Supercharge Your Career with a WomenTech Mentorship

Lianna Balayan, Satenik Barseghyan

Nov 01, 2022 / 3 min read

According to a 2019 survey conducted by the Global Semiconductor Alliance (GSA), women make up 10% to 25% of the workforce that’s driving us to the next era of silicon innovation. Needless to say, gender diversity in the semiconductor field has a lot of room for improvement, but there is incentive to increase diversity quickly. For instance, Forbes cites a BCG survey finding that more diverse companies earned 45% of revenue from innovation compared to less diverse companies with only 26% of revenue from innovation. For companies whose lifeblood is innovation, this not only indicates that diverse companies are more innovative, but also that greater diversity will help drive the bottom line. In fact, there is a broad swath of studies on gender diversity in business to draw upon, and they tell the same story: greater diversity is good business.

Synopsys is committed to building diverse teams and talent pipelines and encourages women’s empowerment, providing equal opportunities for people of all genders at all levels of decision making. As part of our effort to increase our diversity, we have developed a rich portfolio of opportunities through our Synopsys Women in Leadership program. One newer addition to this portfolio is a global mentorship program through the WomenTech Network. The program matches Synopsys engineers in our European region with non-Synopsys students and professional women anywhere in the world. Along with other WomenTech Network companies, we are helping to foster a rich ecosystem of support across the industry, bolstering new and exciting opportunities for women.

The mentorship program helps female engineers achieve their next professional milestone, whether it’s to launch a career or to expand and grow an existing one. For the newly started round we have added five Synopsys mentors, ready to engage new mentees, empowering women in tech.

Women in tech

How to Become a Synopsys Mentee Through the WomenTech Network

Who can be a mentee: Whether you are a female engineering student ready to start your career or an established female engineer who is ready to gain new knowledge and conquer your next career milestone, this program may be for you.

 

Cost: Free for mentees.

Duration of mentorship: One year.

Matching criteria: Look through a database of potential mentors and apply to mentors that match your interests.

Mentor-mentee relationship structure: Once there is a mutual understanding of expectations and the match is made, you can work with your mentor to determine how the relationship will be structured. At your first meeting, you’ll collaborate on the relationship goal and the process (for example, frequency of engagement and whether meetings are via call, video, face-to-face, or a combination), and how your progress will be evaluated.

Application deadline: There is no deadline to apply.

How to apply: Learn more and apply here.

 

I find it especially rewarding to be able to actively contribute to the growth of the people working with me. My ideal mentee is someone who is available, transparent, and open to share experiences.

—Mara Carvalho, Engineering Manager, ASIC Digital Design, Synopsys Solutions Group

Opportunities for Women in Tech Are Growing

Synopsys has been collaborating with the WomenTech Network since 2019. In 2020, the WomenTech Network recognized the Synopsys Women in Leadership Program as the best diversity inclusion initiative among other industry heavyweights such as Philips, IBM, and VMWare. In 2021 and 2022, we have continued active participation in the WomenTech Network, as a sponsor of the WomenTech Global Conference where we provide expertise for keynotes and panel discussions. We look forward to working with the organization in the future, helping to inspire a diverse body of women engineers and allies from all over the world, and giving them a platform to speak, network, and share experiences. Our goal is to empower women everywhere to enter technology and grow their careers.

Our Women in Leadership program at Synopsys strives to build awareness of inclusion and diversity across our workforce to support women leaders along their career trajectory—the sky is the limit. We have scholarship programs for aspiring female engineers, such as GIRLS GO! Engineering. Our RIYA Returnship program relaunches professionals who have taken a career break and are ready to return to work. And, there are other mentorship opportunities along the way, such as our mentorship program with Santa Clara University Society of Women Engineers (SWE), and additional regional mentorship programs through Synopsys partnerships with local organizations. We are actively building a work community where women have ever-increasing roles in the decision-making process, making Synopsys not only a great place to start your career as a woman in tech, but also a place you’ll want to stay.

Continue Reading