Girlstart’s Women in STEM weekly series highlights various women who are making a difference in STEM. Be inspired as these incredible women describe how they became interested in their field, provide insight into a day in the life, and share learnings from their experiences.
Marissa Pang
Data Engineer @ Cognite
Because of her own experiences as a woman in STEM and her desire to encourage other young girls, Marissa has chosen to share some of her story with us today in order to empower and inspire young girls to follow their passions. We are so lucky to have Marissa here today and cannot wait to hear what she has to say!
Tell us about your role as a Data Engineer at Cognite.
I help industrial customers use their data to become more sustainable. Data has always been important, but we’re seeing more and more emphasis on its power to enact real change. A lot of companies are trying to figure out how to make their data accessible in a scalable way. Cognite helps by providing software solutions that make industrial data accessible and more actionable so it can be used to its full potential. Whether that means creating dashboards or models that help with decision making, or ways to easily monitor sensors and equipment, or ways they can view all their data on their phone no matter where they are. I love helping customers solve seemingly small problems that can make a big difference.
What prompted you to get involved with Girlstart?
I’ve been interested in STEM since I was a little girl and although I had opportunities and have been making a career out of it, it has always been dominated by men. In college, the classes were significantly filled with more boys and in my career, I’ve typically been on teams of at minimum 7 people and had just two of us girls on it. Besides just seeing the team not be diverse, I could feel the challenges of it. Microaggressions, unequal pay, unequal opportunities, etc. I always had to work harder and fight harder for what I deserved. And I believe that the way that we change these hardships, is by paving a brighter path for future generations. Part of paving that path is making changes in our workplaces now. But the bigger part of it is to help create opportunities for girls when they’re young. I believe in Girlstart’s vision and mission and that they are accomplishing this. I also really loved how Girlstart works hard on focusing on working with girls in communities that are underserved. That’s the way we can make the biggest difference in creating that brighter future. And I’ve always been interested in being a resource/mentor to help girls in STEM as I wish I had someone to ask questions to grow up. I am so excited to get involved with Girlstart and be a part of the Women in STEM Series!
Was there a specific person who helped you to choose your career in STEM?
I graduated from University with a degree in Mathematics and back then I was told by a lot of people that my career options were limited and the job market was bad. So I intended to go back to get an MBA later and took an entry-level administrative position at a bank in the meantime – where I thought it’d be a good bridge between math and business. But shortly after starting, I got coffee with a coworker who asked more about my background. When he learned that I had a degree in Math, he told me that right then and there, he wanted me to go meet someone the Data Science Manager at the company. So we went over to his office where he asked if I could program in R, which was highly sought after then and hard to find, which I did. Meeting those two people that day launched me into my career path, one that I didn’t even know was an option and that I found to really love.
What are some of your favorite responsibilities as a Data Engineer with Cognite?
I love building solutions that help people do something more efficiently or make more informed decisions. It’s an exercise in creative problem solving and I enjoy the process of building these solutions, but I also like that it helps make someone’s job easier. And every build is a new challenge: I get to learn new skills, new approaches, etc. I also like connecting with our customers; getting to really understand how they use things, how their job works, and how they think. Ensuring everyone’s perspective is a part of the project adds diversity to the solution and helps make it stronger.
Why do you think confidence in STEM is important for girls?
STEM has always been dominated by men. Because of this, it’s easy for young girls to feel like they aren’t capable. But we all know girls are smart, strong, and more than capable. The odds are only against girls because of bias, whether it’s intentional or not. As more girls get involved in STEM, that bias will disappear and it will get easier for women to thrive in STEM careers. Having confidence in yourself and your abilities is key.. If one can stay confident in themselves, they can prove to anyone just how amazing they are. And if you do butt up against that bias, having confidence is so important in helping girls know that they are strong and can overcome. Never settle for anything less than you deserve.
Do you have any wisdom for the girls who want to pursue a career in STEM?
Make sure you don’t enmesh the job/work and the environment. Find a job, school, or program that makes you happy AND a work environment that makes you happy. If you want to be a Software Engineer but you don’t feel supported, find a different team, department, company, don’t be discouraged and change your career, find a new environment that is supportive and welcoming. If you love your company but not the work, ask for a different role, or find the job you do want somewhere else that has those same qualities you loved about your company. And if you don’t like either, that’s ok too. Explore anything you are interested in. Find what you are passionate about and go after it. There is no box you need to fit into and there’s no career path you must follow. Find what works for you. And fight for what you deserve. Don’t be afraid to ask for it and stay confident in your abilities.
About Cognite:
Cognite is a global industrial Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) leader, with an eye on the future and a drive to digitalize the industrial world. We enable the full-scale digital transformation of heavy-asset industries, and we’re growing fast. We’ve created a new class of industrial software which we use to help digitalize heavy-asset industries, enabling them to operate more sustainably, securely, and efficiently. Our core software product is Cognite Data Fusion (CDF), designed to quickly contextualize OT/IT data to develop and scale company solutions. In other words, we help our customers make data do more. We use technology like hybrid AI, big data, machine learning, and 3D modeling to get there.
