Criseida Rico is the founder of WhatSheTechs, a website and platform dedicated to uniting women who work in technology, an infamously male-dominated field. But Criseida, a first generation Mexican-American, never meant to work in the technology field. In fact, she got her bachelor’s degree in marketing and management. Years ago she was fired from a job and turned what could have been a defeating moment into a defining moment. From this experience she found her passion for working in technology. Now, she wants to introduce women everywhere to the possibilities of the tech world and empower them while, hopefully, befriending and learning from other women too. Think you don’t have what it takes to make it in tech? To that, Criseida says, “Everyone is a technologist. Everyone knows how to use a computer and a phone.”
Interview edited for brevity and clarity.
Where did you come up with the idea for WhatSheTechs?
I was working at a start-up four or five years ago where I was one of only two females on the team. Ironically enough, we worked in the classic car industry. We built proprietary software for classic car dealers, so that was a very male dominated field. I was having my doubts working with leadership, voicing my opinions, giving my ideas, and I wasn’t really listened to. I tried to find my own community online because I thought, ‘If I’m going through these types of things at work there must be other women that are going through the same.’ But I couldn’t find anything online that resonated with me. I was sure there was a need for this if I needed it, and that’s where the idea came from. I launched it without even giving it a name. It was more that I just wanted to find other women that were going through the same thing and find that camaraderie. I’m glad that I did because it’s opened up a lot of doors and conversations with other women and is really bringing attention to women and tech in general.
Do you work with a team of women? How do you organize everything with your full-time job as well?
Surprisingly, I am the only person right now. I’ve thought about the idea of bringing on additional people, but I’m also a big believer that no one should work for free. So, I won’t until I’m able to provide some kind of payment for other people to work on the team. As much as I really want to ask people to come work for me, to do it for internship credit, I’ve been in those shoes and it’s not the greatest feeling. Especially now, with everything that’s going on, asking people to work for free just isn’t up my alley. I’ve been thankful that I’ve been able to manage and balance having my full-time job and run the site at the same time.
Do you feel like your experience working in technology, as a woman of color, has been noteworthy or different from other women that you know?
Yes. It’s something that I reflect on because, obviously, I’m still heavily in the industry. Being raised here all my life, it’s one of those things where your identity comes into play every now and then in the workplace. Especially when I go to conferences, or if I’m in a meeting room with leadership, you tend to look around and see that, wow, no one here looks like me. One, no one here is a woman. Two, maybe there are other women, but they’re not like me, not Latina. Whenever there is another Latina in my presence in the workplace I get super excited. I live in the south, so I get ‘the look’ sometimes when they find out I’m Mexican-American. They ask if I speak Spanish and tell me I don’t look Mexican. I’m so used to it, and other people laugh, but sometimes I take a step back and wonder if I should be offended. Maybe it’s because this has been my upbringing my whole life. I’ve been around so many people knowing that I’m the minority, and I’ve been okay with it. If you want to bring up skin color, there are other women who struggle because of their skin color and they look more Latina than me. Sometimes I struggle with that balance because I feel guilty that I’m taking someone’s seat. But, at the same time, I know that I’m pushing boundaries and putting us in a very positive light. That’s my long-term goal, and I hope that’s something I continue doing.
Who inspires you in what you do?
I think it’s my family. My parents were both born and raised in Mexico. My dad never finished high school. My mom is a certified accountant and finished college but she can’t practice what she learned in Mexico. To practice that in the U.S.A. you have to go through rigorous testing. Everything that I do, I always have them in the back of my mind. I’m making my stamp in the world for them and all the hard work that they have done for my siblings and I. I hope that down the line they can be proud that their daughter made a statement in a world that’s very different than what they were used to when they were young.
You have a lot of informative articles on your website. How do you decide what topics to tackle?
I find other women that I think would be a great voice for WhatSheTechs. The website is part community, part platform to bring more awareness of women in technology. It doesn’t have to be someone who knows how to code, but because technology has so many different facets in the industry, I look for women who are representative of the avenue that we’re looking to take. We curate our questions according to how technology has either impacted them in their career or in the business that they have developed. From there we hope that other women will be inspired and learn that you don’t have to be a computer science nerd or have studied computer science in school to make an impact in the technology industry. I always use myself as an example. I have a bachelor’s degree in marketing and management. Never did I know that I would use it in the technology world, but I did by accident, and I’m very happy that I’m in this industry.
What advice would you give to women who work in other fields, or have no background in tech, but want to get started?
What I like to tell people is to not be intimidated. There is a place for everyone in each industry. If you’re a nurse, you can go into healthcare tech. If you work in aerospace engineering, there’s a place for you there. Do you work in restaurants? Great, there are technology companies that make software specifically for restaurant companies. There are so many avenues and I think educating people on the different types of careers you can have will really open people’s eyes and make it less intimidating. I think when people think ‘technology’ they immediately think you’re an engineer or that you know how to code. I like to tell people, ‘Look, I work in technology, I’m the face and founder of WhatSheTechs, and I’m not an engineer and I don’t know how to code. So if I can do it, you can too.’ I’m just your average, normal girl that’s just trying to make an impact. I’m showing you that you can do it too.
Have you gotten any feedback from women who have found inspiration through WhatSheTechs?
I have. When I first started it was a quiet launch. When I started reaching out to women to interview, I heard other women saying things like, ‘that is the most amazing thing, no one’s really doing that,’ because, when you think about it, this was four or five years ago. Now there are more organizations that are trying to do the same thing. We are always getting messages from people all around the world saying, ‘I’m so glad I found you guys, you have an amazing concept.’ What we try to do is have an informative article, but also keep it fun and light with whatever’s currently going on in the day or with memes. We try to make it educational, but also fun and accessible, and I think that’s the perfect formula for people to learn more about WhatSheTech is. I’ve gotten rave reviews from people saying things like, ‘this is something that is really needed, thank you for starting this.’
What do you feel is the best part of being a woman in technology?
The breaking barriers part; I hate clichés so much, but it’s so true. In the eight years that I’ve been in the technology space I’ve been able to prove to men that not all women are the same. Men in general have this stigma about women in the workplace, that maybe they’re not smart enough or that their place is being the secretary. At one of my past companies, for some reason, I was always the dedicated person who ordered pizza. Why should I order the pizza for the company? That’s not my job. It’s this stigma that’s been ingrained in men that women do so much in the workplace that they can’t be engineers or leaders in a company. It’s being able to change that mindset and hope that, in the few years I’ve been in this space, I’ve been able to shift that a little and allow for other women to come in and continue the motion of what I’ve started.
What do you have in store for the future of WhatSheTechs?
There’s an idea I came up with a few days ago. I don’t want to give too many details about it, but it’s going to be a virtual series I want to launch this summer. It’s a way for women around the world to have access to one another and bring light to how women in those areas are making an impact in their technology fields. I’ve been hearing lately about ‘Zoom fatigue,’ people getting tired of doing things online. But I think this is the direction we’ll be in for the next few months around the world. You have to do what you can and pivot where you have to, and I think this is something that will resonate with a lot of women who want to learn more and make new friends across the globe. That’s something I’ve always wanted to do and I know other women who feel the same.
What was your journey to working in technology like?
A few years ago I was living in New York City and I was let go from my job. It happened so fast and I came out of the building in complete shock. The first phone call I made was to my mom and I just burst into tears in the middle of the street. So I had mascara running down, a million different thoughts were going through my head, like, how was I going to pay rent? But that situation ended up being a blessing in disguise. That opportunity allowed me to seek out more jobs and really reflect on what I wanted to do. Ultimately, I landed a new job at an advertising agency, which is something I had always wanted to experiment with. I was brand new, and one of the younger associates on the team, and they gave me big roles and responsibilities. One of my biggest accounts was a company called BlueJeans, and I made the mistake of thinking it must be a denim company. The first time I was going to have a conference call with BlueJeans I happened to look them up ten minutes before the meeting. I realized, oh my god, this isn’t denim at all, this is a software company. They do video conferencing, and I know nothing about software or video conferencing software, and I had a mini panic attack. Somehow I got through the initial call. Working with them over the next month or two I started to develop an interest in software. I had never looked into working for a software company and what they do. That’s what ignited the passion to learn about the technology industry because that was my first taste of the industry. I used to feel like it was an industry that was very taboo, like ‘you don’t belong there, you’re not smart enough.’ Working with that one client changed everything for me. I thank them for doing that because that was the really pivotal moment for me. For me it was accidental, but it ended up being the most wonderful thing that could have happened to me.