Rising In Tech

Nazlina Quadir tells Poon Li-Wei how women are changing the tech industry.

- Poon Li-Wei

It’s not every day one gets to visit Google Malaysia’s office – and for the record, it’s every bit as cool as the pictures depicted on the Internet. But more importantly, I was there bright and early on a Monday morning to pick the brain of Nazlina Quadir, lead organiser for the Google Developer Group (GDG) Kuala Lumpur, and the woman who kick-started and leads the Malaysian counterpart of Women Techmakers, a global programme by Google that aims to empower women to stand out and participate in the local tech community. Just like the programme she helped to introduce locally, she’s a bubbly breath of fresh air driven by a passion to build women up in an industry so often deemed ‘a man’s world’.

NOT A TECH-HEAD

Her story of how she came to be where she is today is bemusing, considering her confession that she doesn’t speak the language of programming. “I studied multimedia production and did have to do a bit of programming – but only very little. I’ve always had this love for technology and the computer because it’s the most amazing thing to have ever been created!” she enthuses, and her energy is immediately infectious. She scrunches her nose a little though as she continues, “I became a multimedia producer but soon realised all my conversations were with the computer! I’m a people person and I love talking to humans. So, after two years, I knew it wasn’t for me and was fortunate enough to further my studies in Australia.” When she returned a year later, life soon led her down the corporate sector and her last job was in the public relations department of a bank.

A HAPPY ACCIDENTAL JOURNEY