Juliet Fang
Northwest Asia Weekly
Ting-Yi enjoys hiking in Washington. (Photo provided by Ding Yi)
March is Women’s History Month in the United States, a month dedicated to honoring and celebrating women who have played an important role in American history. An equally important component of this month is empowering today’s women to continue to succeed in every field.
One woman currently working at the forefront of the STEM field is Ting-Yi Liu, a first-generation Taiwanese immigrant who is currently a junior software engineer at Google. Her team’s many responsibilities include providing trusted data encryption, security, and protection for Google’s users.
“It’s challenging, but definitely very exciting,” she said of her work.
While Ting Yi made it to the big stage by working for Google, it was a long road to get a chance in the first place. In Taiwan, she majored in chemistry and pharmaceutical sciences and worked in biotechnology for eight years before moving to the US in 2018 to pursue more opportunities. She became interested in coding in the United States.
“I took some online coding classes myself and found it really fun,” she said. “I wanted to learn more, and I joined the Ada Developers Academy in Seattle, which taught me the skills I needed to be a full-stack engineer.”
According to the organization’s website, Ada Developers Academy is a Seattle-based “non-profit, free coding school for women and adults of a wide range of genders.”
They offer 6-month coding courses and 5-month internships to help minorities like Ting-Yi succeed in the tech industry.
“I love the Ada Developers coding program,” Ting-Yi said. “As a new immigrant to the U.S., I didn’t even have the contacts or network resources to start. Plus, I had language barriers. Becoming a member of Ada set me up for a job at Google.”
Despite programs like the Ada Developers Academy, women are vastly underrepresented in STEM. According to the 2020 U.S. Census, women make up nearly half of the U.S. workforce, yet only 27% are employed in STEM. This difference is most prominent in Ding Yi’s computer science and engineering fields. Only about 20 percent of women working in STEM are computer workers, while 10 percent are engineers. These are the statistics Ding Yi wants to see.
“Having a broad range of gender, ethnic and cultural backgrounds promotes growth and productivity. It’s good for the industry as a whole. But I think there are broad societal benefits as well. For example, being able to see women succeed in STEM fields is a great asset for the industry. women provide a role model to help them navigate the field and make it more approachable.”
Increasing workplace diversity is a win-win situation that benefits both business and consumers. Even so, Ting-Yi’s road to Google as a woman in STEM has not been smooth sailing. While she feels very supportive of her Taiwanese community, she often feels cultural expectations to behave in a certain way.
“Growing up in Taiwan, I felt the pressure to ‘be a good person’. Smile and do my job as perfectly as possible. In America, I had to understand that it’s perfectly okay to ask for help and that my time is as precious as anyone else’s of.”
“At Google, I really feel that the company values the learning process and will meet you right where you are. Here, I have the opportunity to think more for myself and use my ideas for the benefit of my team.”
One of the factors that Ting-Yi believes helped her overcome cultural limitations was reading Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise by authors Anders Ericsson and Robert Pool. The book argues that everyone has the potential to succeed, and that excellence itself depends on focusing on “a careful set of achievable practices.” These thoughts made Tingyi think she could become an engineer or embrace “any type of expertise.”
Going forward, Ting-Yi hopes the tech industry will embrace the inclusive culture she admires at the Ada Developers Program and at Google.
“We need to continue to encourage other women, gender broad and underrepresented groups, to have more confidence in their passions and ambitions,” she said firmly. “For those of you who are considering entering or are currently entering the tech industry, don’t let anyone tell you you can’t be good at something.”
Juliet can reach info@nwasianweekly.com.
