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On Girls' Day , this year on March 28th, young women are encouraged to explore occupational fields that are seldom considered during their career orientation process. In an effort to produce a new, diverse generation of the workforce, technology companies, colleges and universities, research centers, and similar institutions are offering educational events for girls, ages 10 and up, in hopes of inspiring girls to pursue careers in STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics). Activities can range from lab work, educational workshops, games, or shadowing experts in the field to experience how interesting and exciting these kinds of careers can be – and Checkout.com was excited to participate in this year’s event!
What is Girls’ Day?
In 2001, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, the German Trade Union Confederation and the D21 initiative jointly launched a nationwide campaign called “Girls Future Day” in Germany, also known as the first official Girls’ Day. Inspired by America’s "Take Our Daughters To Work Day" (now known as “Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day”) female students in the U.S. have been visiting the workplaces of their parents on this day since 1993.
Why we need Girls’ Day
According to the organization, in Germany girls achieve better grades on average but more than half of girls choose from only ten occupations – and not a single technical or scientific vocation is among them. Women are also significantly underrepresented in study courses such as Engineering and Computer Science and collectively, are less likely to contribute and reach their full potential in these fields. Companies making the investment in Girls’ Day and similar female-driven initiatives stand to gain the upper hand in the long run.
What is Checkout.com doing for Girls’ Day?
Checkout.com’s Berlin office invited a group of 16 girls between the ages of 11-16 to give them a behind-the-curtains look into the exciting technology powering payments and e-commerce. The girls participated in an “escape room” challenge where they were presented with programming tasks that require learning and understanding IT concepts in order to solve the puzzle.
Tasks and challenges included:
- Learning the lingo: Bringing HTML code to a logical understanding
- Escape the maze: Learning that DNS (Domain Name System) is the “address book” of the internet to help them navigate through a virtual maze
- Code-breaking: Using “computer language” like binary code (0s and 1s) to uncover secret messages
Participating Checkout.com team members included:
- Senior Software Engineers: Adam Jasinksi, Marina Gluzberg, Chris Zioutas, Daniel Münch, and Kevin Reece
- Merchant Integration Specialist: Philippe Leonhardt
- Product Analyst: Dani Telkiyanova
Checkout.com is committed to building workplace diversity and the advancement of women in leadership and technology. We have sponsored and participated in numerous women-in-tech events and will continue to grow our participation. In addition, Checkout.com has recently launched our women employees resource group which gives our employees space to connect through open discussions, events and guest speakers, career mentorship, and much more.
We want to inspire the next generation of women to participate in the sciences and strive for equality in tomorrow’s technology-first world. The tech industry still has a long way to go but we remain committed to doing our best to advocate diversity and inclusion at Checkout.com.
Here's a look at our Girls' Day:
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