Women in tech finding their voices

 Created by VERCIDA for Sage

 

Sage’s Clare Dixon and Ratika Agrawal overcame their shared fear of public speaking when they took to the stage at a major industry event.

Tell us about your roles with Sage.

Clare: I started with Sage 10 years ago. My first job was a customer support technician for a payroll product and then I moved into technical support for a cloud-based solution. This got me interested in cloud operations, so I did a bit of shadowing and self-learning before moving to the graduate scheme in 2020. I completed that in 2022 and became a team leader. It has been quite a long journey, but a very happy one.

Ratika: It will be five years with Sage for me in August. Like Clare, I have worked in different teams, starting as a live service specialist in 2019. Now, I’m a senior cloud operations engineer. I’ve always looked after automation development and cloud infrastructure management. Now, I’m moving more towards data and the new world of AI, with the opportunity to learn more about these areas.

You both spoke on the Reframe Community Empowerment Stage at the Women in Technology conference in Manchester. How did this come about?

Clare: It was quite random – I was checking my emails and I saw something from Sage’s news site. One of our colleagues posted there that they were looking for speakers for an event. At the time, I’d just moved into a development role for leadership. I’d been struggling with my public speaking, getting nervous in big meetings and feeling like I wasn’t always able to say what I wanted to say, so I thought I’d apply to be a speaker. It was a good opportunity to address my fear. I’d forgotten about my application, but then I got a message to say I’d been accepted.

Ratika: A director at Sage told me about the speaking opportunity. I had some stage fright, I was afraid and it took me a long time to decide on a topic, but I ended up talking about my life’s journey. I’m from India and I always thought I would join the medical profession, but that didn’t quite happen. I travelled to different places – I came to London, I went to Malta, I came back to London – so I talked about my journey and the significant roles different people played in my life and how they encouraged me.

Clare: I talked about my journey into tech from the very beginning. When I was at school, I didn’t really know what I wanted to do in life. At university, I studied forensic biology, which is quite unrelated to what I do now. I spent a lot of time trying to decide what I wanted to do, so I talked about that and how my current career came to be.

What was it like being on stage in front of so many people?

Clare: The Community Empowerment Stage is for first-time speakers, so there are plenty of people supporting you and cheering you on. It was quite comforting to be in a room with people who were going through the same thing I was. At first, I felt really shaky, standing there with my notes, but towards the end, I got more comfortable, especially when I could see people from Sage in the audience smiling at me.

Ratika: I was so frightened, I didn’t hear my name get called out, but when I got on stage, I focused on the front row where I could see Clare and lots of other familiar faces. I’d been practising my speech all morning with these people. It’s only a five-minute talk, but it feels longer and I was very nervous, but by the end, I was feeling OK.

Did you get good feedback after you spoke at the event?

Clare: Ratika sent me a video of my speech and I still haven’t watched it because I’m very critical of myself. But I did it, I conquered it and now I want to move forward. As soon as we came off stage, everyone from Sage congratulated us. It was great to get that feedback – and I think that if I had to do it again, I would be less nervous.

Ratika: I told myself that even if my speech wasn’t very good, I would just be happy that I had the courage to go on stage and talk. But I got good, positive feedback from my team. I passed that barrier and I was able to go on stage. I haven’t watched my video either, but I sent it to my family and friends, who all told me I should watch it.

What have been the long-term benefits of overcoming the fear of public speaking?

Clare: I had been losing sleep over giving my speech, but professionally, it has given me more courage to put myself in these situations. Since then, I have done a presentation at Durham University to graduates who will potentially be working for Sage. It didn’t phase me too much and I was a lot more comfortable. I hope I can keep growing from there and owning that skill.

Ratika: I’m glad I took the opportunity because I feel more confident. It’s good to push yourself to take on things where you might not feel so comfortable at first. If another speaking opportunity comes along, I will definitely take it. If you don’t do it, the fear will come back. Of course, there will always be fear, but the difference is in how you handle it.