Clearcover Women In Tech: Engineers & New Moms

Written by Team Clearcover | March 31st, 2022

To wrap up our series spotlighting Clearcover's Women in Technology, we spoke to two engineers who are also new mothers.  Priti Patel is a Software Engineer who began her career as a CPA and, after completing an engineering bootcamp, became a developer and a bootcamp instructor before joining Clearcover.  Marcella Del Tito started out in the members services department of a software company before moving to the backend team and learning to write code.  At Clearcover, she has worked on the mobile and agents teams and is currently on the partner integrations team.

Both Priti and Marcella are new mothers and returned from maternity leave in the last year.  Along with discussing the importance of their mentors and offering advice for women engineers entering the workforce, they told us how they feel supported as working parents at Clearcover.

Priti Patel, Senior Software Engineer

Please tell us a little about your career path and what led you to Clearcover. 

In college, I majored in accounting and finance.  I was a CPA and worked as an IT auditor for a big accounting firm for almost five years, but I realized over time that I didn't want to do that long term.  I wanted a job where I could use more problem solving skills and create a product that directly impacted real, live people at the end of a project.  

As an IT auditor, I had to talk to engineers at my various clients about how they built their applications.  I thought that would be an interesting career path, but not possible at the time since I had graduated from college with a different focus.

In early 2016, I completed the Grace Hopper Coding Bootcamp in New York, and I got my first job as a developer.  I worked as a developer and then as an instructor at a coding bootcamp.  When the pandemic forced me to teach remotely, I found that to be challenging and was looking to get back into a traditional engineering role and further develop my skills.  I started at Clearcover in July 2020.

Who is a woman who mentored you or inspired you in your career?

At the Grace Hopper Coding Bootcamp, all of the students identify as female.  I was inspired by the women in my cohort who were from all different educational and professional backgrounds, coming together to learn the same skills in a field where women have been historically underrepresented.

At my first engineering job, I worked on a small product and engineering team of about 15 people and my manager wore lots of different hats.  I looked up to her and one day wanted to be as well-rounded as she was in her role.  She mentored me at a time when I had a lot of imposter syndrome.  She amplified my voice on the engineering team and, with her support and encouragement, I gained confidence as an engineer.

At Clearcover, my manager, Sireesha, was a power-house.  She was smart, asked tough questions, and gave me the confidence to speak up more in meetings.   Sireesha helped me to not get lost on the team or feel intimidated.  Working with a strong manager like her gave me even more confidence as an engineer.

What advice would you give to women engineers who are entering the workforce?

Know that your voice matters on a team and that everyone brings a unique perspective.  It is easy to get intimidated by people who have more experience or education, but your point of view is important and people want to hear your voice. 

How have you felt supported at Clearcover after returning from your maternity leave?

At one point during my maternity leave, I wasn't sure if I wanted to come back to work.  I talked to Clearcover, and they gave me an extra month of unpaid leave.  I felt more mentally prepared coming back after the extended leave, and it gave me more time to figure out childcare logistics. Clearcover also has great insurance benefits, so that is one less thing I have to worry about.  Also, a lot of people on my team have young kids, and they’ve been really empathetic and supportive while I was pregnant and especially since I’ve come back from maternity leave. 

What is the best / most helpful benefit that Clearcover offers working parents?

Working from home is a blessing!  When the office opens, it will be nice to have the option to go back if I want to, but right now there is no pressure to go back at a certain point.  I have more time in the day to connect with my family, and it helps me keep my work/life balance in check.  

Marcella Del Tito, Senior Quality Engineer

Please tell us a little about your career path and what led you to Clearcover. 

I was working in the member services department at a software company and had become interested in the backend management system for the product. I moved over to their QA team, started learning how to write code, and eventually helped build the automation suite for the mobile app.

After that I did manual and automated testing, as well as some development work, on a web app for managing email marketing campaigns. I had only really worked with mobile apps up until that point, so this was a great opportunity to learn a lot about testing web UIs and APIs.

And then about two and a half years ago I applied to Clearcover. I started out on our mobile team and enjoyed getting the chance to build a framework and get to write tests for a mobile app again. I have since worked on the agents team and currently the partner integrations team.

Who is a woman who mentored you or inspired you in your career?

I once worked with a product manager at a company who did an amazing job finding solutions and articulating them. I always found her work ethic and demeanor inspirational. I remember a time when a high impact product decision had to be made at the end of a tight deadline and people were tense. She was able to calmly gather all viewpoints and data, and found the best possible solution. I try to emulate that same type of work ethic and composure in the workplace.

What advice would you give to women engineers who are entering the workforce?

I think I’d give this advice in general - don’t be afraid to ask for help. Spend time learning best practices. Focus on details and use the internet.

How have you felt supported at Clearcover after returning from your maternity leave?

Clearcover was super flexible in working with me to come up with an alternative work arrangement that allowed me to take care of my daughter and still have the ability to contribute to my team. Their support is what allows me to have a good work life balance as a working parent.

What is the best / most helpful benefit that Clearcover offers working parents?

I think Clearcover’s dedication to a remote environment is itself something that is beneficial to parents. Clearcover handles remote work well and my appreciation of its benefits has increased since becoming a parent.

We would like to thank Priti, Marcella, Andrea, Anna, and Sree for taking the time to share their experiences as women engineers and offer words of advice and encouragement for others in their field.  

At Clearcover, our workforce is currently 44% women, and we're now hiring for over a dozen open positions in engineering, and even more across all departments.  If you're ready to take the next step in your career and find your place on one of our teams, we invite you to apply for an open position today.  We're also accepting applications for summer 2022 intern positions in all departments.