Carla Flores, security specialist at Broadcom and member of SHARE’s Women in IT committee, was exposed to computer programming as a freshman in high school. She took an extra course in programming during study hall to learn more, and she was hooked. Science and math were her strong subjects and programming was a logical fit. “When I learned what I could do, I was so excited to put my skills to use at home. I thought I could help with the family business,” she says. “My dad had been hand-writing invoices for years and my mom would do all of the other back-office work. I went home and told my parents I could write a program to run their accounts payable (AP) and accounts receivable (AR) and produce bi-monthly printed invoices.” Flores’ parents agreed and she was off and running with her Commodore 64 that ran Commodore BASIC. “Yes, my first 8-bit home computer,” she comments. “I wrote my first practical use AP/AR system in the first week. I sold my parents on the idea and got added to the payroll to do billing for the family business.”

When Flores started at ICM School of Business (now part of the Kaplan Career Institute), she was fortunate enough to have a female career counselor. She says her time at the technical school and help from her counselor laid the foundation she needed to better understand the IT field. Flores notes that many of her educators had corporate jobs prior to teaching, and their advice became invaluable. After graduating, she worked night shifts in a data center where she learned all kinds of skills beyond programming. She quickly moved up the ranks, working in scheduling and printing, as an operations lead and systems engineer in Unix, and finally as an administrator and engineer in security, which Flores says happened by accident. “Not only was I afforded many opportunities in the data center, I quickly realized that my technical skills could be used in other places, like product management, product marketing, and technical sales,” she explains.

Flores also credits her participation in the Data Processing Management Association (DPMA, now the Association of Information Technology Professionals) with helping her career. “Those monthly meetings bored me back then,” she says, “but I think they gave me the skills I needed to interact with the local area IT folks.” One manager later nudged her to participate in Toastmasters to gain confidence in speaking, and Flores says that was some great advice. She remembers often being the youngest, and the only, female in meetings when she started in IT. But she focused on building her credibility and creating a name for herself.

Flores is now a member of SHARE’s Women in IT committee, which looks to engage female IT leaders throughout the industry. She is happy to participate as a way to grow networking opportunities for women and help them navigate their own careers. By nurturing other women in the IT field, she believes SHARE can help its members foster not only a more diverse workforce, but also inspire other young women to consider an IT career.