Electronics Weekly
Today, Janet provides advice and guidance to the UK government’s Department of Science, Innovation and Technology, for the implementation of the National Semiconductor Strategy. She also co-designs policies and programmes to deliver the strategy and support the UK semiconductor sector, and encourages industry to align and take action towards the strategy’s goals.
Part of this role includes monitoring and steering actions taken by industry, academia and government to implement the strategy and to identify synergy with other UK technology priorities and users, for example, telecom, AI, net-zero and defence.
Janet’s first job after an engineering degree at Cambridge was as a semiconductor design engineer working in the US and the UK. Over eight years her team delivered 360 semiconductor designs to manufacturing. It was a high-pressure environment, she recalls, “with three-minute celebrations between designs then back to work”. The volume of designs enabled her to build from each chip design and maximise reuse, as well as hone the chances of getting the design right first time and efficient liaison with manufacturing.
Other roles Janet has held include applications engineer, international customer support, leading an Electrical and Mechanical Engineering Association (EMEA) technical product specialist team, services project management, global services sales, sales director UK and Ireland, EMEA product management director, strategic global account director and global ecosystem development. Today she is a member of the UK Semiconductor Advisory Panel, chair at Quantum Dice, chair at Machine Discovery, senior independent director and chair of the remuneration committee at EnSilica and non-executive director at the Aerospace Technology Institute.
Early inspiration
Both parents encouraged her to enjoy her studies. “My father was a civil engineer, mother was a primary school teacher – both were advocates of us doing endless reading, writing and fun projects,” she says. She recounts that her father would take her and her siblings on site visits after school and says it was fascinating to see projects go through from empty site to completion.
Other support came from a secondary school headmistress who constantly encouraged STEM learning, to the point that she refused to let Janet drop chemistry. She also remembers the maths teachers, “dedicated to bringing every single girl to excellence and were forever finding ways to individually tune their teaching”.
Her early career goal was to go into industry and not continue in academia. Her favourite subject was fluid mechanics and her dream job was to be an oil and gas engineer. She failed at the first hurdle however, recalling that the first oil and gas company interview lasted seven minutes in which she was told she could not be hired because she was a women and would not be allowed on oil rigs. “[The company] had just acquired a semiconductor company and told me that they would ask it to hire me. We hit it off and that became my dream career.”
It still wasn’t particularly plain sailing. For her first maternity leave (circa 1988), her manager phoned after two months to say she was needed back soon or else the company would have to hire someone else.Workplace experiences
Janet has seen “an increased corporate determination to not just hire women and other diverse candidates, but to create the conditions to attract, retain and develop women all the way to c-suite, for example, MBOs that include diversity metrics”.
She says she has not experienced much discrimination because of her gender, but does recall an interview when she was told that the interviewing panel had heard that she did not want to travel due to having two young children. “I had not said that. In fact, I fed one child for two years, my [breast] pump was a constant companion. (Hint – keep it in your hand luggage. Your luggage may get lost.)”
There were other instances where, in large meetings she was mistaken for the tea lady, she says, but “as I rose up the ranks it did get easier though that may have been because I was quite [a rarity].
“One improvement is the sexual in-jokes have reduced a lot. And when you complain the excuse of ‘Can’t you take a joke?’ is now deemed inappropriate,” she adds.
The power of words
For inclusivity, words matter – a lot, she believes. “A UK university changed the name of its engineering course from Engineering to Design Technology. Applications from women went from 10% to 35% in the next intake. The reason? They took Design Technology at GCSE, which spans from textile printing to heavy metal engineering.”
She continues that another way to nurture diversity is to identify and introduce processes to attract, retain and develop and to then set goals and measure constantly. She cites an example of a large company that received awards for improving gender balance in its graduate intake. Seven years later, it found that a significant proportion of the ladies compared to the male intake had left the jobs and/or the company. “It had happened unnoticed so exit interviews etc were not available.”
Janet has some tips for recruitment to ensure diversity. The first is to look out for unconscious bias in the job descriptions. “Not just the words used, look at the experience you request. Do you really need the degree?” she asks.
She would also hold recruiters to account when they say they cannot find a diverse candidate. “A US-based recruiter told me 10 years ago that he was on commission only and women ‘took longer to persuade to apply for roles despite being well suited’. His management said the fee would be higher if we insisted on seeing women.”
Role models are also important, Janet advises. “Expose both men and women to diverse senior women inside and outside the company; initiate a mentoring programme; visibly reward inclusive behaviour; celebrate when diverse staff win external awards (rather than simply posting a ‘like/applause’ emoji on LinkedIn) and encourage staff to join external diverse organisations that run programmes and convene events, for example, International Women’s Forum event with very senior women or the Deloitte Academy, KPMG webinars on a variety of topics.”
For Janet, women can bring particular talents to the workplace, including emotional intelligence, teamwork and the ability to see things differently. There are also obstacles peculiar to women around attracting them to and retaining them in the technology sector. She cites a lack of specific programmes to help women returning from maternity leave, for example, training, reorientation, flexible working. Janet believes it is key that companies ask what a returning employee needs rather than telling them what the company has put in place. Another obstacle is a lack of role models that prove the employer is committed to encouraging women, she continues, adding that companies should also encourage male allies, help them understand how they can help and to celebrate them.
Her solution to address these challenges? “Audit, put programmes in place, measure – rinse repeat,” she says. She also advocates celebrating diversity.
Future engineers
Janet’s advice for young women considering a degree in electronics engineering today is: “Go for it! You will be constantly learning”. She also has relationship advice: “Do pick the right partner that will share the running of the home with you.” Janet has two adult children, although she admits that leaving conversations about their careers until they were taking their GCSEs was too late. Today, she would advise anyone considering exam subjects to “hold on to a STEM subject or at least do a critical thinking course”.
