March 8 is International Womens Day.
To celebrate, TNW is sharing series of profiles highlighting women leaders in the tech industry.
Tech has a (completely deserved) reputation for being lopsidedly male-dominated.
This International Womens Day, we want to shine a light on these hard-working, code-slinging, CAD-wielding grunts.
Guyan shared her story in how she came to enter the industry.
It all started with having parents who were all too happy to nurture her passion for the creative arts.
I never knew what I wanted to be when I was little it would change every day.
One day I wanted to be a singer, the next a fire engine driver.
Luckily, I grew up with very supportive parents.
I knew whatever I decided to do with my life they would support me as best they could.
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I took a conventional route to becoming a designer if there is such a thing, Guyan told me.
In high school, she studied a mix of art and technical classes.
The art classes were more female-dominated, as were the Graphic Communication classes.
In contrast, my Product Design class had a higher number of male students as did the Workshop class.
Despite this, along with the all-male teaching staff, I never doubted I should be there.
It was what I enjoyed and what I was good at.
I am extremely lucky to have had the teachers and role models I did.
They went above and beyond to ensure I was supported and encouraged.
She later studied Product Design and Innovation at Glasgows celebrated University of Strathclyde.
Although her lectures and seminars had an equal gender spit, many of her lecturers were accomplished women.
For the first time, I had female professors.
This sadly, didnt carry on into the workplace.
That said, she stresses shes lucky enough to have never been treated unfairly because of her gender.
Although I was the only female I never felt as though I was viewed differently to my male colleagues.
I always felt valued and appreciated for my work and the contributions I made to projects, she said.
So, whats it like designing headphones for a living?
I wanted to know.
Well, its perhaps not what you think.
For starters, the design team is fairly small, with just five designers working on RHAs hardware efforts.
I generally focus on the initial stages of design.
I will also suggest new products I think we should start designing, Guyan said.
Collaboration is at the heart of how RHA works.
All design decisions are made as a team.
This, she said, involves a lot of presentations.
After the meetings are concluded, they head back to their own respective projects.
This varied workload helps prevent fatigue and definitely adds variety to my day.
They make crucial day-to-day decisions, but theyre also constantly tackling new and different problems.
This is the thing that Guyan loves most about her job.
