Helena Kappen

"Make more female role models with cool jobs visible"

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Make more female role models with cool jobs visible to attract more girls to the tech industry. That's one of the suggestions from Helena Kappen, Business Area Manager for Microsoft 365 and Surface Devices since 2018 and guest in the latest episode of the IT&Telecom companies' podcast Vitecherupp. 

Helena Kappen, 37, says she ended up in the tech industry by chance. After working at the management organization Ledarna and completing a Master of Business Administration in Copenhagen, she was headhunted by Microsoft.

- Now I'm really happy about it, but at the time I didn't know what it meant to work in the tech sector. Through the interviews in the recruitment process, I realized that it seemed really fun, that I could be involved in developing the solutions of the future and work with something that really makes a difference for people in their everyday lives. It opened up a new world for me.

Microsoft, together with Bredband2, CGI and Linköping University, is behind the Young Women and IT survey. It shows, among other things, that the main obstacle that young women see to working in IT is that it does not suit their personality.

- I think it's a bit of an old truth, they don't really know what it means just like it was for me. In the survey, 80 percent said that they lack a female role model in IT and tech and I think that is a big reason why they do not apply for technical education. It is important that we in the industry really highlight and showcase more of what is good and exciting, all the cool jobs and opportunities that exist. We know that children and young people often look up to people who take the lead and are visible, so we need to make more awesome IT women visible.

What would you say to a young person thinking about their career choice?

- Above all, the tech industry is a really fun industry to work in with many opportunities. It's an industry of the future and things are happening all the time, so if you like it, it's perfect. I also find it really motivating to work on projects and things that can affect society and the whole world. It's a lot of fun to go to work every day when you work with talented and motivated people and I think that's common to the whole tech industry.