
Tay Nishimura from Datadog on How She Built the Confidence to Transition into Infrastructure Engineering
Tay Nishimura describes herself as an artist, philanthropist, and technologist. “When I meet people, they often only know my tech side. I've been trying to change that by presenting all aspects of myself,” she explains.
She achieves this by combining technology with philanthropic work. “I'm the Chief Technology Officer of a non-profit that helps bring technology education into prisons,” she says. “We're in the early phases of developing a curriculum on our learning platform where people can learn about computer networking.”
As for her artistic side, that’s what helps her get into the zone when she’s completely emerged in the tech world. “Painting has been really good for me,” she notes. “I was never trained in that type of visual art, but it comes naturally. I've been doing it a lot to get into a flow state and separate my brain from technology.”
We sat down with Tay to learn how she bridges all sides of her personality into a career as an infrastructure engineer. We also discussed both her career journey and how mentorship and a supportive work environment have helped her succeed.
Entering the Tech World Unexpectedly
Throughout Tay’s childhood, math played an important role.
“Math is a very serious subject in Japan,” she shares. “My mother taught me when I was younger. She gave me a lot of visual frameworks so I had a good foundation.”
Her dedication to math continued to blossom when she went to a math and science summer camp. “There I met my fellow math lovers who I became close with and we grew up together,” she says. “I went to that camp for five years and it set me up to love abstract mathematics.”
Coming from a childhood filled with equations and dividing fractions, studying mathematics in college seemed like an obvious choice. However, Tay’s first interest was in architecture. “I was always building houses as a kid,” she explains. “But when I got older I didn’t make a portfolio to apply to college and so my default was math.”
Once she started taking math courses at her university, she was slowly introduced to the world of computer science and the job opportunities that came with it. “I was always interested in the math side of everything, but when it came time to apply for jobs, everything was programming,” Tay says. “So I took more classes, double majored, and landed in the tech world unexpectedly."
Growing Within and Out of the Computer Science World
Tay began her career as a software engineer and was surprised to learn how flexible the work day can be. “If you need to have a later meeting or work odd hours, as long as you're getting your work done, you can be you,” she highlights.
This new environment has provided her with the space to grow into her own. “It's allowed me to be myself and communicate with people in the way I need to,” she explains.
Over time she started to understand the different communication styles. “You could be the person who's talking to everybody, you could be the person who only messages on Slack,” she says. “People are looking at what you are thinking about and how you present that.”
Tay notes that in other fields, lacking certain soft skills such as public speaking might negatively impact your performance. However, in the computer science world, it tends to be different. “People are trying to understand what you like, what you like to do, and how to find projects that work for you," she explains.
And what Tay really liked to do was in another corner of the engineering world. “I don't think people realize that when they come into the field, there are so many different corners,” she explains. “It’s been fun that every year I'm in a different area of tech.”
Transitioning to Infrastructure Engineering
Infrastructure engineering was the next phase of Tay’s career trajectory, yet she didn’t know if it was the best move. “I was terrified I would not be able to learn enough about networking or virtualization to meet expectations when I started," she admits. “I had always been more on the application side of things.”
When her friends presented her with the idea of switching fields, she wasn’t sure that her experience would provide her with the foundation to make this career change.
“I'm visual and a lot of infrastructure content is not. It's very much paragraphs and I'm a terrible reader,'' she admits. “I didn’t know how computer networking works. I didn’t know how my program runs or where it runs in the cloud. I didn’t know any of that stuff. And when I tried to learn about it, I got lost in the jargon.”
However, all the self-doubt ceased when her friends asked her one crucial question: Have you tried? “That was such an eye-opening question,” she recalls. “You don't know until you try.”
Tay put in the effort, but the road wasn’t easy. “It took me about a year or two before I felt like I understood what infrastructure was,” she confesses.
While studying, she used her artistic side to understand the complex material better. “Because I was reading this jargon that I didn’t understand, I drew everything out for myself and that solidified it in my head,” she explains. “It imprints it in my head, like a blueprint, and I can recall it at any time.”
After putting in the time and effort, her hard work paid off. “Once you build it up, operating Kubernetes and working on a platform engineering team are both really cool. Now I think this is the right place for me, and I never got this excited as an application developer.”
Coming into Her Own as an Infrastructure Engineer
Infrastructure platform engineering focuses on the tools that allow tech companies to deliver their products to customers. “If I were to cook, I would need an oven, a fridge, food, and other tools,'' she explains. “The more well-designed they are, the faster dishes can be produced.”
Part of Tay’s work is providing those tools that help companies do their work. “As an infrastructure engineer, usually what you're building is an enhancement on something already being used by people in your company,” she explains. “Thus, it’s very important to be precise the first time. If a tool breaks, you slow them down — just like if your stove doesn't work, you can't cook anymore.”
This is why Tay spends a good portion of her time designing. “A lot of what we build can't be checked or tested immediately,” she points out. “We need to design all of those situations up front. I would say I spend about 20 to 30% of my time communicating designs.”
A greater part of her time is dedicated to implementation. “I spend another 50 to 60% of my time implementing code or tuning live systems.”
The rest of the time, she solves problems and puts out fires. “Which means we made something, we changed it, it broke and we're fixing it so that other people can continue working,” she explains. “I also spend time talking to people, getting to know what kinds of problems they're solving. Ironically, I feel like a part of my job description is to socialize technical ideas whereas I had the impression that I’d get to socialize less in infrastructure teams than in application teams.”
A Supportive Work Environment at Datadog
When Tay started working at Datadog, she noticed something that set them apart from other start-ups. “Work-life balance is this unicorn word that's thrown around at any booth you go to at a career fair,” Tay says. But at Datadog, these words have meaning.
“I come from a burnout culture. To show to myself and others that I am productive, I’ve spent a lot of hours working,” Tay admits. However, at Datadog they encourage her to do the opposite. “One of the top pieces of feedback that I get is to take more time off.”
Datadog is the SaaS-based monitoring and security platform for cloud-scale infrastructure, applications, logs, and more. They have created a work environment where giving and receiving feedback is part of the company culture.
Tay has received feedback not only on her ability to complete certain projects but also on being more confident. “At first I thought they were messing with me," she recalls. “They weren’t giving me feedback on my unit test [at performance reviews], or the way I communicate information. At Datadog, it's consistently been: be more confident.”
This type of feedback comes from a more constructive style of leadership and guidance. “In our culture, we don't force anything,” Tay explains. “I'm used to the more rigid style of beginning a quarter: here are all the ways you need to improve by the end of the quarter, otherwise you're behind.”
However, Datadog’s structure supports its employees by using additive thinking sometimes known as a snowflake evaluation. “This is where you take the attributes of yourself you enjoy, you sum that up, and that's your evaluation,” Tay explains.
Tay feels that this more additive style of leadership will help her become a senior engineer one day. “As a senior, you have to persuade other people of what you believe in. And a lot of that comes down to confidence,” she says. “This means that confidence becomes part of the job and stops being optional. The way you carry yourself, the way you argue your point, all that matters.”
Advice on Seeking a Mentor and Breaking into the Tech World
Along with having a positive work environment at Datadog, another component of Tay’s success and growth is having mentors. “I've been lucky in finding mentors because I am willing to be vulnerable,” she says. Although she admits that being vulnerable is not easy. “If you walk into a room where they are talking about databases and you say, ‘Hello everyone, I know nothing about databases,’ it does compromise you.”
Fortunately, she had a group of supportive women mentors that guided her when she first entered the field. “They understood when I expressed a problem,” she points out. “I describe experiences as ‘I feel this,’ rather than 'I think this.’ Saying ‘I feel’ is often seen as a weaker assertion, but my mentors perceived my feelings as significant, and always offered time to discuss and address those situations.”
For those looking to advance in other areas of the tech field, Tay offers this advice:
1. Find study partners. “Reading up on your own is a huge part of leveling up as a technologist,” Tay explains. Although extra study time outside of work is needed to get ahead, spending that time alone or not socializing because you’re studying can be difficult. “Find a group of people, whether it be mentors or just friends, that have a similar goal where you need to sit down and work, but also socialize at the same time.”
2. Don’t be discouraged by rejection. “Tech is hard. But getting into tech is its own difficult problem,” Tay admits. While breaking into the world can be hard, she highlights the importance of not giving up. She has seen many people giving up 80% of the way there. “That's so sad because it's just gritting through the last 20% that will get you there. And the thing that helps in those last moments is to realize that you are ready.”
Tay reflects on moments in her career when she struggled to find the role that was right for her. “At that point, I thought I couldn’t do this because if this company rejected me, who would ever take me,” she admits. “However, there's going to be something other than your lack of work experience in tech that makes them say yes. Finding that one company is your goal, and if you apply enough, you will find it. Don't give up.”
3. Build trust with a mentor that is in your desired career. If you have a certain career goal in mind, find someone in that place. “It's worth it to take the extra step, to look for people you want to emulate, and to build a relationship with them. A lot of what mentors have helped me with is telling me I’m supposed to be here and not to give up. But, if you haven’t built up trust with your mentor, then you won't be convinced by those encouraging conversations.” Finally, if you find an incredible person like that, “action their feedback even if you are busy. Nothing makes a mentor want to invest more like seeing their positive impact on your career… that starts with you doing your homework.”
Want to join Datadog’s supportive team? Check out their openings!
How Equinix’s SVP of Platform and Product Empowers Her Team to Make an Impact
Yun Freund considers her background to form the “typical immigrant story” — but sitting down with the SVP of Platform and Product at Equinix, it’s clear she’s made it her own.
“I came to the United States about 30 years ago with $80 in my pocket. I earned a CS degree from a Beijing university when computer science was new. I was good at math, so that’s what I studied,” explains Yun.
Fast forward a few decades, and Yun is now running one of the largest organizations at Equinix, a Fortune 500 digital infrastructure company focused on providing an interconnected platform to its global 10k customers. While focusing on external growth — the business has grown nearly 40% since her arrival — Yun has also invested in internal progress, especially when it comes to Equinix’s Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DIB) goals.
“I know first-hand how hard it is, as an Asian and a woman, to be able to survive and excel at a workplace, and I’m proud of how Equinix has grown to be an amazing workplace where employees feel that they are safe, belong, and matter,” says Yun.
That’s not just her opinion. Glassdoor confirms this, having given the company a “best place to work” distinction in 2021, and a special award for best places to work for LGBTQ+ equality list by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation.
We were excited to learn more about Yun’s strategies for empowering her team — including her belief that making room for failure is just as important as celebrating success.
The Intersection of Technological Innovation and People Management
Yun first heard about Equinix through a recruiter. Decades into her career in tech leadership, she was looking for a role where she could drive innovation in both technology and people management.
“After many rounds of discussion with our executives, I realized Equinix is a company that’s full of potential. It was doing a lot of innovation on interconnected SaaS products and networking products, and I thought I could really help drive, from a culture and process perspective, the company's digital transformation journey,” reflects Yun.
Her first order of business? Building a strategy for scaling product development. Yun had long worked at the intersection of engineering and people management, and she embraced the challenge to scale a talent strategy as well as changing the culture.
That resulted in clear growth — not just for Yun’s career, as in promotions and new responsibilities, but also in what the company was able to do.
“Helping to cultivate a DevOps culture, move products to the Cloud for high reliability and availability, and build operational excellence for our customers is contributing to us fulfilling our purpose, which is to be the platform where the world comes together, enabling the innovations that enrich our work, life and planet,” says Yun.
Diverse Ways of Measuring Impact
Yun doesn’t manage her team by the balance sheet alone.
“Improving the bottom line, or operating more efficiently, is just as important as improving the top line, or driving more revenue and more customer adoption,” she says. “Sometimes it’s not about how we get new products and services out the door, but how we run things more efficiently.”
For Equinix, says Yun, that includes committing to becoming carbon-neutral by 2030.
“We’re a company that really touches life every day, from online shopping, to sending emails and streaming movies, to smart cars,” says Yun. “We want to be doing that sustainably. For example, by using AI and machine learning to lower our power consumption and using green sources of energy.”
Yun knows that to drive the most impact, Equinix needs a diverse team. She has partnered with other senior leaders and employee connection groups and started driving a more coherent DIB strategy across the company. She is excited to see the progress and wants to continue the effort in building a diverse and safe workplace for everyone — including by leading through her own example.
3 Key Ways to Empower Your Team
When Yun says that it’s important to empower your team, she doesn’t mean that you simply transfer the responsibility to your team and call it done. Here’s what she does mean:
- Embrace failure. “It’s easy to say, ‘Ah, empowerment. Here’s the purpose, go drive impact.’ But sometimes it’s not all rosy,” she says. “The road to empowerment can sometimes be a failure. How do you support your employees along the way? When they fail, you should not blame them. You should be there, on their side, to help them do a retrospective and learn from it.”
- Show trust via delegation. “Giving your team the opportunity to make their own decisions helps give them a purpose. It shows them they can make a difference. Accountability and ownership will help drive your team to have deeper engagement and commitments, and ultimately deliver results.”
- Tie individual responsibilities to company OKRs (Objectives, Key Results). “I always communicate to my team that every engineer and individual contributor’s work will have an impact on the business, no matter how small that is,” says Yun. For example, if an engineer is working on a new digital experience component for the customers, their work will contribute to some kind of business outcome such as, hours saved from many customer support calls or customer satisfaction score improvement, and that in turn drives operational efficiency and customer experience improvement for the whole business. “When employees realize their impact on the business, it elevates their motivation as well as their state of mind.”
Looking to join an empowerment-first culture? Check out Equinix’s open roles!
Careers in Web Development: Which One's For You?
We all have our favorite websites– the ones we frequent, bookmark, and recommend to others. You might even enjoy some website features so much that you’ve found yourself wondering why they aren’t more popular. Or maybe you’ve experienced times where you were frustrated with a website and wished you could add features or even design your own!
If you’ve ever found yourself intrigued at the prospect of designing and developing your own websites, then a career as a web developer might be just for you!
As a web developer you would be responsible for coding, designing, optimizing, and maintaining websites. Today, there are over 1.7 billion websites in the world and, in turn, the demand for web developers is on the rise. In order to figure out what kind of web development work best suits you let’s start with an introduction to the three main roles in web development that you can choose from.
The Three Types of Web Development Jobs
Front-End Web Development: The Creative Side
Think of front-end development as the décor of a house. The color scheme, furniture, manicured lawns, and overall aesthetic. In terms of a website, front-end development is laser-focused on the appearance of a website and its presentation on different devices. If you’re considering a role in front-end development, it’s important to learn programming languages such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. These three languages go hand-in-hand. HTML allows you to create user interface elements, CSS helps you with stylistic elements, and JavaScript allows you to incorporate online tools and connect your website to back-end functions.
In addition to programming skills, front-end developers need to be detail oriented, creative, willing to keep up with the latest trends in web development, cyber security conscious, and geared toward user-friendly designs. The median salary for a front-end developer can reach well into the $90,000 to $100,000 range.
Back-End Web Development: The Logical Counterpart
While a house can be beautifully decorated, it’s incomplete without a solid foundation and efficient infrastructure. Similarly, a well-designed website depends on logical and functional code to power the features of that website. Back-end web development is code-heavy and focused on the specifics of how a website works. If you enjoy the analytical challenge of creating the behind-the-scenes code that powers a website, then back-end development is for you.
Since this role is more code-heavy, it’s important that you learn numerous programming languages and understand algorithms and data structures. Some languages that are essential to back-end development are Ruby, Python, SQL, and JavaScript. Back-end developers also ensure that users can successfully retrieve and access data. This requires creating and using APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) which act as messengers that relay data related requests. Additionally, developing the code for the inner workings of a website also requires back-end developers to be conscious of the user interface features designed by front-end developers and to internally mitigate potential security risks. Due to the increased technical aspect of this position, back-end developers normally earn higher salaries than front-end developers. The average median salary for this role is around $118,000 per year.
Full-Stack Web Development: A Little Bit of Everything
A full-stack developer is essentially the Jack (or Jill)-of-all-trades in web development. Full-stack developers need to be knowledgeable about both front-end and back-end roles. This does not necessarily imply that you would need to be an expert in both roles, but you should fully understand the different applications and synergies they each imply. In order to work in this position, you will need to know the programming languages used by front-end and back-end developers. In addition to these languages, full-stack developers also specialize in databases, storage, HTTP, REST, and web architecture.
Full-stack developers are often required to act as liaisons between front-end and back-end developers. Full-stack developers need to be both problem solvers and great communicators. The end goal for a full-stack developer is to ensure that the user’s experience is seamless, both on the front-end and on the back-end. In return, you can expect to earn a median salary of $100,000 – $115,000 a year for this role.
Taking the Next Step
Web development is both in-demand and lucrative! All three roles described above contribute to specific aspects of web development and the scope of each one can be customized to the industries and positions you feel best suit you. Regardless of which role you choose, all of them need a foundation in programming.
To gain the programming skills needed in each role, you can enroll in courses or learn independently. Coding bootcamps are a great way to boost your skillset quickly and efficiently.
Click here for some of our highly rated programming bootcamp options! Make sure to check out the discounts available to PowerToFly members.
A Successful Job Search Requires Strategy. Learn How To Approach It In The Best Possible Way!
💎For a successful job search you need to be very strategic, focused, and intentional about your career. Watch the video to the end to get advice on how to achieve it!
📼Be successful in your job search by identifying the career goals you’d like to achieve over the next 12 to 18 months. LaMont Price, Senior Recruiter, and Meg Fronckowiak, Senior Talent Acquisition Recruiter at Tenable, share with you the benefits of having a short-term career development plan and understanding your unique value proposition.
📼A successful job search requires you to take a deep dive into the job description. Look at your resume and try to match the skills and the qualifications and highlight that on your resume, so it stands out. Secondly, do your research. You want to make sure that you've taken a look at the company website. You've looked at the leadership of the company, the size of the company, and the culture of the company. And to go one step further, look at the interviewer. Look them up on LinkedIn, and take a look at their background. Recruiters always look for people who have great insightful questions that show the level of research the person did.
📼You’ll be successful in a job search if you know how to face the interview process. Every interview includes some don’ts. Don't be late. There's nothing worse than showing up late for an interview. Dress Professionally. Try to be in a quiet place so that you're not distracted. Get through the interview process, show that you're engaged, and have good body language. At the end of the interview, you always want to ask if there's any question that maybe you weren't able to answer. And always ask about the interview process to get a good understanding of the timeline.
A Successful Job Search Requires Research - Learn About A Company’s Values!
Recruiters need to know if you are aligned with the company’s culture. If you want to apply to Tenable, you should know that its core values are diversity, equity, and inclusion. They work together and they win together, and this is an idea that resonates throughout the entire organization. Tenable celebrates all of its employees. This allows them to focus on the equal representation of women and minorities in technical roles, sales roles, and leadership roles. The company provides training for all of its employees in diversity, equity, and inclusion. This helps employees to understand how their behaviors can impact others. Make sure to show that you are aligned with these values during your interview!
🧑💼 Are you interested in joining Tenable? They have open positions! To learn more, click here.
Get to Know LaMont Price and Meg Fronckowiak
Over the last 25+ years, LaMont Price has researched, analyzed, and optimized services and products by exploiting the latest tools and tactics aligned with the strategic goal via Attention, Differentiation, Trust, and Memorability. Meg Fronckowiak has been working in the recruiting and talent attraction since 2003 and she spent the majority of her career working across all disciplines including, Building out GTM Teams, Accounting & Finance, Marketing, Operations, and Sales Leadership. If interested in a career at Tenable, you can connect with LaMont and Meg on LinkedIn. Don’t forget to mention this video!
More About Tenable
Tenable empowers all organizations to understand and reduce their cybersecurity risk. Over 30,000 organizations, more than 50% being fortune 500 companies worldwide, rely on Tenable to help them understand and reduce cybersecurity risk. The company has some of the greatest minds. That’s because they bring people who come from diverse backgrounds and give them the resources and support to partner together to bring new ideas to life.
Monica Arias of Chainalysis on How Underrepresented Talent Can Break into the Tech Industry
Monica Arias has long been interested in the new and the next. That interest is what drove her to work in national security after 9/11, and in the cryptocurrency space after learning about modern-day crimes committed on the blockchain.
One thing she has noticed every time she’s been somewhere new: the importance of having a diverse early team to shape it.
“We need minorities to be willing to take a chance and apply to firms like ours and other tech firms,” says Monica, who is currently a Federal Business Development Lead at Chainalysis, a blockchain data platform. “As these companies grow rapidly, we need diverse candidates who can offer diverse thoughts and approaches to problems.”
Monica currently works closely with the Chainalysis federal government team to pursue opportunities to support customers that are in need of Chainalysis data to track blockchain criminals and bring them to justice. She was well-prepared for some parts of the job after holding various roles but had to come up the curve on technical skills — which is why she’s sure that other candidates like her, from non-technical, underrepresented backgrounds, will be able to do so, too.
We sat down with Monica to hear more about how marginalized people can break into crypto and best position themselves for success in the field.
Connecting to a Bigger Mission
Growing up around DC, Monica got early exposure to federal service. From a young age, she knew she wanted to help represent and advocate for people.
She went to law school, thinking that would be the best path to fulfilling her goals. But living through 9/11 inspired her to support national security missions more actively. That’s how she got her first exposure to her now-employer — she brought in Chainalysis for a demo to learn how to on leverage their blockchain analysis tools.
“I’ve always wanted to be a part of something that had a bigger mission,” says Monica. “And the crypto space had that.”
It wasn’t just any crypto company that interested Monica, though. She particularly liked the company’s innovative culture and fast growth.
“Chainalysis is a very open and encouraging place,” says Monica, who came in to interview at the startup having studied up on crypto, but never having worked in the field or with blockchain technology.
“The culture is very much about learning, and they’ve created an environment where they enable you to do so. The underlying foundation is ongoing learning, and soliciting ideas on how to evolve and expand.”
Leveraging a Non-Technical Background
Monica gets what it’s like to not want to apply to an opportunity because you feel underqualified — that’s what happened to her.
“In some conversations, the feedback I received was that I didn’t have enough of a technical background and that therefore it would be challenging to go and join a tech firm,” she says. “It’s a big deterrent for so many people. And it also compounds things. Because if you’re a minority or from an underrepresented group, you’re already less likely to apply. And if you have no technical background, you’re even less likely to do so.”
How did Monica break through that? She got creative.
“I had to take a step back and say, ‘You know, I have skills. How can I transfer those into a non-technical role supporting a tech firm?” she says.
We asked her to share more about what that process was like, and here’s what she said:
5 Tips as You Gear Up to Be Competitive in the Tech Industry
- Find firms that are in fields you find interesting. Since you’re going to have to do a lot of learning, find a tech firm that is involved in a field you are excited about. Monica found her interest - crypto! She’s excited to continuously be learning about the rapidly changing crypto landscape. She added, “the tech industry can be demanding so you need to stay motivated about the work you’re doing and believe in the company you’re with.”
- Find firms that are open-minded, too. Interviewing at Chainalysis even without technical skills on her resume didn’t pose a problem for Monica. That’s because they were willing to look at her in her entirety. “It’s not just, ‘Do you fit A, B, and C,’ but ‘Do you have the overall skills and ability to learn and grow in this type of field?’”
- Recognize your transferable skills. Monica coaches other people with non-technical backgrounds like hers to start by acknowledging their accomplishments in their own fields. “What have you done? Is it people managing? Because these firms manage people in one way or another. Those and other skills can be leveraged and transferred,” says Monica. “Literally, make a list and identify those skills, then highlight those skills throughout your resume.”
- Remember that most people are in the same boat. “You won’t come across too many candidates who have 10 years of crypto experience, because this field is new,” says Monica. “The perfect candidate who meets every single qualification listed in a job ad may not exist so instead recruiters — especially those who are good at their jobs - spend time getting to know candidates. But they can't get to know you if you are deterred from applying by thinking you don't meet all the qualifications.”
- Study up. Monica follows crypto influencers, keeps up with crypto companies on LinkedIn, follows government statements on crypto, and reads reports put out by her firm and others. “If this is your focus, you need to read, talk, and network — just be curious,” she says.
Does a job at Chainalysis sound right for you? Check out their open roles!