Chime Inclusion & Diversity

Describe your experience as a woman in tech. What are some of the challenges you’ve faced, and how have you overcome them?

Being a woman in tech has been transformative. It’s taken as much emotional work as technical. I explored other roles but love coding. Getting to work with smart teammates and making whole systems out of letters and blank pages is thrilling and worth fighting for. In the end, the struggles helped me find my voice and strength so I’m glad for who it’s made me.

What are your professional goals, and how has Chime enabled you to pursue them? 

My goal is to be an engineering leader, but first, I want to build a scalable platform from the ground up. I believe having that experience will help me better lead teams through similar goals. I also want to help create healthier, more equitable tech cultures. Bias leads to assumption-based decisions and teams are more efficient when driven by facts and merit.

Chime has already allowed me to build a scalable platform. I had advocated for a change in experimentation services, so when an experimentation platform team first formed, I was offered a chance to lead it. A female engineering VP, Angie Ruan, even insisted that my position be explicitly documented and acknowledged. Chime’s commitment to equity and diversity made that possible. 

Chime’s amazing L&D program also allowed me to explore the management role as an individual contributor. A mentor from that program challenged my belief that improving culture required being in leadership, which inspired me to pursue my final goal by contributing to culture through resource groups like ChimeHers and Eng Women. There aren’t many women in the staff role at Chime and reaching for that might be my new goal now.

How does Chime celebrate and empower women?

Chime highly values inclusion and diversity. It hires diversely at all levels and supports a number of community resource groups like ChimeHers that create events and spaces to foster community among the women at Chime. Our annual International Women’s Day brunch is an established company tradition. Morning yoga, flower arrangement and chunky-knit blanket workshops are just a few of the fun events held to connect the community. 

An engineer named Deedee Chiang started the subgroup Eng Women, which Senior Director of Engineering Emily Anderson sponsors as a company executive. Our technical founder, Ryan King, has also been a huge advocate for the group, committing support for events, conferences, speakers and even an Eng Women Day. Eng Women has organized focus groups on women’s work experience and career advancement frustrations to advise on opportunities to improve.

Outside of this, Chime has partnered with TechWomen in the past to mentor rising female STEM leaders from Africa, Asia and the Middle East. These women are inspiring and have taught us more than we teach them. It’s a rewarding honor getting to be part of their journey.