A Little Bit of Background on Betiana (and Why We Love Working With Her!)

Betiana defines herself as a mother, wife, daughter, friend, engineer, and professor of visual arts. The combination of characteristics that make Betiana a great IT professional are a surprising and refreshing mix of patience and resilience. She is someone who has learned to cope with frustrations. She has experience working with big and small clients, in different types of projects and different industries. All of these combine to make her great at what she does.

When you meet Betiana, you can tell right away she is transparent and humble. As a working mom, she multitasks to get things done with efficiency. Beti was happy to share her story for this post. With her trademark huge smile, she spoke to me last week and here’s what she had to say.  

What do you like most about Information Technology?

It’s a discipline that allows collaboration with any other discipline. There are infinite opportunities so as a software engineer, you can work in multiple industries and areas — medicine, social media — developing applications to improve the world, whatever you imagine!

How did you decide to take this path?

I was interested in Engineering because I admire the engineer who creates. I find it thrilling to have the ability to create something from scratch. At that time, this was a new discipline. I realized it was the beginning, the field was underdeveloped, and it had a huge potential.

I was lucky that the industry grew fast in our capital city and then the entire country and world. This gave me the amazing opportunity to get a job in a role that I loved in the town where I was born.

Can you describe a typical day?

My days vary, as I have different tasks that change every day. As the Head of Business Analysis, I enjoy having one-on-one meetings with the members of each department, creating documentation. I collaborate with our clients and keep them informed on how the projects are evolving. As Head of Department, I have the opportunity to work with both our internal team and our clients, combining technical and social skills. I frequently find myself in the role of mediator, collaborating with both sides and trying to bring improvements to each process.  

What are your main challenges?

The main challenge for me is to find the best solution to what our clients need. We work hard to balance what is technically viable and what the client is asking for so that our contribution is significant and useful.

There are different types of clients from a variety of industries. I enjoy incorporating new concepts and learning something new with each project. It is exciting to find solutions that adapt to what our clients need.

Where do you imagine you’ll be heading in the future?

In this modern world, the context and the industry change at a very fast pace. For this reason, I don’t have a long-term plan, but a mid-term plan. I try to be open-minded and resilient to the changes that might come. Tomorrow, you might need to learn something new from the beginning. That is why continuous learning is so important to me.

There is a trend in IoT that’s truly exciting to me. I find it great that the industry is heading in a direction that opens opportunities for improving the world… fields like BioMedicine and Sustainable Energy. Really amazing!

What advice would you give to your younger self?

I prefer to suggest, rather than give advice. The first suggestion I would give my younger self would be to work harder at developing my soft skills. Soft skills are as relevant as technical skills. They are very necessary and not having them will hamper you in becoming a complete professional, no matter how good you are technically.

I work on developing my soft skills every single day. I’m introverted. Through activities where I get the opportunity to interact with others, activities where I perform tasks not related to software development, I’m learning to be a better communicator. Leading teams, improving processes, working closely with clients… all these things have also contributed to this development.  

The second suggestion I would give my younger self would be not to worry too much about things, to learn to give just the right amount of time and importance to each challenge I encounter.

What do you do in your free time?

I enjoy spending time with my family and close friends. I’m a Visual Arts Professor and my specialty is Ceramics.

There is nothing like working with the clay and painting. This developed my artistic and creative self and it also helps me clear the cobwebs from my mind.  I find a place to relax and I knead the clay, creating something with my own hands. When you create things with love, putting your soul in it, beautiful things come out.

It’s a pleasure for me to teach Ceramics to children in elementary school. I try to balance my professional life with these types of hobbies. One part of myself is more functional, that works with objectives, and the other is building sculptures and working with art.

What advice would you give to someone just starting their career?

I believe it is relevant to pursue higher education… to train yourself, study, take a course, read a book, learn from the experience of others. Put energy in your work and commit yourself to what you are doing. You will learn from the experience of each day. Have the guts to aim high and go for more. Look for activities outside of work that can complement your learning. Experience giving a talk, talking to other professionals, learning from what they do. You can learn from other’s work.

Why do you choose Making Sense today?

At Making Sense I am happy to find an environment that helps me balance my profession with my role as a mother. That is very important to me at this time. As a woman and mother, having the opportunity to fully perform as a software engineer without leaving my other roles aside is something I value a lot.

Thank you, Beti for belonging to our team and for sharing your experience with us. We are lucky to have you and to learn from you every day!