My career path as a woman CTO : Evelyne Notton
💖 The purpose of The Allyance is to help both companies and candidates: companies wanting to reach excellence in hiring and candidates wanting to find the perfect companies.
➡️ Let’s meet Evelyne Notton and understand how she got hired for management positions in tech thanks to The Allyance.
— — —Who are you? Tell us everything!
👩🏻🌾🌾 My name is Evelyne Notton, I’m 52 years old. I grew up in Vendée, in a family of farmers. Originally, I wanted to become a clarinet’s teacher but was advised otherwise. So I moved to the greenest zone of the Parisian region to study engineering at Supélec.
Since my graduation in 1995, I have been working as a back-end developer. In 2008, I started managing small technical teams in MarkTech (Marketing Technology) and AdTech (Advertisment Technology). I am a CTO (Chief Technology Officer) / VP of Engineering.
How did you meet The Allyance?
Though we were working there at the same time, I did not know Caroline when working at Criteo.
💻 But I do remember that we had quite a tough but interesting discussion about women in tech during an AdaWeek meetup, back in 2015…!
In late 2022, when searching for a new job, a friend from TechRocks recommended Caroline.
How did The Allyance help you?
I had just spent 4 years in the same job and kind of lost my sense of value. I needed change, but above all to understand what I could bring. I started looking for something new, preferably not in the MarTech.
🔎 When I contacted Caroline, she already had a few offers in mind. She identified the ones that could fit best to my skills and aspirations.
🥁 The hiring process was fast.
You are part of Tech Rocks. Can you explain what it is?
📢 Tech Rocks is a French Tech leaders community, created by the CTOs of famous French companies. Within Tech Rocks, we chat on Slack, we meet up regularly and organize a yearly Summit.
I’m just a member of Tech Rocks, mainly taking part in the focus group called “Tech Rocks Core”, gathering French Tech CTOs. In this group, we’re free to ask questions to the community and always get answers. Often, we realize that we all face the same problems.
➡️ Being a CTO can be very lonely, so I find it very helpful and relieving.
In Europe, only 2% of CTOs are women (source). What do you think?
Well, to be honest, I’m having a hard time understanding what’s wrong.
🧠 Obviously, friends at Tech Rocks often tell me about unconscious biases. On the other hand, I see my daughter who, no questions asked, enrolled in a engineering’s school. Of course, I understand that having a mother who’s herself an engineer made it easier for her to picture herself in the same job. Apart from these situations where one has a close role model, I indeed see that things change too slowly: when comparing my time to today, there’s not too much difference in the percentage of women in engineering schools.
Most importantly, as a woman in engineering, I was never affected by sexist situations, nor witnessed any of them. The way I see it, as we’re only a few, we’re privileged and taken care of.
Oh, and I forgot… Coming from a farmers’ background, my tolerance level for sexism might be quite high, which might also play a part in the way I see things!
🐘 Nevertheless, I’m hearing all these testimonials and am flabbergasted by each and every one of them. Recently, I read two articles in Developpez and Le Bon Digital (in French), so I cannot deny the existence of the elephant in the room… But I cannot quite point my finger on why it’s like that.
When you are not working, what do you do?
I play music! I have played the clarinet since I was a child and started playing double bass 15 years ago. Though I do work a lot, I manage to play 10 hours a week.
📚 Otherwise, I read a lot in my free time.
Why would you recommend other engineers to work with The Allyance?
🥇 Yes, and I already did!
The interaction was thorough: Caroline explained the offer clearly, analyzed how it could fit and prepared everything perfectly. I truly felt supported every step of the way and Caroline keeps on contacting me to know how I’m doing, so it’s long-term!
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CONCLUSION
A few words from Caroline, The Allyance’s CEO:
Evelyne is one of the people I admire the most. Because of her humility, she does not realize the role model she is for other engineers, especially women. Supporting her job search was of the successes I am the most proud of in 2022! I am 100% sure people managed by Evelyne are lucky to be guided by such humility and care.
✔️ Want more?
If you are interested in knowing more about The Allyance, feel free to get in touch with us.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: ✒️ Léa C, The Allyance Contributor:
“I joined The Allyance after Caroline and I met at a ionnalee’s concert! I am a freelance translator and content writer (French, English, Spanish and German). I also work as an administrative employee in the health and data science sector. So, I am not far from Caroline’s core topic! I am very active as a volunteer in social and environmental NGOs, where I always try to put intersectionality at the center of actions because I am convinced that every cause is linked to one another. It is readily apparent that Caroline and I share a lot of common interests, which is why we as friends decided to work together!”