We recently connected with Saralee Kunlong and have shared our conversation below.

Saralee, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Any advice for creating a more inclusive workplace?

I’ve been in the software/tech industry for 15+ years. During my undergrad, there were only 12 women in a class of 50+ students, which means we did not even make up half of the class. The ratio was still similar during my master degree and I was one of the only 2 women in the team at my first job, and the only woman at my second job. Even though there was effort from companies to recruit more women, it mostly ended once an applicant joined the company, Many women did not find the industry friendly or welcoming because of the tech-bros atmosphere/environment most companies had, and also sometimes lack of support from their peers. I’d learned that the best way to make a difference is to start with oneself. I’d joined a women initiative group during my post grad study, and found that having a space where we could gain support from people in similar situation and interest was very powerful. There was a sense of solidarity and there was a safe space offered to those who wanted their voices heard, which led to me starting a women in tech initiative at my second job. I first asked around to gauge interest of the initiative, and received great feedbacks and interests, we then collectively as a group, started a business plan, secured funding and planned events such as panels, workshops, classes, aimed to create an inclusive environment, educate and empower women in the tech workspace. If we want something we have to make our voices heard and we have to demand it, and we are better strengthened and supported by the people that are going through the same experience as us, together our voices are better heard. If we want more women in the tech industry especially women of color, then we need to advocate for it, we need to demand recruiters put effort into finding more qualified female candidates, for example, I’d achieved this myself by getting our recruiting team to partner with USC for a recruiting event. I’d also given workshops at Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing conference, Women in Cyber Security conference and volunteered for GirlsWhoCode and TechBridge, I feel that it is my duty to advocate for women and women of color in the tech industry, and also empower the new generations to pass that along to others, especially now that I am in a place that I am able to, because I truly believe that to create change, one has to start by being the change and making one voice’s heard.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’m a child of a UN worker and an educator, who fortunately for me, always believe their child could accomplish anything she wanted to. My dad taught electrical engineering and was working with computer when it was pretty much just a mainframe, and so we were one of the first houses to have a personal computer with internet back in the days, I found the world wide web fascinating, coupled that with the fact that we have a lot of engineers in my family so it never seemed too far out of reach to me even though all of the engineers in my family before me were men. My dad never treated me differently because of my gender, in fact I would say, I might even be treated harsher than the boys in my family, so it never occurred to me that engineering would not be an option for my career. The tech world moves at a very fast speed and therefore my job descriptions had changed many times over the years, but the core service I provide mostly remain the same which is the solution to customers’ needs i.e. an application that allows customer to achieve their goals. I think what sets me apart is that I have substantial experience in different fields of computer engineering, I have experience in networking & systems administration, consulting, data analysis and software development, so I can offer perspectives from different areas. Also I am passionate in providing solutions that are accessible and user-friendly to everybody, I always aim to provide a solution that my mother- who’s a complete tech novice, and a tech savvy person both find easy to navigate. I believe that technology is supposed to and should be designed to make a person’s life easier and not harder.

I’m most proud when my work is being used by the consumers/people and they find the products that I build helpful to them at least in some way. I’m also proud of being an advocate for women and women of color in tech and continuously doing my part in creating more inclusive space in the tech industry and encouraging more women to follow their career dreams.

As for my travel blog/account, It’s always been my dream and passion to see the world and learn about different cultures, however I did not start documenting until I realized that a lot of people especially women had the same interest/passion as mine for travel but were afraid to take the first step as there were concerns about the logistics, safety, societal judgements etc. I wanted to show them that it could be easy and encourage them to follow their passion as well as providing planning and safety tips. I’m the most proud/fulfilled when I had people telling me that they started traveling/booking trips because they saw that I did it and felt that they could do it to, I do not make any profits out of it, if I encourage even just one person to get out of their shell/comfort zone and fulfill their dreams then I am happy.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I graduated high school as one of the top 3 students in class, however my first year in college was rough. It was a big fish in a small pond going to – small fish in a big pond moment. Turned out I was probably the only one in class at the time who did not already know at least one coding language, I’d completely and foolishly thought we were all going to learn together in college. Everyone was smart and were also the top of their high school classes and I felt very inadequate, the class materials were also much harder. Grad school was the same but worse, and much more competitive. There were times I wanted to give up, times I considered changing major, but through it all I never did give up. I always did my best to push through and that had taught me that I am going to be able to get through anything, I’d seen a lot of smart people quit as well and so I personally believe that at the end of the day, the person left standing is not necessarily the smartest person but the most resilient person who is determined to make it through. This experience’s also helped me throughout my career because the tech industry is a very fast paced industry and therefore I have to learn and pick up and adapt to many new or unexpected things all the time.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

The tech industry moves at a break neck speed so to keep up with it and be a good engineer, you have to learn and unlearn things all the time. What was the best way to do things 6 months ago is no longer the best now. The tech industry is all about adapting and if you don’t adapt, you will definitely get left behind and therefore it is constantly on my mind that I know everything and nothing at the same time because what I know now could be obsolete in 3 months and then I may have to learn a completely new technology that I have absolutely no experience in from scratch. It is not advised to stay attached to certain ideologies or methods in the tech industry as it’s always changing so it’s best to stay agile and ready to adapt to anything thrown at you.

Contact Info:

• Website: technicallysaralee.com
• Instagram: @whereintheworldissaralee
• Other: @technicallysaralee for instagram tech account