Hrefna Lina Ásgeirsdóttir, Developemental Manager at Tempo, was the first woman to graduate with a BSc for Software Engineering from HÍ in 2006. She’s currently studying for her Masters in Business Administration. In her work life she started out at Meniga and was there for 7 years, first as a QA (Quality Assurance)/Tester where she had to think outside the box and found that automatic tests were key to making her job easier. Then she moved up to project manager where she had to be motivated and driven to help her team to complete the project to create something new and exciting. In the end Hrefna was in charge of the entire Software Developement department.
Her next job was at Landsbankinn working on the backend right before the big crash. After that Hrefna left Iceland to study abroad and get an MSc in Design and Digital Media from University of Edinburgh and highly recommends that students try studying abroad if they can. She found it to be an eye opening experience. Upon her return home Hrefna began work at Advania and then a year later started working at Tempo, a company that creates time tracking for employees at many other companies such as Disney and AT&T. Although she’s only been working there for a little while she really enjoys working there, especially since she is able to use the tech she’s developing. Her job is as a Developmental Manager where she’s managing the software department and controlling many groups at the same time. In order to do so Hrefna must understand the tech being developed and be able to motivate all the groups.
When Hrefna came to talk at HR she had a lot of sound advice when it came to applying to jobs in the tech devision and undoubtedly everywhere else as well. When applying don’t worry so much if you don’t check all the boxes that they’re looking for. If a hirer meets with a person with a wonderful personality that would really fit in well with the team they’re more likely to be forgiving if they don’t tick all the boxes. Also don’t worry if you only know one programming language because the thought process behind each language is pretty similar. Try out different roles in a company, even if it isn’t something you had specifically in mind to do because you never know for sure what you like until you try it. Working at a startup is an especially experience if you get the chance to because then you learn how to do everything and are working in a smaller company and work environment. And lastly never give up.