Sarah Spratley: Championing the next generation of women in tech

As a woman in science and technology, Sarah Spratley (BSc’88) has learned how to navigate the unique challenges that come with working in a traditionally male-dominated industry. After graduating from UBC in Computer Science, she worked for many years at IBM as a developer, project manager, and manager. Now a program manager at software company SAP, she also spends her time coaching students and advising them as part of UBC Computer Science’s Tri-Mentoring Program, where she has been a mentor for over 15 years.

In this Q&A, she explains how she began mentoring, why it’s important to give back to the community, and what she has learned about herself through mentoring.

How did you start mentoring at UBC?

When I started moving towards a project management career, I was lucky enough to be mentored by a very experienced IBM project manager while working on some projects with her. That experience made me realize how important it is to have someone who can mentor and help you, especially when you make career changes. I realized that mentorship really helps you get perspective on what your options are, what types of jobs are possible, what skills you have, and how you can grow and enhance your skills.

As I moved along my career path and realized that I had advice to offer people, I became interested in mentoring women in tech. I realized that as I looked around, the number of women in the field wasn’t increasing in any way. Around that time, somebody asked me to join the UBC Tri-Mentoring Program. Since then, I’ve mentored women specifically in the program. And it’s really fun—it gives me a lot of insight into how the industry is changing from the students’ perspectives. It also gives me a chance to reflect on my own career and think about who taught me and how I can share that information with the next generations.

Why did you feel it was important to become a mentor?

I have strong ties with UBC because my father graduated from and worked there. Now my daughter is at UBC, so I have pretty strong brand loyalty. Knowing that what helped me in my career was people ahead of me holding out a hand and helping me learn things, I wanted to do the same—to give back and encourage women because I saw that it was harder for us to be successful in a career in tech.

A lot of women in tech experience imposter syndrome. I dealt with that myself in my career, and I want to help women understand that they can get past it and share ways for them to deal with it. I also want to remind women that skills like communication, collaboration, team building, and multitasking are very useful strengths for software development, especially now that it’s a global endeavour and you’re generally working with people from many different cultures. I want to reinforce that—along with technical, management, and architecture skills—soft skills are really important skills for success.

What do you feel most proud of as a mentor?

I am proud to see my mentees turn into mentors. I’ve seen that happen a couple of times. As well, having my former mentees reach back to me and tell me that my mentorship was influential or that I helped them at a time that was difficult is very satisfying. I always encourage my mentees to reach back five or 10 years into their career to tell me what’s going on. Luckily, we can easily stay connected through LinkedIn, which is a great tool that didn’t exist 20 years ago.

Is there anything that you learned about yourself through mentoring?

I think that mentoring is a good reminder that I have experience that’s helpful to other people in the same way that other people’s experiences were helpful to me. It’s also a good reminder that I have to keep learning new things because technology, courses, and universities are always advancing. Mentoring reminds me that I have to keep my mind open to new things that are going to come along.

Is there anything that surprised you the most about being a mentor?

It surprises me that women are still having the same challenges that they had when I was graduating from UBC. I was lucky in my career that I didn’t face a lot of direct gender discrimination, but it’s always present in the industry and it’s very difficult when you come in as a younger woman to take your place at the table.

What would you say to alumni who are considering becoming mentors for UBC?

Do it! Since COVID, the ability to mentor virtually is a huge improvement because it used to be a bit of a hassle to figure out a time to meet in person and then go out to UBC . Now, we can do online meetings and that has made the logistics much simpler. So there should be fewer barriers for mentors. It’s rewarding to work with our mentees, but it’s also fun to meet the mentors because it’s a great cross-industry opportunity to network with people who are passionate about helping the next generation. For anybody who’s thinking about mentoring, there are very few downsides. I think it’s also part of our job as an industry to grow the next generation, and mentoring is such a penalty-free, pain-free way to get strong people into and connected to our industry.