Mums in Tech – feat. Katie Papworth

As a special edition of our ongoing series of interviews that shines a light on incredible working mums within tech, we are featuring mothers that have trained through Code First Girls.

Here is our chat with Katie Papworth, DBA (database administrator) at Zopa.

The purpose of our 'MotherBoard’ content series is to highlight incredible working mums within tech & data, as well as individuals and businesses that are supportive and progressive within their approach to creating more inclusive tech & data teams for women.

Sophie @ MotherBoard: Can you please introduce yourself and tell us a bit about your current role?

Katie: Hi, I’m Katie and I work as a DBA (database administrator) for one of the challenger banks, Zopa. I work within a team of 5 database engineers. The main coding language I use is SQL, as I work a lot with SQL Server, Aurora, and Redshift databases, but we also use Python for automating tasks. Our team works on a wide variety of projects and tasks, that ensure all our databases are secure and running smoothly. 

Alongside my day job, I also work as an instructor for Code First Girls some evenings, delivering their Data and SQL course. 

Aside from work, at the weekends you’d find me and my husband at a farm or soft play chasing around our daughter, Felicity, who is 3 years old and ‘strong-willed’.

Sophie @ MotherBoard: Please can you tell us about why you decided to career switch into (/ or embark on a career in) tech?

Katie: Prior to having a tech role, I was a secondary school teacher. I taught year 7 up to sixth form students mathematics (along with core maths and further maths too). Teaching a core subject is a full-on job, and extremely inflexible. With teaching, unless you’re in a pandemic, you can’t work from home and put a wash on at lunch time if you need to. And when I returned to teaching after maternity leave, I felt like I had to choose between being a good mum or being a good teacher, and that didn’t sit well with me. I chose to leave teaching in pursuit of a better work-life balance for both me and my family. It was a scary move, but one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. 

I thought that tech was a good route for me due to my mathematics background, but also I love a challenge and learning new skills. I decided to start with the ‘Introduction to Python’ CFG career switcher course (sponsored by Zopa), which was a short course to dip my toes into the pool of coding and see whether I enjoyed it or not. I loved it and I seemed to really click with the logical steps involved in using Python. At the end of the course, Courtney (from Zopa’s people team) made an appearance on the last class of the course, and explained that Zopa would be sponsoring 5 places on the CFG nanodegree (now called CFG degree), and she really sold Zopa as a company, I really resonated with their values. When the applications opened, I managed to secure a place on the data stream nanodegree with Zopa and the rest is history! 

Sophie @ MotherBoard: Why did you choose a Code First Girls course?

Katie: I think I googled “career switcher course coding” and the Code First Girls career switcher courses popped up. I then investigated CFG a bit more and decided I was keen to take on their python Career Switcher course. I did explore other course providers, as there are a lot out there, but none of them seemed to have the same values as CFG. I love that they are working hard to diversify the tech industry and get more women into tech roles.

Sophie @ MotherBoard: How did you manage the juggle of studying whilst being a mum?

Katie: They say it takes a village to raise a child, and I was very grateful for my ‘village’ during the nanodegree. I couldn’t have done it without the help from my husband and my mum. When I started studying for the nanodegree my daughter was just over 1.5 years old. The classes ran for 2 hours in the evening at around bedtime for my daughter, and she was not happy about me shutting myself away in my office at the time she wanted me to read her a book before bed or give her a cuddle. So, my husband often ended up taking her to my mum’s house for bedtime (so I could be left in peace), and then drove her home after the class was finished and hopefully, she fell asleep in the car.  

It was an exhausting 14 weeks, for both me and my husband, and I was very glad when it was over, but I was able to get through it knowing that it was temporary and served a bigger purpose.

Sophie @ MotherBoard: How do you manage the balance between parenthood and your career? 

Katie: I definitely haven’t mastered the balance between motherhood and my career, as I get overwhelmed at times with the relentlessness of it all, but I am making progress to finding a happy median. Working full-time as a mum is challenging, no matter what job you do. Luckily, my husband is able to WFH one day per week, which enables me to work from our London office, and I really appreciate not having to do the nursery runs or sorting dinner on those days, and being able to switch off from ‘parent-mode’ for those 14 hours a week.

Setting boundaries between work time and family time also helps, for example I don’t have work emails on my phone so I can fully switch off when I’m away from my laptop. I don’t do extra work on a weekend anymore (did loads as a teacher), so I can really spend quality time with my daughter.

Organisation is key too. I love a to-do list and use them daily, for both work and home life. I feel they make me so much more productive. We also have a meal planner on our fridge so that there’s no debate on what to have for dinner each night. 

Sophie @ MotherBoard: What do you think businesses can do to support mums more in the workplace?

Katie: I think a big one is flexibility. Flexibility to work your hours around nursery/school times. I am able to work my 7.5 hours a day around nursery times (i.e., start earlier and finish earlier than my colleagues) so that it fits in with the nursery hours.

Also, they should be accommodating of parents who have a sick child who can’t go to nursery or school. Believe me, no mum wants to have their child at home with a sickness bug, and having an employer who is understanding of these issues makes the world of difference to an already unpleasant time.