Inspiring Woman of the Month

Elina Ashimbayeva

Experience Designer at Auckland DHB & Co-founder of Storyo

Tell us about yourself, and your journey in tech/STEM.

I’m from Kazakhstan, I came to New Zealand to study Biomedical Sciences, with the view that being a Doctor and being in science was the only way to contribute back to the world - I guess when you’re younger you have a very different perspective of what jobs are available, and what ways you can express yourself. After studying Biomedical Science, I worked in cancer and immunology research for a year and a half. I realised then that there were a whole bunch of other ways to contribute to the world. Actually, it was really funny, I didn’t know anything about computers at the time, I was very much in science with a little bit of a creative side, but I didn’t really know anything about technology. During my lab work I would have breaks between my experiments, and I would just go scroll on Instagram in between, which was a bit of a waste of time. My friend sent me a super discounted web development course. So then, in the lab I would do an experiment, and in the 15 minutes I had to wait I would get the computer out and watch web development courses. That really opened my eyes to all the cool ways that you can support society through other ways that were not just science. Even though I never pursued the development route, I went to work in strategy health consultancy, ended up in product management and user research for tech companies and government.

Read the full interview here!

Update on She Sharp

This month we held our last event of the year, Women in Data and Analytics on Zoom. This was a great event to end the year - we had an informative workshop from Leila Etaati on Microsoft Power BI, and then heard from Indira Bandari, Owen Auger and Sudhir Rawat in an informative panel discussion. Photos from the event are on our website.

We’re Recruiting!

Our She Sharp whānau is currently looking to expand. If you’re interested in joining us on our mission to bridge the gender gap in STEM in Aotearoa, we want to hear from you!
Simply visit shesharp.org.nz/get-involved to submit your expression of interest. Please don’t hesitate to contact us at info@shesharp.org.nz for more information or if you have any queries. We look forward to hearing from you!

Women in AI Australasian Awards

We are looking to identify and celebrate our Aotearoa NZ wāhine/women working in AI and we need your help. We want you to look across your peers and nominate or to apply yourself so that we can put you into our Australasian Women in AI awards.

In 2022 the awards recognise women in AI across 14 categories - AI in Health, Mining, Law, Finance, Agribusiness, Cyber Security, Education, Defence and Intelligence, Infrastructure, Manufacturing, Creative Industries, Sport, Climate and Innovation. These women can be researching, working, leading, or innovating in AI in a University, Industry, Government, Research Institute, Startup, or NGO.
As one of the advisors of the 2022 Australasian Women in AI awards event, we want to elevate Aotearoa NZ and recognise the amazing wāhine/women just doing AI.
If you know someone you can nominate or if you want to apply yourself please apply here https://www.womeninai.co/waiawards2022aus-nz

You should also know we have a great team here in Aotearoa NZ sitting on the advisory board or judging panel who are here to support you through the nomination or application process. Please feel free to reach out to us on LinkedIn for any support with your applications. Applications are now open until 10th January!!

Our sponsors

A message from Flexware: Flexware is Hiring!

FlexWare is hiring! Are you early in your career and keen to be part of a values-driven engineering consultancy where the opportunities are endless? FlexWare is the place for you! We are looking for a graduate or junior high-level software engineer to join our growing team! If you have a knowledge of fundamental object-oriented design principles and are familiar with high-level software languages, then apply now!! We, at FlexWare, pride ourselves with creating a supportive and varied workplace which empowers our employees to balance both work and life commitments. We have a number of initiatives aimed at making life for all our staff as stress-free as possible. Keen to learn more? Check out our website (https://flexware.co.nz/careers/#Junior_SWE) for more details and all our other vacancies!