM. The number of women studying in engineering or tech hasn’t really improved in almost 10 years.

I think the solution lies in convincing the girls before they apply for college. For that purpose, I talk to teenagers in schools and introduce the job of a software engineer. The fact that I can work remotely whenever I want, that I can adjust my working hours as I want is really appealing. Teenagers don’t want the rigidity of a schedule. They are very surprised to see it can also be a great job for women. This is how I try to be part of the solution.“I try to be part of the solution”