Recently, I spoke to Carina Corbin, a technical business analyst at Avanade. Carina’s calm yet insightful attitude is telling of a certain level of intelligence that many strive for but only few achieve. Together, we discussed her current career as a software developer, business analyst, and consultant, her aspirations and advice for younger women entering the field. Carina is truly an incredible young woman whose poise will surely propel her way beyond her wildest dreams.
Tell us a little bit about yourself
Carina: My name is Carina Corbin, I am a technical business analyst for Avanade. I am originally from New York and I majored in Computer Science and Asian Languages and Civilizations and studied both Chinese and Korean at Amherst College. Prior to working at Avanade, I worked at a virtual reality institute based in Los Angeles called the Institute for Creative Technologies in their natural language generation group, as a backend developer at a Software As A Service (SaaS) startup in Beijing, called EventBank, and as a project manager and developer for Goldman Sachs in Hong Kong.
When and Why did you become an analyst?
Carina: I kind of fell into this role. I actually got this job through attending the Grace Hopper Conference for women in computing. I would 100% recommend that all women in careers in technology attend this conference. It’s a two-day event with tons of workshops and talks by some of the most intelligent and successful women in the industry. They were all so open to talking and sharing their knowledge and what needed to be done to grow professionally. In addition to all the great events, the conference also hosts a job fair, and everyone was there, the public sector, the private sector and even the military. I initially interviewed for a software developer role at Avanade. During my interview process, the consulting team contacted me saying that they have an opening and that they’d love to interview me. Although I never thought about consulting, I realized that I like being client facing and learning about the business side of things just as much as I like the technical aspect of the job, and that’s how I ended up at Avanade as business analyst.
Carina and her family on graduation day, were Carina is proudly representing both KSA (Korean Student Association) and Her Campus Amherst.
What was you most fulfilling or fun project?
Carina: It’s hard to say which one I liked the most, because all my projects have been vastly different, but I have to say that I am really enjoying the one that I am currently working on. I am currently helping a high-end jewelry retailer modernize their infrastructure and move away from spreadsheets and email chains to a more automated CRM system. This retailer has great ideas on how they want to elevate themselves technologically and it has been fun working with them, learning about their business and providing them with my technical expertise. This project has also pushed me to dive deeper into my parent company’s (Microsoft) software, so I’ve been researching and building and learning along the way.
Late night team coding session; they made the deadline!
What was the greatest bit of professional advice that you received?
Carina: I have to say that the greatest advice that I received was from a female director at my company. She always encouraged me to speak up, especially as a junior consultant. Specifically, she emphasized that I do not always have to wait for a senior person’s approval before I make a move. There was this one time where I found a risk and brought it up to several of my more experienced peers on the project, but they brushed it aside saying that this risk would not be that impactful. Thanks to that director’s advice I was encouraged to trust myself and speak up. I reached out to the project lead who investigated and found that the issue was of great concern. The risk was resolved and I was thanked for speaking up.
Do you find that women are often a minority in the industry? If so, what actionable steps would you recommend to actively combat this issue?
Carina: Yes! Women are a minority and this can make you -as a woman- feel more self-conscious and concerned about how you’re viewed. My mentor, who is the smartest and most charismatic person once told me that because I can be soft spoken and mellow that makes me come off as a “woman.” And I thought, “Well what’s wrong with that?!” Of course, my mentor had her reasons. She is an executive at a top firm so she had different challenges. I respect her advice and to a certain extent understand where she’s coming from. Though, unfortunately, I think that as a woman, you are told that to be truly successful, you have to be one of the guys, but you can never be one of the guys! You sometimes feel that you cannot be both a woman and successful, but that view is changing. I am doing my best to change those perceptions by being authentic and genuine.
As for actionable steps, I think that we should teach coding and computer science at a much earlier age. Every time that I mention that I majored in computer science, there is always a WOW factor even though this is a teachable skill. If we teach computer science at an earlier age, like we teach mathematics, budding technologists will not see it as a big mystery. Once we normalize this skill, I hope that no woman and, especially woman of color, would ever feel intimidated to walk into an introductory Computer Science course.
Carina’s third hack-a-thon, and first HackUmass. Unfortunately, they didn’t place, but they had a blast building this Halloween spectacular inner superhero test using Microsoft Project Oxford.
What is one skill that you’d like to learn? And what skill do you consider crucial and would recommend learning?
Carina: I think that in general, I’d like to increase my technical skills and capabilities, you can never plateau. Once you think you’re good, in terms of technical skills, something new always pops up! Additionally, since I have a technical background, I want to learn more about the business side. My functional lead gave me great advice and suggested that whenever I am in a meeting, try to think like the other side. For example, if I am in a technical meeting, I should think of efficiency, ways to drive sales, and other business considerations.
A skill that I would recommend everyone to have is taking initiative and communication. Take the initiative and volunteer to start on a new project, take the initiative by asking to attend a meeting. Most people will not oppose to you sitting in on a meeting to take minutes and will encourage you to ask questions. Additionally, communication skills are crucial especially in technical roles. You have to be able to explain everything you’re doing to a nontechnical person. I think that I developed strong communication skills in college while learning foreign languages. In my Chinese class, we always had to present in front of everyone every week, and that really helped me present in English, because every time I go to do it, I say “Well, at least it’s not in Chinese!”
What are you excited about in your professional future and where do you see yourself going?
Carina: I want to continue growing within the business and tech space, and I reject the idea that they have to be separate. I am thinking about graduate school for an MBA or Masters in Computer Science or maybe even a PhD. Who knows? I also want to explore different areas and learn more about different industries like Finance, Health Care, Retail, and Startups. I want to continue my exploration journey.
Do you have any advice for young women excited to enter the field?
Carina: Find a good support team. I took too long to find one. I learned this lesson in one of my intro computer science classes where we were supposed to build a game solver and interface. This was a very hard exercise and after a while I realized that people were working in teams and that I was the only person working alone. Ever since then, I always joined groups: in classes, in hackathons, and at work.
Also, always be open to opportunities. Avanade really lets you make your career whatever you want it to be. I’ve worked with many business analysts who have never coded, but are amazing scrum masters and are Excel wizards. Each project is different and presents different challenges, that bring out different skill sets. I’ve been a project manager, developer and business analyst. Always be open to opportunities and don’t be afraid of challenging yourself with a new role.