Wint Pyae Julie Lynn Htaik

What brought you to a career in technology at the United Nations?

I am a Biomedical Engineer currently pursuing a bachelor's degree in biomedical informatics while I work full-time as an administrative assistant in the UN. Originally, my role was strictly clerical in nature until the SG's push for data driven results came about. For the Excel-heavy tasks, I would incorporate Python scripts to automate repetitive tasks or cleaning of large amounts of data to create charts. When we moved to SharePoint fully because of the pandemic, I was able to utilize more the O365 apps. Most recently, I used Power Automate to automate workflows to alleviate administrative effort and increase efficiency in data collection and the quality of data collected. I'm in last semester of the degree as of writing with my final project being in Machine Learning. While I may not be able to contribute further with coding in my current role, if an opportunity presents, I would love to get into big data in the UN.

What has been your favorite technology project or initiative at the United Nations and why? What was your contribution?

My favorite IT project was a training nomination form build on SharePoint Lists and automated using the approved workflow. The data collected was normalized. It took significantly less time for the data to be collected. The administrative effort and hours needed in back-and-forth's on missing information and typos are greatly reduced. As opposed to a normal Word form or a SharePoint form, I was able to customize the inputs through look-ups. The user-interface was made more friendly through JSON.

What advice would you give women interested in pursuing a field in technology?

I would encourage all women to really invest in their trade no matter the circumstances. As a huge believer of meritocracy, where there is work, there will be a reward. Sometimes, be it by gender stereotypes, racial stereotypes, or the confinement of our job scopes, we could lose track of what we are capable of. When that happens, pick up a little project in your area of interest. It doesn't have to be work-related - just something tech. When that project works, at least for me, my confidence would return to reassure me that I do belong here and that I should keep honing my skills.