Women Who Code Maritza Diaz

Maritza Diaz joins the conversation at the Women Who Code panel

Maritza Diaz, Chief Executive Officer of ITJ, joins the Women Who Code panel called “Women Inspire Women.” Alongside talented CEO Cristina de la Peña and Senior Manager María Jiménez, they share their professional experience as Mexican women in IT. 

Since launching in 2011, Women Who Code has been an international non-profit organization dedicated to inspiring women to pursue technology and programming careers. They have created the most fantastic community and a job board to help girls and women worldwide prosper in the IT industry. They envision a world where women are proportionally represented as technical leaders, executives, founders, VCs, board members, and software engineers.

Since their launch of the Mexico City edition in 2015, Women Who Code has been representing Mexican women’s interests in technology, generating the most significant impact, promoting gender equality, and helping women reach their full professional potential.

This year’s panel shared the conversation with three women leaders in IT, and ITJ’s CEO, Maritza Diaz, was one of them. By responding to questions such as: How can we get more women into technology? What advice would you give to other women to help them progress in this industry? What’s a leadership lesson that you’ve learned that’s unique to being a female leader? The three women offered their points of view based on their professional and personal experiences to encourage and motivate other girls and women who have similar goals.

Over the past seven years, Maritza has established herself as a thought leader in the software industry’s cross-border collaboration. One of her goals is to achieve full gender equality in her company with a 50-50 employee gender ratio. The same stands out as a beacon of hope for women who pursue careers in technology and programming. Maritza’s remarkable strength is an encouragement to everybody. We are sure that her dreams are closer than ever to becoming a reality. 

About ITJ

ITJ is a trusted partner in building the finest software engineering teams in the Americas. For more information, visit www.itj.com.

ITJ’s Bootcamp: Empowering the Next Generation of Young Software Engineers

As a spearhead for software engineering and nearshoring in Mexico, ITJ firmly holds the mission to offer mentorship and career development to a new generation of software engineers. The company recently held its first quarterly iOS Mobile Developer Bootcamp in Tijuana. The 2021 event hosted professionals and students in their last semester in Computers and Software Engineering, Software Development, and other engineering majors that are seeking to jumpstart their career as mobile developers.

Over one hundred young IT professionals and students from different states of Mexico and Latin America registered to attend this immersive, two-weekend hybrid program both online and on-site at the BIT Center in Tijuana.

The Bootcamp is highly attractive for young software engineers because it allows attendees to learn from industry experts at ITJ. The program covers the basic skills needed to become an iOS native mobile developer. After the completion of the Bootcamp, attendees are equipped and prepared with everything they need to create applications for mobile environments running the Apple operating system – iOS. 

While explaining the purpose of the Bootcamp, Maritza Diaz, CEO of ITJ, states that “Mexico is booming with young engineering talent. At ITJ, we want to empower the next generation of software engineers with the right tools, technology, and resources to become world-class at their craft. In these young tech mentees, we have seen the potential and talent that, with the appropriate mentoring, creates software engineers suited to solve some of the most challenging problems of the future. Through the Bootcamp, we want to push this new generation forward and help it reach its full potential.”

The first quarterly Bootcamp consisted of two full-day weekend events ranging from July 24-25th to August 1st. Each day is divided into 30% of the time for technical knowledge and 70% for hands-on building experience in labs developing a real native mobile app. Each day is 7 hours long with one-hour lunch time and 15 min breaks every two hours to recharge.

During the event, ITJ staff offered job interviews to qualified attendees as part of its commitment to provide this young talent pool with the opportunity to boost their careers.  

The event was hosted by ITJ and sponsored by the BIT Center, Tijuana EDC, and Mexico’s National Chamber of Electronics, Telecommunications, and Information Technologies Industry (CANIETI).

To get access to ITJ’s other learning opportunities, visit www.itj.com. You can also follow ITJ on LinkedIn to learn about educational opportunities as they are announced.

How to Choose Your Nearshore Software Provider?

Along with its social isolation, the Pandemic changed the way we work and do business, making it essential to maintaining productivity while working remotely. On that note, Nearshore Software is a great way to expand your team remotely, achieve scalability, and stay competitive, making it a game-changer for your company. Nearshore is nothing more than hiring a remote team located geographically close to your company. This guarantees several benefits for your business, including cost reductions, easier logistics, and cultural proximity to your employees. 

How to choose your nearshore software provider?

It’s important to keep in mind that the best partners need to have similar values, culture, and a genuine interest in helping you achieve your goals. But how do you find that within the wide offer of providers? Well, as complicated as it might sound, searching for the right nearshore software provider can be an easy and straightforward process. Here are some useful tips to do so.

  1. Define requirements and goals.

Start by figuring out what you hope to achieve by engaging in a nearshore software strategy. Consider what your goals are, and how your future project fits into the big-picture plan. It will be also important to define what technologies will be used; ensure that both in-house and external teams have access to the same technologies, especially if they’re collaborating closely on the same project Finally, you need to always keep in mind your estimated deadlines and ensure that the potential team has the capacity and time to deliver before you commit with them.

2. Evaluate your nearshore partner for cultural fit 

Is the nearshore partner suitable for your company’s success? What channels do they typically use? How do they communicate with other clients? What tools do they use? Can they adapt to your organization? These are all important questions to answer while looking for the right nearshore software partner. A great way to answer this is by looking at the team’s motivation for working on specific types of projects or product lines.

In the end, there’s no one-size-fits-all answer to “how should a company select an outsourcing provider.” Instead, our advice is for you to examine all your options and evaluate your potential nearshore partners based on what’s most important to your company, both in terms of goals and cultural fit.

When is the right time to start considering nearshore for your company?

The best way to determine whether it makes sense to outsource is to analyze the current state of your business. Here are some helpful questions to identify if you need some outside support: 

  • Are you falling short of your business objectives?
  • What barriers do you face in achieving specific goals?
  • Are you trying to cut costs? If so, which expenses are costing your organization the most money?
  • Are you able to source your talent with your specific need in a timely manner?
  • What skills does your internal team lack?

Ultimately, it’s about figuring out what your company needs and deciding how to achieve your goals through a nearshore strategy. Figure out what kind of partner you’re looking for and how to engage them to maximize your ROI.

Where to look for Nearshore software partners? 

The Cali-Baja MegaRegion might be a great place to start looking as it’s a place full of opportunity. Located only 35 minutes south of downtown San Diego, Tijuana is a strategic location allowing companies to expand within the thriving border economy and strengthen communications among Mexican and U.S. companies. With more than 7 million people, the Cali-Baja region has one of the largest population concentrations along the U.S-Mexico border, and thanks to its unique cross-border integration and IT/Software development, the area holds a unique quality for the relocation of global and bi-national business investments, as well as its transnational culture and high-end binational pool of talent.

Nearshore software it’s not just about reducing costs by sending work abroad, it’s about accessing the best talent for the job and keeping those assets that know the regional market and pass the knowledge onto the team, making it easier to succeed when designing and executing strategies. That is why the Cali-Baja region is what your company might need to keep growing strong while adapting to the new normal we are living in now.

About ITJ
ITJ is devoted to serving fast-growing and high-value market sectors, particularly the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT), working with innovative medical device companies looking to improve people’s lives. With a unique BOT (build, operate, and transfer) model that sources only the best digital talent available, ITJ enables companies in the US to create technology centers of excellence in Mexico. For more information, visit www.itj.com.