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>> Hey everyone.
Welcome to theCUBE's coverage of the International
Women's Showcase for 2022.
I'm your host, Lisa Martin.
I'm really excited because for the first time in my CUBE
career of six years, I have a father daughter duo
maybe the first time in CUBE's history.
Frank and Emma Arrigo from AWS join me guys
it's great to have you on the program.
>> Great to be here thank you.
>> So, Emma, let's go ahead and start with you.
Talk to us about how you got to AWS
and a little bit about your background.
>> Yes, thanks Lisa.
So I've joined AWS as a recent graduate from university.
So I did my masters of data science
and I was going through the grad,
the grad job hunt applying for all these different places.
And AWS appeared on my radar for an intern program.
And Frank was there at the time and so I was like,
"Should I do it?"
But I still applied cause it was a great program.
And so I went did that internship for three months
over the summer of 2019-2020,
and then I went back and finished my degree.
And another grad role came up for in AWS
in Tech U to be an associate solutions architect.
And so I was approached to apply for that.
And I got through to that program and joined the team
almost a year ago in March, 2021 through Tech U
and yeah, that's how I ended up at AWS.
>> Excellent and so Frank, this is a pretty unique situation,
father daughter duo at AWS let alone Amazon,
let alone probably a lot of companies.
Talk to me about it the parental lens.
>> Yeah, look it is unique,
there's a few family connections within AWS,
but you know, definitely here in Australia,
it's really rare, but I think the family connection is,
you know Emma and we've got four kids,
I've got four kids in total.
So Emma has three brothers,
you know, I've lived in tech, my entire career
and so they've been part of it.
You know, we've lived in the States,
lived in Seattle for a couple of years.
And so they'd come to the office
and see what dad did.
And so it wasn't a big surprise
for them to understand what
the role was and what we did, so, you know,
they kind of grew up with it.
And you know, when the opportunity came up
for Emma, did the internship,
I was excited for it because it was in a different area.
It was working in a startup team doing some interesting work
that really lined up with some of the interest Emma had.
And so she kind of learned what it was like to be Amazonian
through that internship and that was...
I call that a long audition for a job.
And she was then able to join Tech U program,
which is a early career bootcamp, I like to think of it,
which is the six month program
to help our grads learn some of the fundamental skills
because the value of a solutions architect or some of these
other tech roles is you need experience.
You need to have been in the game a while to be a trusted
advisor to a customer.
And it's hard to do that when you're a grad.
So the bootcamp gives them the practical experience and then
they get another six months on the job experience where
they develop those skills and hone it
and get ready to, you know, be a trusted advisor
to the customers.
>> Right, and that's such a great...
I'm sure that's a tremendous opportunity to learn how to
become that trusted advisor, especially from peers,
such as yourself and I want to go back to you.
Talk to me about your interest in IT, in data science.
Was this something that you were always interested
in primary school or in high school?
Or was this something that kind of came on later on?
>> Yeah, so my interest in tech kind of
emerged as I went along in my education.
So when I was younger,
I really wanted to be an orthodontist for some reason.
I don't know why.
And then you just sort of in year eight and like early
school sort of didn't really know what I wanted to do.
Just sort of going through just trying to survive as a
teenage girl at high school at an all girls school,
didn't really have many, didn't really have career
aspirations, I guess,
and then one year I attended a information day at a
university about engineering and that just really sparked my
interest, I don't know why, but I was like,
I've always been obsessed with like factories and those
types of things and how things are made.
And so that really just sparked my interest and I never
really thought of it before.
And so then that put STEM engineering on my radar
and then I guess spoke with it about with the parents.
And then they mentioned that tech would be a like IT,
Information Technology would be really useful.
And so then we approached the school to ask if I could do IT
in year 11.
So that's sort of our second last year of high school.
And they said, "No, we couldn't do IT."
I couldn't go to the boys' school to do IT.
That girls don't do it or that not good at it.
And I wasn't allowed, and they wouldn't
let me do physics either.
So I moved school in for the final two of high school
to be able to do IT and physics to help, you know,
get to the course I wanted to do.
And so that was my journey into STEM.
So it wasn't really on my radar, but then events like this
and at university isn't it?
Organizations sparked my interest.
And then still when I entered university,
I didn't know exactly what I wanted to major in nor where I
wanted to work would never have thought it would be where,
with my father,
like I was aware of the world of IT and everything,
but I wouldn't, if you'd asked me in first year,
it wouldn't have been that I would probably,
we would've said, I don't know an academic or something.
I don't know.
And then, but again,
as the university went on and you attend networking events
or club things,
you sort of learn a bit more about the ecosystem.
And then that's where yeah.
Tech company sort of became where I was looking for jobs
and roles for when I finished up.
So that was kind of my journey to...
>> So what I love though, that you and Frank,
this is going to be a question for you, how Emma was told.
"No, you can't study IT.
No, you can't study physics.
You can't go to the boys school and do that either."
Talk to me about that, Frank,
from your perspective as a parent of a daughter,
and you said, I think she's got three brothers lucky, Emma,
but talk to me about that from your perspective,
in terms of going,
my daughter has really has an in a strong interest in this
and they're telling her no we're going to pivot and actually
change schools to be able give her the opportunities
that she wants to pursue.
>> Yeah. Look, as a parent, we were shocked.
You know, it was just an unexpected response, you know,
in a lot of ways,
the school that she was at was more of a finishing school
than anything else, you know,
preparing young ladies for marriage and, you know,
career as a, I don't know, I will leave it at that.
So we were really disappointed.
And so very quickly
we looked at other alternatives and other options
and we pulled Emma out of school and we knew it was like the
last two years are critical in Australia.
We don't have a middle school and a senior school,
it's all one, you know, combined thing.
But those last two years are all about getting ready
for university.
And so we made a really tough call and we picked her up,
dropped her into a totally new school.
It was co-ed school.
And then when we told her previous, her girl's school.
I actually spoke to the vice principal and he said,
"Oh, I can't believe you're sending her to a co-ed school.
She's going to struggle 'cause boys are
so much better in tech." And I was totally,
I was lost for words, right?
Because I felt back in my career and I had some amazing
female managers, leaders, role models in my time
that I worked for and I followed
and they were always struggling because, you know,
they were in the minority, but they were incredible,
you know, technologists and leaders.
And I just couldn't believe it.
So as parents we made the tough call. We picked Emma up.
We put her into another high school and she flourished,
you know, Emma started a club,
she got convolved with a whole bunch of other things.
When she graduated,
the teachers felt that she'd been there six years, right?
The whole time of it.
So she really made a mark, made an impact
at this school and so much so that her younger brother
then followed and went to that school
and completed his high school there as well.
But it, we just can't believe it.
And we tell it everyone, this story, you know,
we name the school, we won't name.
We choose not to name them here,
but we name the school because we just think it's really
terrible guidance and terrible advice.
Like we want people to follow their passion.
I tell my kids and I tell the folks when I speak to,
you know, early career folks, follow your passion first,
guess what the job will appear. Right?
You know, there'll be the...
The work will come if you do something that you love.
And then the second piece that I always say is,
"Every future job is going to be a tech job."
Technology is embedded in everything that we do.
So the fact that you say, "A girl can't do technology,"
you're limiting yourselves, right?
You don't want to think that, you want to think about the
possibilities rather than the things you can't do.
It's the things you can do.
And the things that you haven't even thought about doing.
So that's why, you know,
it was so exciting to see that experience with Emma,
and just seeing her grow through that
and she became a bit of a STEM advocate
at a high school as well.
So, she saw the value of her role model that helped her.
And she wants to be a....
Continue being a role model for others as well,
which again, I think is admirable, right?
It's about- >> Absolutely.
>> Shining a light and leading and as a parent,
irrespective that we work at the same company as a parent,
that's what you want to see.
You want to see your kids aim high
and inspire others. That's what she does.
>> Well, she's already been a role model too, I mean,
to your younger brother,
but one of the things that we say often,
and theCUBE does a lot for women in technology events.
And I'm fortunate to get to host a lot of those,
we say, "You can't be what you can't see."
So needing to have those role models who are visible.
Now, it doesn't have to be female necessarily.
and Frank you mentioned that you had female mentors
and role models and in your illustrious career.
But the important point is being able to elevate women into
positions where others can see and can identify,
"Oh, there's a role model.
There's somebody that might be a mentor for me,
or a sponsor down the road,
it's critically important." And as of course,
we look at the numbers in tech,
women in technical roles are still quite low, but Emma,
tell me a little bit about, you've been through the program.
You talked about that.
What are some of the things that you feel in like the last
six months that you've been able to learn that had you not
had this opportunity, maybe you wouldn't have.
>> You know, I think that's a great point.
So as a solutions architect, I get to be both technical.
So hands on building an AWS,
helping customers solve their problems,
whether it be a data leak or I don't know,
an image recognition tool to look for garbage dumped
on the street or,
and also thinking from the business perspective for the
customers, so that's a fun part as the, of the role,
but things I get to do.
So currently I'm working on a demo
for the conference in Sydney.
So I'm building a traffic detection model using some
computer vision and IOT so I get to bring my data science
background to this build and also learn about new areas
like IOT, Internet Of Things; Technologies.
So that's been a really fun project and yeah, just having
the ability to play around on AWS, we have...
>> Right. Well, the exposure in the experiences is priceless.
You can't put a price on that,
but being able to get into the environment,
learn it from a technical perspective,
learn it from a practical perspective.
And then of course get all the great things about getting to
interact with customers and learning how different
industries work, you mentioned you were in public sector.
That just must be a field of dreams, I would imagine.
>> I know.
>> In some senses for you, right?
>> Really have lucked out. I know it's, I'm like,
"Wow, this my job is to play around with some new service,
just because need to know about that
for the customer meeting.
Like I'm building a chatbot or helping build a chatbot
for a customer, at the university.
So yeah, things like that make it very, yeah.
It's a pretty amazing role.
>> It sounds, it sure sounds like it.
And sounds like you're are excelling at it tremendously.
Let me ask you Emma.
For young girls who might be in a similar situation to
where you were not that long ago with the school telling
you, "No, you can't do IT."
"No, you can't do physics."
So you actually switched schools.
What would you tell those young girls who might be
in that situation about hearing the word, "No."
And would you advise them to embrace a career in technology?
>> Yeah, I would say that it really.....
What makes me so sad is if
my family didn't know about tech and had my...
Supported me through that like if I would've just gone,
"Oh, okay. I won't do it." You know what I mean?
Like that just makes me really sad.
How many people have missed out on studying
what they wanted to study.
So by having those types of experiences,
so what I would say as advice is, "Back yourself,
find supporters, whether it be your family
or a teacher that you really sort
of connect with, to be able to support you
and through these decisions."
And yeah, I think having those sponsors in a way,
your advocates to help you make those choices
and help support you through those choices.
>> Yeah. I agree.
And I have a feeling you're going to be one of those sponsors
and mentors, if you aren't already Emma,
I have a feeling that's just around the corner from you.
So Frank, last question to you.
What's the overall lesson here, if we look at statistics,
I mentioned some of the stats about, you know,
women in technical roles as usually less than 25% globally.
But also we see data that shows that companies are more
profitable and more performant
when there's at least 30% of the executive suite it's women.
So from your parental perspective,
and from an Amazonian perspective, Frank,
what's the lesson here?
>> Well, look from an Amazonian perspective,
we need to make sure that we have a team
that represents our customers, right?
And our customers aren't all boys.
You know, they're not all blokes, as we say down here.
So you've got to have a team that is made up of what
represents your customers.
So I think that's the Amazonian view.
And so diverse perspectives, diverse experience,
diverse backgrounds is what does that.
The other from a parent, you know, I said it earlier.
I think every future job is a tech job.
And I think it's really important that as kids come through,
you know, primary school, high school, whatever,
they're prepared for that,
they're already consumers of technology.
You know, they need to be creators or,
or participate in that environment.
And I can give you an example,
a few years ago, I worked for, at a large telco here.
And we actually invested in a thing called code club,
which was aimed at primary school kids, kids in grade four,
five and six.
So elementary school for my friends in America,
it's kids in grade four, five and six.
And they were learning how to use scratch.
Scratch is this interactive tool like building lego
to write programming and believe it or not,
there were more girls interested and were part of code club.
It was probably 60-40 was the ratio of young girls
doing it compared to boys
because it was creative, it was a creative outlet,
they were building stuff and assembling
and making these things that they loved to make. Right.
But then what we saw was there'd be a drop off at high
school, whether it's curriculum related or interests or
distractions, I don't know what it is, but
there things get lost along the way along high school.
But I see it at the primary school stage
at elementary school that the interest is there.
So I think part of it is,
there needs to be a bit of
a switch up in education or other opportunities
outside of school to really foster and nurture
and develop this interest because it
really does take all kinds to be successful in the role.
And Emma talked about a chatbot that she's building
and that's a conversational thing.
I can't see geek boys having
being able to impact and create a interesting conversation,
right. Then there's other areas that seems to be
skewed and biased based on a predominantly
male view of the world.
So we need the tech,
the industry needs these diverse perspectives
and these diverse views, because, you know, to your point,
it's going to impact the bottom line.
It's going to also deliver a better product and it's going to
reflect society.
It's going to reflect the customers that are using it
because we're made up of every,
every race and color, creed, gender.
And we need a team that represents that.
>> Exactly. I couldn't agree more.
Well,
it sounds like the Arrigo family are quite the supporters
of this, but also we need more of both of you.
We need more of the sponsors and the parents who are
encouraging the kids and making the right decisions
to help them get along that path.
And we need more folks like Emma and more women that we can
see, "Wow, look what she's doing
in such a short time period.
We want to be just like that." So you guys are,
have both been fantastic.
I thank you so much for joining me at the International.
Women's Showcase, more power to your family.
We need more folks like you guys, so great work.
Keep it up.
>> Thank you.
>> Thanks Lisa.
>> For Frank and Emma Arrigo, I'm Lisa Martin.
You're watching theCUBE's coverage
of International Women's Showcase 2022.
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