The Story: Amanda Cavallaro on the future of women in techPosted almost 5 years ago by Michael Oliver

Amanda Cavallaro thinks ‘Your Closet’ – the Android app that organises your clothes – is a work of genius. And she has ideas about making it even better.

“Imagine someone saying ‘What should I wear today?’ and something like Google Home interacts with the app, taking weather into account, and suggests an outfit.”

So, she’s planning to fix it with her own two hands. That’s kind of her thing. She has this knack for looking at software, dreaming of improvements and bringing them to life.

"I love the fact that I can, with my own hands, build an app that can not only improve my own routine but other people's out there too," she says.

During daylight hours, Amanda is as a front-end developer at Gamesys , the gaming software house. But outside the office, she is an ambassador for Women Techmakers , developer expert for Google Assistant and a prolific presenter having spoken at tech conferences around the globe.

The self-described "power metal song" is passionate about cloud technologies, human-computer interactions, and chat bots. And when it comes to speech - pick your poison: she's fluent in English, Portuguese and Italian, and has a smattering of Japanese.

You wouldn't be remiss for calling her a superhero, not that she'd admit that.

"I've always been this person that wants to change the world. But I realised I can't do it - but I can impact and help a small portion of people around me," she says.

"It's incredible the number of people who have reached to me and told me I inspired them. It means a lot to me.”

Born in Brazil to a Brazilin father and Italian mother, Amanda grew up surrounded by computers (she built her first website when she was nine). Her dad, a software developer himself, introduced her to the world of tech.

“Growing up, he used to be my role model, always taking the time to teach me how computers work, and helping me build my logical thinking, playing with Legos and computer games,” she says.

She studied computer science at university in Brazil, where she was only a small handful of women in class.

"We only had two women professors and no more than 10 women in all the latter years of the course. And, unfortunately, there were sexist jokes and comments that sometimes would make me feel I did not belong in there.”

Undeterred, she moved to the UK determined to be a force of good for women in tech. She now leads London’s Google Developer Group Cloud, the most active GDG cloud community in the world.

“That’s my passion,” she explains. “It’s helped me grow as a person and as a developer.”

Client Server has played a major part in helping Amanda find her dream job at Gamesys. She says the technology recruitment consultancy showed a keen interest in growing her career.

“When I talked to Client Server, they didn’t try to give me a thousand different positions – they only talked about ones that matched my profile,” she says.

“I feel very positive about Client Server. Go for a recruiter that you trust – go to Client Server and they’ll do the right thing for you.”

Amanda feels positive about the future of women in the tech sector.

“I hope more women out there feel empowered to pursue or keep their careers in tech. They can feel free to drop me a line and share their story with me.”