{"id":161597,"date":"2023-11-24T12:39:28","date_gmt":"2023-11-24T11:39:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=161597"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:27:04","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:27:04","slug":"thanks-to-this-book-it-professional-diana-kartojudo-is-holding-her-own-in-a-world-dominated-by-men","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2023\/11\/24\/thanks-to-this-book-it-professional-diana-kartojudo-is-holding-her-own-in-a-world-dominated-by-men\/","title":{"rendered":"Thanks to this book, IT professional Diana Kartojudo is holding her own in a world dominated by men"},"content":{"rendered":"

Laughing self-consciously after making a suggestion, cleaning the department kitchen and being afraid to make snap decisions; after reading Nice girls don\u2019t get the corner office<\/em>, cybersecurity engineer Diana Kartojudo put all that in the past. As a female IT professional in a world dominated by men, she was often underestimated and afraid to put herself forward.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\tImage by:<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tLeroy Verbeet<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>

\u201cDo you work non-stop without taking breaks? Do you worry that your feedback will offend people? Do you always ask colleagues for advice before making decisions? Or do you simply want everyone to like you?\u201d, read Diana Kartojudo (53) three years ago, on the back cover of Lois Frankel\u2019s book Nice girls don\u2019t get the corner office<\/em><\/a>. She answered all of these questions with a resounding \u2018yes\u2019. The result, according to Frankel, is that you are probably regularly passed over for promotion and unable to make your dreams come true. \u201cIt\u2019s like the book was written for me\u201d, Kartojudo says.<\/p>\n\t

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Favourite genre: self-improvement<\/p>\n

Motivation: to become happier.<\/p>\n

Number of books per year: ten audiobooks per year. \u201cBecause I\u2019m studying again at the moment, so I quickly get sick of reading.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last book read: Vallen: voor je het weet ben je verliefd\u2026<\/em><\/a> (Falling: you\u2019re in love before you know it\u2026) \u2013 Jackie van Laren. \u201cIt\u2019s total chick lit\u201d, she laughs. \u201cIt\u2019s about a journalist who travels with a band in order to write about them. I actually play in a fifties-style rockabilly band myself: I sing, play the piano and write songs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t<\/div>\n

Sceptical<\/h2>

She actually wishes she had read the book a long time ago. As a 23-year-old IT graduate, she landed \u2013 after spending a lot longer job hunting than her male fellow students \u2013 in a world dominated by men, where she was often underestimated and began to doubt herself. \u201cThe preconception was: men are suited to IT and women are not.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t

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\n\t\t\u2018People would literally say to me: I was expecting a man with a plaid shirt and hiking boots, then you walked in.\u2019\n\t<\/blockquote>\n\n\t<\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n

She regularly heard sceptical comments, even at the university, where she has now worked for 27 years and has been a cybersecurity engineer for almost 2 years. For example, she has been asked \u2018are you actually qualified to do this?\u2019 on more than one occasion. She noticed that new clients who needed assistance with technical issues initially had doubts about her ability to help them. \u201cI used to be a real girly-girl; I wore dresses and make-up. People would literally say to me: \u2018I was expecting a man with a plaid shirt and hiking boots, then you walked in.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Imposter syndrome<\/h2>

Despite the fact that she was always supported by her immediate colleagues, all those years she felt as though she constantly had to prove herself. That made her insecure. A little voice in her head would say, \u201cPeople think I can\u2019t do it, so maybe I actually can\u2019t.\u201d She developed imposter syndrome: the feeling that you are not good enough for what you are doing, and sooner or later people are going to find out. She stayed in the background and took on a nurturing role.<\/p>\n

According to Frankel, that is exactly what you should not do. In her book, she gives no fewer than 133 tips on how not to behave in the workplace as a woman. Laugh less, make faster decisions, do not bring food for your colleagues and dress for the job you want. In other words: stop being the nice girl, and become a woman with a serious job. After every chapter, Kartojudo thought, \u201cOh God, I\u2019m doing it all wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

Awareness<\/h2>

The book made Kartojudo aware of her nurturing role at work. \u201cI realised that my colleagues more often took on projects that made them visible\u201d, she says. \u201cI wanted to do projects too, but I kept finishing off all the smaller tasks that other people had left undone, so that the whole team could perform well. But you don\u2019t get as much credit for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since reading the book, she spends more time on projects. She also makes faster decisions (\u2018better to make the wrong decision than to be indecisive\u2019), she no longer giggles self-consciously after making a suggestion, she brings food for her colleagues less often (\u2018it\u2019s a nice thing to do, but also a stereotypical thing for a woman\u2019) and she no longer cleans the department kitchen.<\/p>\n\n\t

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Read more<\/h2>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t