Giving women a taste for technical careers

On International Women's Day 2021, the Robert Walters Group and She Codes were proud to launch the #IWDCodingChallenge, a fun and free virtual coding challenge designed for women and minorities around the world to get a taste for a technical career. 

Aimed at novice coders, the initiative guided participants through a tutorial on coding our 'Cupcake Smash' mini-game. Taking approximately one hour, participants were invited to customise their game code and show off their newfound skills on LinkedIn, Twitter or Instagram for a chance to win a tech prize bundle.

2021 Winners

FIRST PRIZE WINNER: ALLISON BEH

"The #IWDCodingChallenge has given me the confidence to try more" 
 

Play Allison's mini-game

RUNNER-UP: SUELEE CHRISTIE

"The experience has given me a solid foundation to build my understanding of JavaScript.”

Play Suelee's mini-game

RUNNER-UP: JENG KONG

"The whole process was really fun and a great learning curve!" 
 

Play Jeng's mini-game

Prizes

FIRST PRIZE: The winner of the #IWDCodingChallenge receives an exciting prize bundle and the opportunity to further explore a career in technology with: 

  •  1:1 mentoring session with Kate Kirwin, She Codes Founder
  • Careers coaching session with a Robert Walters technology recruitment expert
  • $300 AUD Amazon gift vouchers
  • She Codes merchandise goodie bundle

RUNNERS-UP: The two runners-up each receive a She Codes merchandise goodie bundle.

Meet the judges

Faye Walshe is director of innovation at the Robert Walters Group. Faye has worked for the Group since 2003, looking after marketing activity in APAC from Sydney, then transferring to London to oversee the growing network of Robert Walters EMEA offices.

Faye ensures our clients benefit from truly innovative recruitment outsourcing solutions. Her team monitors consumer trends which shape our recruitment and HR landscape, seeks out disruptive recruitment technology for trial, and challenges our existing processes and service offerings to ensure that our clients are always up to date with the latest thinking. 

Jodie Gillespie, a technology recruitment specialist with 16 years’ experience, is the associate director of Robert Walters Australia. Heading up our successful tech and transformation division, Jodie and her team recruit permanent, fixed term and contract professionals across Western Australia in a range of sectors, including financial services, mining, not for profit, professional services and education.

Over the last four years, Jodie has championed Robert Walters partnership with She Codes, to inspire women and push for greater gender diversity in tech. 

Kate Kirwin is the founder and lead organiser of She Codes. Kate is a passionate advocate for women in STEM and innovation - running hackathons, accelerators and entrepreneur programs for Spacecubed. 

In 2015, Kate founded She Codes, a program that has taught more than 4500 women to code over the last six years. Kate is also very involved in the startup ecosystem, working with innovation hub Spacecubed, and its programs supporting entrepreneurs. Kate was recently awarded the West Australian Rising Star award and is a nominee for this year's Business News 40under40.

Anle-Marne Pretorius is a technologist specialising in digital transformation with a passion for demystifying technological barriers. She has over 20 years of experience in the field of technology, currently serving as the Practice Director for Modern Work and Digital for the Western Region at Empired, an international consulting firm founded in Western Australia.

Anle-Marne is insanely curious about business and technology, solving complex issues and connecting with people.

 

Sarah Levins graduated from the She Codes Plus program in 2019 and found her calling as a consultant in the Data and AI Team at Empired. 

Since joining Empired in 2020, Sarah has made a positive contribution to multiple projects including; Data Warehousing, Web App Bot for in house teams and Power Automate flow design and Power BI reporting for a major company.

About the partners

ROBERT WALTERS GROUP
Robert Walters Group is a global recruitment group committed to powering people and organisations to fulfil their unique potential. Playing a critical role in the hiring process for thousands of clients and candidates worldwide, we take seriously our responsibility to promote diverse hiring in the global workforce. 

For more information, visit www.robertwaltersgroup.com.

SHE CODES
She Codes is a movement focussed on empowering women to enter tech careers. Powered by innovation hub, Spacecubed, She Codes is on a mission to teach women coding skills, get women into technical careers, and build communities of like-minded women. She Codes vision is to increase diversity in tech by inspiring 100,000 women across Australia by 2025.

For more information, visit shecodes.com.au.