While opinions differ on the subject of achievement gaps between genders in technology careers, new research looks at women’s job satisfaction at different levels within the industry to uncover where the struggles lay and what may be key to overcoming them.

The good news is most women in tech report overall satisfaction with their jobs, explained Julie Parker. The SVP at market research agency Kantar TNS discussed her organization’s findings at the CloudNOW conference. Speaking with Lisa Martin (@Luccazara), host of theCUBE*, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile live streaming studio, Parker went on to highlight one group of women voicing dissatisfaction with their jobs in tech: the newbies. (*Disclosure below)

“[They] tend to be on the individual contributor side, so potentially ones that are younger starting off in their career, maybe not having the best experience,” Parker said, speculating that gender bias and a lack of female mentors may be factors.

The flipside is that women higher up the ladder, despite shouldering more responsibilities, tend to be happier at work. “When we looked at women who were in management positions or above, they were actually having these higher levels of satisfaction,” Parker added.

Tech ‘her-archy’

Parker’s prescription is that these women at higher levels reach out to and mentor younger women who are struggling. She said that these young women should not be shy about asking for guidance.

“I do think it’s a huge compliment for someone to ask you to be a mentor to them,” she said. “I haven’t heard of a single woman ever turning down that kind of an opportunity to support a younger woman in their career.”

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE and theCUBE’s coverage of the CloudNOW – 5th Annual “Top 10 Women in Cloud” Innovation Awards. (*Disclosure: Some segments on SiliconANGLE Media’s theCUBE are sponsored. However, no sponsorships have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo by SiliconANGLE