Meet the Software Engineer Aysha Marty

Did I want to work in the Foreign Office or become a translator? I guess those are pretty much the main options when you come out of university having studied Arabic and Persian languages. There isn’t a huge amount else, and while both are cool options, and there was the lure of continuing with languages having grown up in a multilingual household, I knew I wanted to explore other options. But what?

I purposely kept my options open initially, spending a relatively long time exploring my options before committing to a career path because I couldn’t find anything that felt quite right. I started looking for something that would suit my personality, my skill set and my interests.

For example, I’d completed a Maths, Operational Research, Statistics, and Economics (MORSE) degree prior to my Arabic and Persian degree. This led me to a few different grad schemes which caught my eye, but none were as appealing as BAE Systems’ National Security Academy. It was a 16-week paid training programme, offering the opportunity to learn the fundamentals of software engineering, even if you didn’t have a background in tech.

Sense of accomplishment

I joined the programme almost four years ago now, back in 2019, and it was certainly the right choice. I think it was almost a good thing to come out of university without a clear traditional career roadmap in mind. I simply had an interest in tech, had been teaching myself a little bit of coding here and there, and suddenly had this opportunity to improve my skills rather than just my knowledge and academic credentials.

The position called for the right attitude, an aptitude to learn, and a willingness to adapt to new opportunities and fresh skills. I completed multiple assessments during the 16-week programme, but at no point were they looking for the perfect piece of code. It was all about assessing whether I was approaching the tasks, and the work more generally, in the right way.

Of course, having a STEM degree would help, but it was never a prerequisite to pass the course. Expectations were realistic, the support was absolutely there, and I actually think the beauty of it came from the diverse range of backgrounds the course brought together in its students.

You’d start every week assuming you couldn’t do something, being introduced to new things, and wondering how on earth you’d figure it out. And then at the end of the week you’d be writing working code in the new technology, with a huge sense of accomplishment.

A healthy dose of imposter syndrome

Since the programme, I’ve received enormous exposure to different systems, coding languages, architectures, projects, and, crucially, people. As with any form of engineering I am always learning on the job in some respects, and technologies, languages, practices, and personalities constantly evolve and we need to keep up. But, the skills that get me through each task remain those that got me the role in the first place. My curiosity, willingness to learn, problem solving abilities, and - actually - a healthy dose of imposter syndrome which encourages me to keep improving.

Of course, having a greater foundation in technology or science may have helped initially, but ultimately it’s about continuously applying knowledge and skills to help clients solve issues and add value and capability – which anyone can work towards.

More to learn

That imposter syndrome hasn’t necessarily derived from being a woman in the sector, however. I think I’ve been fortunate that every role I’ve held since university has been with BAE Systems. I entered a team where the gender balance was surprisingly good, and my immediate line managers and mentors were female. That stigma was taken away very quickly for me personally, but I do realise how unusual that is more generally within the sector.

I presumed I would be outnumbered in that respect, but that also didn’t really bother me. Which I guess can be put down to the way my entrance route to BAE Systems was advertised and recruited for. It didn’t trigger a thought of the role being more suitable to men, or coders or techies. It focused much more on the skills and characteristics that any person from any background could have.

If the company was only pulling from a pool of computer scientist graduates, for example, that pool would be skewed more towards male students, I imagine. But the diversity of their search ensured that imbalance was sidestepped.

The upskilling continues

It makes sense really, to try and encourage greater diversity, as it also encourages diversity of thought when it comes to problem solving. Different perspectives, different outlooks, different trials on the way to where they are now.

Where I’m going from here is still undecided, but the upskilling continues as it has since day one, only now I’m helping upskill others as well as myself, being one of the more senior engineers on my team. I’m helping to bring together communities across BAE Systems and our clients. Technical software engineering leadership seems a long way from Middle Eastern languages but connecting people together and solving problems has as much relevance and impact for me now as it ever did.