It is with great honour that I introduce today’s Interview with an IT Professional, Sonja Bernhardt. Sonja is one of the most influential women in ICT within Australia. In 2005, Sonja was the first Australian inducted into the Hall of Fame for Women in Technology International (Silicon Valley). She is a world class leader, and a mentor to many. Sonja was the mastermind behind the recent Screen Goddess Calendar, which helped raise the image of ICT around not only Australia, but throughout the world.
Sonja, you have achieved so much already in your career. What would be your highlight so far?
Definitely The Hall of Fame, as not only did that place me with ICT greats such as the ENIAC Programmers, Anita Borg and Fran Allen but it also brought together dvd footage of things I had done – and often I just get out and do things and move on – whereas at the HOF ceremony I (along with the audience) sat and watched a dvd production of my achievements in life, family, work, and voluntary involvements and it amazed myself! I walked up to the stage very proud and very very emotional. In fact back in Australia people who have seen the ceremony coverage say when I was giving my acceptance speech that they have never heard my voice so emotional! (and I tend to do a fair bit of public speaking!)
At HOF I met Jean Bartik (eniac programmer) and Fran Allen – photos attached, plus the President of Anita Borg Institute. Besides I had never been to Silicon Valley and it is a major part of the IT industry, driving around and seeing places like Palo Alto, Santa Clara that I have read about was a major buzz. Another buzz was visiting Hawaii, Disneyland and Seaworld-San Deigo before the awards ceremony.
(Sonja with Jean Bartik) 
(Sonja with Fran Allen)
You have held many roles in the ICT industry, from a published author, to a Director and CEO, project manager and a mentor. Which roles have you enjoyed the most?
Top of the list is owning my own company and having a positive influence on it’s direction. I started my company in February 1999 within a month of being made redundant at a major ICT firm – and from that moment on I never wanted to be made redundant again so have worked hard to ensure that my firm is flexible enough to ride the cyclical ebbs and flows of the industry. It is extremely thrilling to scan the environment, spot possible futures and guide your own firm into that direction in productive and effective ways.
As a side issue the other role I enjoy the most is being mum to my 4 year old darling daughter Kira. I have children from my first marriage a 25 year old daughter and a 23 year old son (had a 19 year break between having my children) and I have to say the experience of being an older parent who is more comfortable with my career, confident in myself, not worried about money or relationships has made parenthood this time around an awesome experience. PS my son and his wife will be having a baby in August so Kira will be an aunty at the age of 4 and I will officially be a grandmother then.
What did you learn from the various roles?
The roles I learnt fundamentals I use in every day life are; call centre operator (I learnt detail analysis and the ability to inquire further) and project manager – with the exception of sales almost everything I do today as CEO has roots in project management – the planning, procedures, methodologies, people management, communications and budgeting I learnt in project management.
In a snapshot things I have learnt from some roles are:
Published author – Listen to feedback take it on board – gathering different people’s comments on your drafts is extremely valuable.
Director – Build relationships, look at how others operate, how they manage board meetings – decide what works best for you and the environment you are in, speak up, ask questions, be informed.
CEO – Value people as individuals – value their ability to think like mature adults and work their way through how to achieve something that aligns best with the overall organization. Provide an environment of flexibility and productivity.
Project Manager – The majority of issues come back to communication – lack of, inappropriate or not with the right people.
Mentor – All parties in a mentoring relationship gain value. There are lessons to learn from everyone regardless of hierarchy, background or experience.
Many people seem to live their lives working the normal 9-5 jobs. In order for you to have achieved what you have, you have obviously worked a lot more. What has been the driving force behind your demonstrated commitment?
Passion passion and a little more passion combined with an everlasting supply of energy and enthusiasm. When you find what you love to do – and IT and it’s immense potential to improve our lives is what I love to do then the passion flows and drives me forward.
In a way the comment about hours is true – once I calculated hours I spent on voluntary industry activity, it came to me ‘giving away’ one quarter of my income earning capacity each year plus half of every weekend spent on voluntary activity – however I don’t see my ‘work’ hours as black and white as that.
I view myself as an integrated being where my life rather than home/work/other is actually a ‘portfolio’ – where almost everything I do in whatever aspect of my life contributes to other aspects/portfolios. Meaning if I am at a social networking event I am both applying skills re: talking, networking, building relationships as well as information and knowledge sharing – and that is of value to me as a person and to my business. If I am working on the business then I am also working to build a future for my family both financially and future technology wise. If I am bike riding with my family then I am clearing my mind to allow clarity of thought and health relaxation which is value adding for my business.
What is your secret behind having such a fulfilling career?
In the end it all comes down to a word most people cringe at…philosophy…
Philosophy and knowing who you are, why you do things the way you do, what your fundamental principles are, how you think and why, why others think the way they do and how they perceive you. When you get that worked out you then take on board things aligned with your philosophy and ‘things’ click.
I am a strong believer in objectivism – where I value reality and reason and writings by Ayn Rand www.aynrand.org I know what I do not believe in and why – and what I believe in and why.
Is there anything that you would like to achieve that you haven’t yet?
I’d LOVE to attend a Grace Hopper Conference
I plan to build my company to a multi million firm yet still maintain the highly flexible work from home arrangements for everyone.
I’d like to win an Anita Borg Award
Through AWISE – Australian Women in IT and Science Entity awise.org.au that I co-founded and am current president and chair of I want to establish an Australian Hall of Fame for Women in IT so that we uncover the many women in Australian who have significant it achievements.
I’d like to see a global linking of all the women in IT groups and active parties around the world – so we can benefit from all the lessons learned and IP and reduce duplicated efforts and wasted funds.
The Screen Goddess Calendar was such a terrific idea. The photos were so beautiful. What have been some of the positive outcomes from producing the calendar?
Worldwide hotly debated discussions – that raised the profile and awareness of the real issues that has since resulted in increased serious publications on the topic of the declining take up of IT studies and careers of females. Stories have been published in dozens of countries and languages.
People moving careers and taking up roles in IT.
Schools adjusting ICT curriculum for year 11 and 12’s to include screen goddess discussions and chats/meetings with the calendar ‘models’.
Universities using goddesss images at induction and career days.
Researchers publishing reports and conference papers that the different approach taken has had positive impacts versus some traditional approaches.
LOTS more in fact we have a screen goddess scorecard that will shortly be available for download from the web site that outlines a large majority of the outcomes. http://itgoddess.info/
Did it achieve what you intended it to achieve?
Over achieved on all the ‘soft’ objectives but underachieved (read failed) on the one hard objective (financial). In fact it personally cost me $25,000 plus 6 months of time away from my business. However it was a risk I chose to take.
The hard objective was to raise funds to give back to the women in IT groups to run projects and activities – obtaining funds is generally a major issue for the voluntary groups and this was one way to have a pool of funds available. And of course I was hoping to receive some funds to pay for my time spent on it – but it did not workout that way – so I lost cold hard cash and time – but gained a worldwide culture change.
PS classic example of portfolio operations as due to screen goddess the media in Australian and overseas came to know me – which has since been of value to my business and will I imagine will continue to be so for the future – re: it seems that when a journalist personally knows and has met you there is a better chance that your media releases will be read and published.
What kick started your enthusiasm and passion to get more women into IT?
Classic story actually – it will sound dramatic but it is true. In late 1996 I was lying in a hospital bed 24 hours from death from an extremely infectious air borne disease – I was given massive doses of medication and had 3 months off work. During that time of recovery I thought through my life and changed a few things
1) decided I did not want to move overseas with my job, as just before getting sick that was the plan
2) decided to buy a house
3) decided to find a partner and
4) realized that I knew some great women in IT but they did not know each other – so I decided to do something about it.
I went back to work, changed my role there so I did not need to move overseas, bought a house and forgot about the other 2 ‘things to do’ – until early in 1997 when one of those great women in IT I knew had lunch with me and during that lunch I remembered my resolve – so I dashed out ran back to work, called the IIB in Queensland – a government body that assist IT industry, and spoke to people there about the concept of a network for women in IT. They provided me with $5,000 funds to get started and also invited a group of women to attend an inaugural meeting – and that is how WIT – Women in Technology in Qld started! www.wit.org.au
Activities WIT has since undertaken have continued to fuel my enthusiasm and passion. And now I have moved on to create AWISE on a national level. http://awise.org.au
And PS it was via a later WIT activity that I met my now wonderful husband (Robin) so all 4 of my resolves were actioned.
What would you recommend to someone if they were to follow in your footsteps?
Life is full of ups and downs you MUST believe in yourself to remain positive throughout them.
To do so make sure you spend time understanding yourself – that will be your armour!
What plans do you have next?
Some other goddess like initiatives (when I financially recover).
Open some overseas arms of my business.
Continue to be myself.
), the ACS Young IT Conference for 2008 will be held in Adelaide. Next year we are hoping for the conference to be an international one. Last week I was asked by the Director of the Young IT Board, Yohan Ramasundara if I would be the conference chair. I accepted the request, mainly as I saw it as an opportunity to mentor the South Australian Ambassadors further.
