Tip 1. Find Community, Not Roles

‘Your career is really going to be shaped by the rooms that you find yourself in’ Lorraine explains.

The teams you sit within, the peers you learn from, the mentors who challenge you - they influence how you see yourself. And how you see yourself impacts everything in your tech career including your confidence and your ambition.

Instead of chasing titles, Lorraine advises finding the right rooms. The right energy. The right people who you can learn from. Because the right community will grow you faster than the right job title ever could.

 Tip 2. You Don’t Have to Be Ready

This one, Lorraine says, is particularly important for women.

“So many of us wait until we feel 100% ready. We wait and wait and wait!”

But growth doesn’t happen once you feel ready and opportunities rarely arrive at the perfect moment. You might not tick every box. You might not feel like the obvious candidate but go for it anyway.

Waiting for complete confidence can mean waiting forever. Put yourself forward, you deserve it!

Tip 3. Relationships Compound Over Time

Lorraine advises ‘Networking isn't transactional. Networking is about building a relationship and it's about keeping that relationship throughout your career.’

Too often networking is seen as transaction - swapping business cards, collecting LinkedIn connections, moving on. Lorraine sees it differently “Relationships compound over time.”

Stay curious. Stay kind. Keep in touch and show up for people even when there’s nothing immediate to gain.

Tip 4. Lift Others

As Lorraine progressed into leadership, she became deeply aware of the importance of bringing other women with her.

Lorraine explains ‘Make sure you're paying forward all the things that people have helped you with and make sure that you're calling out where good work happens.’

When you lift others, you create an environment where success is shared.

Tip 5. Speak - Even When Your Voice Shakes

This is the one Lorraine calls her most important tip, and it’s deeply personal. As a senior leader with decades of experience, she still feels nerves in certain moments (even when we interviewed her at G&T (girls and tech!) HQ.

But she has a phrase she repeats to herself and to her 18-year-old daughter:

“Speak, even when your voice shakes.” She goes on to say…

“As women, we can question whether we deserve to be in the room,” she says. “But we absolutely do.”

Speak up in meetings and ask the questions; it will pay you back 10-fold.

To watch the interview, head to our YouTube channel here. Don’t forget to like and subscribe, there’s plenty more tips to come!