Women in Tech: Thais Nakamura talks about how inspiration can help overcome fear

My name is Thais Arissa Nakamura and I am a Scrum Master at CI&T. Every time I look back at my life, I feel overwhelmed by the events that led me to where I am now. As you read, my story may not make sense in the beginning, but please bear with me because in the end you will see how things are all connected.

I was born in a small town in the state of São Paulo in Brazil. I am the oldest grandchild of a Japanese family. Brazil has a large Japanese immigrant population and in the 80s and 90s, it was common that the sons and daughters of these immigrants would go to Japan looking for better work opportunities. My parents were one of them. When I was 4, I went to Japan and lived there for 2 and a half years, and I learned Japanese from the other students in my preschool. My mother wanted me to study in Brazil, so we went back to the countryside of São Paulo and I started first grade. As I grew up, I kept studying Japanese.

I had the chance to use a computer for the first time at the age of 12 and I loved it! I started using it to play Solitaire, minefield games, and the default games in Windows 98. When the internet arrived, I had a whole new world to explore. Soon, I began teaching the entire family how to send emails and set up social media accounts.

When you get to high school in Brazil, the teachers start talking to you about where to apply for college and what major to choose. No one in my family had gone to college so I did not have any close role models to consult before making my decision. My relatives all made their living running small businesses (like a clothing shop, a car repair shop, etc). 

Fortunately, I have always been a dreamer. While in Japan, I used to watch movies from Ghibli studio. If you have never heard of it, I strongly recommend doing a quick search. Their movies like Kiki's Delivery Service, Princess Mononoke, Castle in the Sky, and Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, have wonderful female characters. They have the courage to do what's right, to follow their heart, and they inspired me deeply. Even though I did not know what major I should choose, I had a strong desire to live abroad again and I wanted to try working in different fields so I chose to study Statistics.
 
Once I got to college, I learned the basics of programming in order to perform statistical analysis for large databases. I had lots of fun in these classes and had a few friends who were studying Computer Science (one of them works at CI&T too!) and they would make fun of me, saying I was in the wrong major.

In 2013, the Brazilian government launched a huge exchange study program called Science Without Borders. I wanted to go to many countries, but since I could only speak Japanese, I applied to go to Japan. I was accepted and spent one year studying in a Japanese University. The experience certainly broadened my horizons. I had the opportunity to meet students from several countries who were also in an exchange study program, as well as other Brazilian students from other states. My time there made me realize how rare it was to find people who are fluent in Japanese and English at the same time. I saw a chance and decided that 1) I needed to practice English more and 2) after finishing my studies in Brazil, I would try to move to Japan and look for my first job there.

The timing worked very well for me because while I was planning to move to Japan, CI&T was planning to bring expats to Japan to build development teams there. One of my friends from the exchange program coincidentally met the person in charge of this huge process in Japan and that's how I found out about CI&T.

As crazy as it sounds, I moved to Tokyo right after finishing college  in 2016 without a job! Although CI&T was not able to hire me, I wanted to meet the team in person to start building a network. I started getting to know CI&Ters and was eventually hired in the Japan office! My first assignments were related to translation and testing, which helped me learn the basics of software development and the agile process. At CI&T, I grew from a raw, recently graduated student to a team leader. And, if any of these things had happened differently, I certainly would not be a woman in tech.

It is impossible to put into words how grateful I am for the leaders who held my hand patiently and showed me the right path. The career development process in CI&T is very well structured. After 2 and a half years of hard work, I was promoted to Scrum Master. And in 2021, I moved from Japan to the US, and this year I will celebrate my 6th work anniversary!

Life is full of possibilities. On my hardest days, I think about all the women before me who risked their lives doing what they believed in and were passionate about: Jane Austen, Marie Curie, Harriet Tubman, Nise da Silveira. In a time when women had few resources, these women had the strength to make things happen. Why should I be afraid to fail?

These days, there are many affordable ways for people willing to learn programming languages and soft skills. More importantly, there are companies that are dedicated to helping women thrive. The tech industry still has many men, but we are here. There are many women waiting to help other women!


Written By Thais Nakamura, Scrum Master at CI&T US

CI&T