Tech Company in Cary Helps Companies While Giving Women a Foot in the Door
Cary, NC – This Dot opened its consultancy and tech lab in Cary earlier this year, focusing on how local businesses can use new technology to best organize their workplace while also creating more opportunities for women in development.
Helping Local Companies Work
CEO Tracey Lee says This Dot, located on Cornerstone Drive in Cary, can help companies with their digital information transfer, JavaScript, framework development and more.
“We can be for a small company or we can be for a company as big as MetLife,” Lee said.
But in working with companies and clients, Lee said it is just as much about the human aspect of the workplace as it is learning new tools and technologies.
“As we work with our clients, we try to educate them on how to run their teams better. We ask, what should the senior developer’s role look like. How do you make new practices sustainable?” Lee said. “Business is always pushing you in one way or another, but to make your team sustainable and to keep your employees, you need to set up the right framework.”
Lee also said This Dot is helping get more women into positions as developers, both through apprenticeships and mentoring but also through a pipeline to client companies.
“Companies that work with us hire a junior and senior developer at the same time, which provides a pipeline to hire diverse developers,” Lee said. “After six months, they can take the training wheels off and see what that junior developer can do.”
Obstacles to Women in Tech
Lee said right now, there are relatively few female developers in tech companies and there are few structures in place to balance that out.
“A lot of the excuses you hear are ‘There’s not enough time to train them,’ or ‘We can’t mentor them now.’ In essence, that’s not the case,” Lee said. “It comes down to not building a good framework around their team. That’s where our senior developers come in.”
Lee did say that there are tech bootcamps that are becoming more and more popular and they tend to see more women participate. For example, Lee said university recruiting for developers may be 15 percent female, while bootcamps are around 43 percent female.
“We’ve partnered with over 50 bootcamps,” Lee said.
This Dot is located at 92 Cornerstone Dr., Suite #213, in Cary.
Story by Michael Papich. Photos by Mary Cullen and This Dot.
