Refusing to Cry ‘Uncle’: How Maria Heriz Accelerates Action in Tech

Maria: The interesting technology has been always in me. It's really since I was a kid, I have this curiosity to learn how things work, which is probably what defines a lot of engineers. A lot of engineers I've met, they were the ones who were opening boxes and, dismantling, PCs and things like that.

In my case, it was really this, curiosity and less curiosity to learn, how things work. And, I, love maths, physics, chemistry, biology, all the science related, subjects at school. So, all that, combined, probably I was also inspired by the fact that my father was an engineer. and maybe a bit of a rebel side of me because I had some people in my family who told me, please don't study engineering.

It's too hard of a career for a woman. So, I did exactly the contrary. That was the advice that one of my uncles gave me. And I said, I'm going to make this. I really think it's going to be fantastic studies. Honestly, Ruth, if I had to choose again, I would choose the same studies. This is especially in the area I am in; you are at the heart and of the most advanced technologies in the world.

And it is pretty fascinating. So, what has sparked to me, the desire to become an engineer was this mix of endless curiosity to know how things work combined with really a passion for science in general.

Ruth: Terrific. And I have to go back to the comment you got. Did they really say you shouldn't study engineering because you are a woman?

Yeah. Or because they didn't think it was a good career?

Maria: No. This advice came from one of my uncles. My mother always pushed me to study whatever I wanted. So, I had always that support at my home. But some members of my family were like, hey, this is too hard for a girl.

Ruth: Oh,

Maria: you would do better becoming a civil servant so then you can, balance better your work with your family.

You, you work less hours, you have a salary that's always, there for you. And yeah, I had that type of advice from some people in my family and I just didn't follow it.

Ruth: good for you. And it seems it worked out for you, didn't it? it did. It did.

Maria: But it's been the hell of a work that I can tell you.

So, they were right. They were right about the fact that it's, it's a lot of work. That's for sure.

Ruth: if you're passionate about something, it is worth it, right? And now we are already at the heart of the topic of our episode. We don't want to only talk about International Women's Day, but obviously also about your work and the things you do every day.

We are already at the heart of the theme of International Women's Day, right? And how difficult it is for girls and women to approach a career in engineering and tech. Are there any. projects or initiatives you are involved right now you would like to share with us.

Maria: So, I moved here to, to San Francisco a year and a half ago, and I've always been interested in, looking for opportunities to inspire and connect with girls who are in high schools.

And by the way, not only girls, boys as well. And that started, years ago when I was in France, I, collaborated with an association called El Bourgeois, which is a group of women that are engineers or scientists. they go to schools once per year. This is a program that, is sponsored by the French education ministry where they, you have, women in STEAM careers, going to schools to talk about their experiences and, and advising, in this case, girls to, to follow, careers in science.

I did that a few years and, when I came here, I've been looking for opportunities to repeat that, but I didn't find a specific association that is doing exactly the same. But I recently, went to spend a morning in a school here in San Francisco, in the Mission District. it's a school.

It's, has kids, which are, 98 percent are from Hispanic, heritage and not with the highest level of resources, of economic resources. And I went there with other, colleagues, female colleagues. Not only people who work in the tech industry, different type of, backgrounds and we were there to, to talk to them about what is to be a woman working and what do we do?

And we answer a lot of questions from the kids. And these were obviously, boys and girls from the age of 13 to 16 years old. It was a great experience. I'm also involved in my daughter's school. So also helping, inspiring and coaching girls who want to do a study in science. It is, yeah, next week, Friday, I'm going to meet with two of them because they have a project about gender equality and women in science.

And they contacted me and we're going to mount a project together. So those are the things I'm doing now. And let's say outside of, whatever I do at work, but yeah.

Ruth: But that sounds like a terrific initiative. I'm not sure if you're familiar with the initiative for women in engineering. Yes, we had Jackie Mattox, I think is spearheading this initiative.

She was on this show, I think last year, and maybe that would be an interesting collaboration for you. So, I will link the episode to last year's show also in the show notes. But yeah, maybe that would be an interesting contact for you as well to find more places to spread the word.

Maria: That would be fantastic.

Thank you, Ruth. That would be great.

Ruth: The theme for this year's International Women's Day is Accelerate Action. How do you interpret this theme?

Maria: for my work, what it means, in the case of accelerating action for women in engineering is really to not to lose sight. That we still have a long path to go in order to bring more girls into engineering and science in general, in terms of accelerated action.

When I saw that the topic of this year, Ruth, I thought about myself on making sure that I spend the time. So not only on some things, as I said, I'm doing outside of work, but also at work. So, I have a sizable team. Also, I have a women engineer. reporting, inside of my team, and keeping an eye on them and seeing, how they can be encouraged and making sure they, they, get the opportunities, they deserve.

So, for me, Accelerated Action is a reminder that I've been given a lot of opportunities during my career, and they've been given to me by both men and women, by the way, and those people have been key for me to get where I am. As of today, and it's my duty to also make sure I give back and I help others.

So that acceleration, it's just a, for me personally, a good reminder that, it's my duty to also take action and make sure I don't forget to take action.

Ruth: Absolutely. Yeah. What are some practical ways to encourage women to enter and stay in engineering? I was also talking to one engineer; I think even from Avnet Silica.

She was educated in the 80s and she finished her engineering education in the 80s and she actually quit during the process or after trying to work as an engineer for a couple of years because she couldn't just handle it anymore. She was just not feeling appreciated just because of her gender. So maybe you could share some practical ways to encourage more women.

Maria: It's a very interesting question because, obviously, I guess each person's story, it's very different. In my case, what I've seen and really makes me extremely sad. Is to see girls who will not enter into science related or engineering related studies because they think they are not going to be able to make it or because we women may put sometimes an internal barrier thinking that boys may do it better than we do or can do it better than we do.

Which if you think about it factually Ruth. When you look at, results of girls in high schools, they normally, have better grades than boys for whatever reason. this is not a, any type of, judgment on, on, on intelligence or whatever. But there are much less, percentage of girls who then decided to, study math, engineering, or Computer science.

And I'm personally convinced that part of the reason is because of girls putting herself to the barrier that this is going to be too difficult, too hard for me, that I cannot do it. maybe others are better than me and, I, may go and do something else. And obviously it can be also because of external factors, cultural factors.

Could be, advice his family gives you or, something like that. It could be also their values that you may have, that prevent you or creating also those barriers. So, for me, if I go with the first one, which is probably the one that was more personal to me, because it was very hard for me the first years at engineering school.

I found myself being, already in my class and, with a lot of boys who knew, far more than I did in programming, in computers. I didn't even have a computer at home at the time. So, it was really, hard. And I had to go over my own, let's say bias, my own barrier of, hey, Maria, you are not good.

What do you do here? You were really good at school, but now in engineering school. You are nobody. You will never get to, to go through this. And I, did, it took me a lot of perseverance and work. And I think that's the thing for that specific aspect, which is the internal barrier that I believe some girls put to themselves to tell themselves, hey, I'm not going to go to do engineering as a degree.

If you really have that type of barrier, just. Go over it, move on because I'm really a true believer that, hard work and perseverance pays, just believe in yourself, which is, nice words to say, but really believe in yourself and, others will help you to get what you want to. So that, is for girls entering engineering, schools, would be my biggest advice.

Ruth: When you mentioned the fact that once you started studying engineering, you didn't even have a computer, obviously, it's not only about being a girl or being a woman trying to doing a man's job in quotations, but also it's about how the things that you are given, privileges you have, like you might also be a boy that doesn't didn't have access to computer or tech because it might have been too expensive.

And then for girls, it also comes with the aspect of maybe You are not privileged, you don't have enough monetary funds, you don't have the support network to get you through school either mentally or financially, so there are so many different aspects playing into this role and then obviously also the mental aspect of am I good enough because apparently, mentally.

People tell me I'm not, there's so many facets to this aspect, then it's obviously really hard to push through all this and come out at the other end with a degree and then a very promising career.

Maria: Yeah, definitely. But again, I would only encourage for girls who like science, who, are interested on the so many different jobs you can do as an engineer to go on and try and do it.

If I could do it and I didn't even have a computer, anybody can do it.

Ruth: Is there any progress you have seen in the tech industry?

Maria: if I compare my, my personal experience as I started working, almost 25 years ago, and, I have three kids, so three children, I chose a job where I was traveling a lot, really a lot. So, I was a young mother working in an environment almost with almost men.

And I was traveling a lot and I, had a lot of situations. I could tell you all the funny stories, but I was judged a lot. there were silence judgments of people on, look at what she's doing. She has babies and she's, less at home that she should, because she's a mother. So, I got out of those judgments.

I also had judgments because people. Some situations would, think or have this bias that I wouldn't be technically, proficient. I, as I said, I have some very funny stories I could tell you about that, but, if I compare those experiences I have and I look at today's world, I think, yeah, definitely we've made a lot of progress.

I don't see, by the way, either women or men, today, at least in the environment, I, work with who would not dare. To say that they need to leave work a bit earlier because they have to bring their child to, to, to the doctor or because, they are at a school and they call them from a school and they need to go, quickly to pick them up.

Like all these situations or, hey, I'm coming to work at eight or whatever is the time. And I recently hired a manager here in the U S and he told me I leave work every day at four 30. Because I, I want to pick my son at school and three days per week he has practice and said, yeah, sure. Go for it. And, in the end, the, fact that we measure, and we work more towards results and measuring results instead of measuring how many hours you may spend in the office, that, that mentality has progressed a lot.

And there is some, a better understanding also because. If we think about something that really, prevents, women or has prevented women to advancing their careers in the past has usefully been the thought of having children and having more of the children care, in the hands of women, but I see today more and more men taking action and sharing more of the childcare with their, with their partners.

And, that has changed definitely since 25 years ago to, to today. So, I think that those are positive things. And then obviously companies. Despite of what we are hearing today in the news, companies recognize that having more diversity in teams helps and bring better results. There is a lot of science and research which has been done on that.

And I'm a true believer that when you have teams with diversity of opinions, of backgrounds, of characters, ways of thinking, you, actually achieve more. I'm positive. I'm optimistic about this road, but there's still a lot to do.

Ruth: That's terrific. Yeah. And I absolutely agree with you. it is a shame that the many companies are now rolling back on their diversity and inclusion programs.

And I just hope that it means that, yeah, we have achieved a lot, and it is, taken as a given that diversity and inclusion and equality should always matter in every company, but I just hope This is the positive connotation of this and not, the other way around.

Maria: Yeah, definitely.

Ruth: But I like your positivity.

Maria: We need to, we’ve gone a long way and, and I think again, it's not only for women, but also for men. Absolutely. And, and we need to continue, just making, the best possible environment in the companies, in work in general for people to, to unlock their potential.

Ruth: Yeah.

Maria: So

Ruth: Instead of focusing.

Not everybody is the same, which is a good thing, but you should embrace that everybody is different and then putting everything together actually makes the most out of it.

Maria: Definitely.

Ruth: You said you're also your team leader and you are just hired a manager. How do you spot and reduce biases in everyday work situations?

Have you come across this where you had to take action?

Maria: Oh, definitely. I have. because of this, let's say, diversity and inclusion type of programs, I received a training, some years ago about learning about diversity and biases and conscious biases you mentioned before, right? teams that are diverse in not only about gender, but can be because of your background, where you are coming from.

Maybe the languages that you're coming with different, different language backgrounds. So, you may be in this, these teams that are, people are, have all different, mother languages. And, you may have also a person who expresses himself or herself less good and, or worse on how you, make sure everybody is included in the discussion.

But anyway, my point is that, when I did these unconscious biases training, I became humbler, let's say to realize that I had a lot myself. As well. So that's the one, the first thing is everybody has unconscious biases. And the second is to pay attention to the ones who were still escaping my radar when it comes to, ensuring that I spot those, with gender or related gender is really to pay attention to them.

So, I'll give you one example. Some time ago, I was in a meeting, a sales meeting. It was. a couple of years ago at the time I was still in Europe on leading sales teams, and somebody made a comment about a competitor who had changed the salesperson in a certain region in Europe. And the new person, because the person who was there was retiring, and the new person was a young lady.

So, we had a young lady at our competitor, taking care of a very important, region with a lot of, customers and key customers. And in that meeting, my colleague, says, okay, now be ready because she's going to go to customers with a mini skirt and she's going to take it all because the engineers are just going to go and love that she's there.

Ruth: Okay. What

Maria: Do you think about that one?

Ruth: Wow.

Maria: Yeah. But the interesting thing, so what do I do in that in such a case is I want to talk to this gentleman and who has actually three girls, by the way. And I told him, did you realize what you just said? And he was so sad and so sorry about it. He told me, I just didn't, it was an unconscious bias.

And they said, it was me and another, girl who were another woman who were in that meeting room. We were about 12 or 15 of us said, do you know how I felt when you said that? Because I've been that young salesgirl myself, I've gone to a lot of customers and believe me, I worked very hard to win the business, but it was an unconscious bias of these gentlemen.

So, what I. To, to summarize what I mean by this route is to, spot those. the other thing I pay a lot of attention as a leader is when I do salary reviews of my teams, I have a special attention to ensure there is no, pay difference between, men and women who are doing the same job. If I inherit, a team or I have a new partner.

Lady coming in my team, I, I make sure there is no history that's half, a top performer, a good performer, late on the, pay. And I am very proud to work off a company that really cares about that. So, if there is something that happened there. They will take immediate action, so that's good.

Ruth: Terrific. Yeah, that's good. I like it. Yeah. What has been your proudest moment as an engineer and a leader in the tech industry?

Maria: Oh, wow. That's a difficult question. I think my proudest moments in general, have been when my team has been successful. And I really mean it because, what I'm most passionate about is in, obviously it's delivering results, but I do that through teams by creating, high performing teams and hopefully teams where, we can also have some fun and deliver together.

One moment I feel very proud of is about 15 years ago. Yeah. I think it was just exactly about 15 years ago. Yeah. Yeah. I took over my first, sizeable team. I was the Spanish lady working in France and my boss came to me and said, hey, we, we want you to take the full French sales team in, it was my first company in Texas instruments.

And I was the peer of everyone in the office and then I was promoted to be the manager, and I was. Among the youngest persons in the office. Most of them were also men, I didn't really care about that. So, I took it over. I, had to do changes in the team, move some very senior people in different positions.

I realized that some people were not giving the best out of them because they were in the wrong job. I travel a lot, met with a lot of our distributors. That's when I started to get to know Avnet Silica, by the way. Visited all the offices of Avnet Silica in France and met with all the men who were running those at the time.

Anyway, the interesting thing, Ruth, is that after a bit less than two years, we had a review with the CEO of TI, and my team went through a full review. So, every member of my management team, and when it ended, the management team of TI came to see me and they said, this is amazing what you've done. Yeah.

This team is, has nothing to do with where they were a bit less than two years ago. We see it in the results, and we see it in the quality of the people who came here today. And I remember that very well. That was, I was very proud of myself. I was proud of what my team had done. and we were considered among the best in the, in Europe at that time.

So, I was very proud of that. And, realizing that I could really, transform teams and, get them better and win more business. And yeah, it was, and everybody was winning with this. So

Ruth: that's fantastic. Great. And what advice would you give to the next generation of women who are interested in following in your footsteps as an engineer or a technology leader?

Maria: It’s too related to what I said at the beginning in terms of don't limit yourself. perseverance and hard work are really pays off, even if you are that person as I was a long time ago that had those thoughts of, hey, I will not make it. but, no, I think when you start your career route, the best advice I can give you is chosen.

The person you work for really choose, the person. And when I say the person is the team, the company you work for, if you surround you that, with the right people who will pull you up, who will challenge you, who will also give you opportunities that you think you may not deserve, that they believe in you, they will actually, get your potential out of yourself and make you arrive to places you didn't think you could.

That happened to me. And it was also luck. I have; I was very lucky to cross some people who believe in me. but I came to realize that it's so important to choose your work for who you work for.

Ruth: That's great advice. are you ready for some rapid-fire questions to finish our show? Yeah. Okay.

Go.

Maria: Let's see. Let's see how I do that. Okay.

Ruth: One word to describe the future of IoT? Intelligent. A technology trend you're excited about?

Maria: Definitely AI. I know it's a bit of a topic of today, but who cannot be excited about AI?

Ruth: Yeah. Great. your go to resource for staying up to date on tech news?

Maria: Oh, I use a lot of news wires.

So, LinkedIn, I follow several companies, I read three newspapers, three different newspapers every day. and I like the technology summaries that the economists do when they do it in electronics and semiconductors, they are spot on. So, I guess I have different sources for this truth, but those are a few.

Ruth: And the best career advice you've received.

Maria: It's never too late to change. Great. I received that when I started as a student in my first internship. So that was a, it was a gentleman who gave me that advice because after I was one week in the internship, and I thought the internship was really.

A lot of times I went to see and said, listen, I think this is a loss of time. You probably are paying me too much for what I'm doing here. And I think I made a mistake. And then he started laughing and said, you are not making any mistake. We'll put you something else. But you can do as many mistakes as possible.

It's always okay to change.

Ruth: Great. And our loyal listeners will know what's coming next. Have you thought about a song that you would like to put on the soundtrack of this episode, if we made one?

Maria: I have, and you may be surprised by the one I would tell you about. Because my 10-year-old daughter, since we came to the U.S., has become a very, big fan of an American singer called Taylor Swift. but I had to start to appreciate some of their, lyrics. So, I think the soundtrack will be “Shake It Off”. Because that song not only has a strong, vibe and, gives energy. But if you, really look on, of the lyrics, Ruth, that song is about perseverance.

And it's about, going in the direction that you set for yourself despite of what others say about you. And I think, that, those lyrics fit well with what we've been talking today here. If you want to become an engineer, go for it, persevere. And if you have others telling you that you are not good enough, or this is not a career for you because you are a girl.

Just don't listen and move on.

Ruth: I absolutely love it. Thank you so much for sharing the song with you, Maria. Thank you so much for joining us today and sharing your insights and has been an absolute pleasure. And thank you for being on the show.

Maria: Thank you for the opportunity. Thank you very much.