Tshegofatso Setumo

Step up to the challenge, find your voice

and be bold

I am the mother of two beautiful girls, a business woman, fitness enthusiast and an IT Operations Manager at Oneconnect.

I have been in the IT industry for more than 15 years and started as an intern in analysis and development and pre-sales. I moved to operations and back to analysis and design before becoming an operations team leader.

My career development and journey in this industry has been an extremely challenging one, but equally rewarding. When I came into the world of IT, there were very few women in my organisation and none in management and executive roles. I was mostly assigned a male mentor, which was both a blessing and a curse. Immediately when I was assigned a mentor, my mission was clear, and that was to absorb every ounce of knowledge from them and that part came easily.

However, I found male colleagues were either too helpful to a point where they would do your duties for you, or too neglectful in the hope of reminding you that as a female, your place is not in the boardroom. In some cases, while sitting in meetings, I would be stopped from voicing my opinion by a male colleague saying “I got this”, or I would be assigned to take minutes. What this does in the long run, is to teach women self-doubt, to constantly ask for their work to be reviewed prior to submission and seek validation from others.

The ripple effect of this is that it extends to our children. You cannot teach your children that which you are not. When I started seeing myself in my eldest daughter, I knew change had to happen. I started becoming more vocal, taking on more challenging tasks and I continued to work with the same male colleagues. Although it was uncomfortable at first, the “dudes” started to see me as their equal because I started to treat myself as their equal.

So ladies, yes, IT is still a male-dominated industry and we are changing this daily. It is at Oneconnect where I was given limitless opportunities of growth, irrespective of my gender. Opportunities are limitless, but highly contested. Get up and grab yours!