Interview with 4 women in tech

What is your background ?

Amélie Khantharod - Business Consultant

A scientific baccalaureate in my pocket, a Preparatory Class and a competitive examination allowed me to join the "Ecole des Mines De Nantes", a general engineering school (which has now merged with Telecom Bretagne to form the Mines Telecom institute Atlantic). It was during my studies that I developed a more particular interest in information systems and telecoms.

I started working in 2009 at Société Générale in an application support team for the Bank's traders and salespeople, then I joined Total as Logistics applications manager (management and planning tool for transport routes). delivery, on-board IT in trucks). My role was to ensure that business needs were taken into account, manage a Third Party Application Maintenance team for bug correction and the development of new features, and manage the life cycle of applications and underlying infrastructures. I then held the role of Service Delivery Coordinator for the IT department, I had to ensure that the services provided complied with expectations and coordinate between the IT department and the subsidiaries in order to carry out the necessary infrastructure updates.

Family reasons brought me to Luxembourg in 2015, so I joined POST Telecom in 2016 as Project Manager. I led projects around different technologies (Unified Communications, Cloud, network and security) for our B2B clients from various sectors of activity. I was then entrusted with the creation of POST Telecom's Business Consultancy activity which aims to support our clients in facing the challenges they encounter, by adopting a global business analysis approach to understand their context, identify their needs, compare solutions and make precise recommendations adapted to their environment. I am responsible for this activity and therefore myself a Business Consultant since January 2020.

Uti Meier - Head of the Network Infrastructure Department POST Technologies

By training I am an engineer. After more than 10 years in the sale and production of sporting goods, I took a professional break to become the mother of 3 sons. Since 2004, I have worked at POST and have had the chance to work in the fields of marketing and sales, strategy and change management, but also in customer experience and telecom infrastructure operations. Most of my professional career, I have held a management position.

Elisabeth Dos Santos - Account Manager public sector

I worked for 7 years as an administrative employee in an Electricity, Heating and Sanitary company in Luxembourg. I started there at the age of 19 as an apprentice and I took care of responses to calls for tenders. I then had the opportunity to progress within the company in the Heating After-Sales Service department. I was in charge with a colleague of a team of +/- 5-6 people and we managed, among other things, the planning for installations, overhauls and repairs of boilers, supplier purchases and delivery notes for equipment, invoicing and claims.

In 2008, after the birth of my second child, I needed a new challenge and so I joined the Back Office team for LuxGSM professional clients. I sold by telephone, answered customer questions, and assisted salespeople by writing offers and preparing orders.

3 years later we joined P&T (today POST Telecom), that's when I became a salesperson and I've been working in this profession ever since. I started with small structure clients and over the years, I moved to the Medium segment (50-250 employees) and for several months, I have been in charge of public sector clients.

Given the constant technological evolution of the market, I moved from selling simple GSMs with subscriptions to selling ICT solutions: infrastructure, networks, storage, on-prem hosting, Cloud, IoT, etc.

Nastia Ribeiro – ConnectedOffice Installer

I studied at the technical high school of Esch-sur-Alzette (currently Guillaume Kroll) until 12th grade then I did a 13th grade “electrotechnician in energy”. I then entered the professional world as an intern at POST. Mom, I then found a job at Elco SA as an unqualified assistant and at the same time I was able to finalize my studies.

In 2021, I joined the “Installations & Troubleshooting” department for the ConnectedOffice product as an external collaborator to help with excess work. After a year, I joined the group as an internal employee, in the "Connected Business Products" department - "Planning and Installation" section.

What do you think are your strengths as a woman in this predominantly male environment?

Amélie has always evolved in a masculine environment, starting with her family, with 3 brothers.
“I believe the main thing to make this work is to develop some self-confidence and know your own worth. Undeniably, in business this can help if we encounter situations of gender inequality. On a daily basis, showing assertiveness allows you to ensure that you are well understood and assert yourself, but without being abrupt. This is important in all communication, but even more so as a woman in a very masculine professional environment. Of course I believe that being in your position, having the qualities and skills required for your job are necessarily necessary, but just as it is also for a man!"

“In my opinion, strengths are linked to the individual, regardless of gender." Uti

“I think that at the professional level women do not have more assets than men, I would rather say that everyone has their strengths and weaknesses. For example, a woman may be more observant, empathetic, listening, emotional while a man will be more rigid, negotiations are more direct. This does not mean that a man cannot be empathetic when necessary and vice versa." Elisabeth

“I bring a feminine and sometimes creative vision to my teammates." Nastia

What do you like most about your job?

For Amélie, it is the diversity of missions that clients entrust to us and the possibility of taking the time to understand the client and their business in order to propose tailor-made areas of development. “The human dimension is also very important in my job, not only with clients but also internally, with the need for coordination and collaboration with numerous teams. From an intellectual point of view, I particularly enjoy analyzing situations and identifying the best strategy for each client, and this is a real challenge in a constantly evolving environment offering a great wealth of technologies. I enjoy defining a strategy with the client and having positive feedback from the client subsequently during implementation, it is very rewarding."

For Uti, it is about the interaction with women and men, the diversity of the activity, the possibility of building and moving forward.

For Elisabeth, without a doubt, it is “customer recognition, exchange, constant learning, which allows me continuous personal and professional development."

For Nastia, it’s evolution and innovation. “In my job, we have this opportunity to evolve throughout our professional life."

What is your motto?

“Cultivate trust, dare to change and strive for excellence." Amelie

“Be positive. (Inter)act with respect and integrity." Uti

“Nothing is impossible, everything is in your hands." Elisabeth

“Never give up” Nastia