Her Story
About Talita
I've been working in technology for 8 years and in finance and insurance for 12 years total. I started my career in banking in Brazil, beginning in the back office dealing with papers and taxes. I worked hard, took courses, and gained experience to move into front office roles working directly with customers. After working at several banks, including a boutique investment bank, I transitioned to a fintech startup in Sao Paulo. Six years ago, I joined Guidewire, a global enterprise software company that serves the insurance industry with over 300 customers worldwide. What I love about my current role is that I've switched positions in the ecosystem. I used to be on the banking side using the tools and systems as a user, and now I'm the one bringing solutions to people who do exactly what I used to do. I focus on property and casualty insurance, specifically understanding users' pain points and bringing solutions that make their day-to-day lives easier. My typical day involves talking to new customers or customers trying to modernize their legacy core systems, some of which are 20 or 30 years old. The company sponsored my visa, and I've been living in Miami, Florida for the past two and a half years. My ability to speak English, Portuguese, and Spanish has been crucial to my success at Guidewire, as they needed someone with both industry expertise and multilingual capabilities to serve their global customer base.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Talita
01What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Don't be afraid to change, and don't settle if you're not happy. Just go ahead, take the risk, and change. I saw a video that really resonated with me about a woman in a restaurant who always ordered french fries because that's what she thought was on the menu, but when she saw someone else with pasta, she realized she could ask for what she really wanted. The lesson is that you don't have to follow a menu in life. You need to ask for what you really want, and sometimes they'll test you by bringing you french fries when you asked for pasta, or offering you french fries while you wait. But you have to stay strong and keep asking for what you want, even when you're hungry and tempted to settle. Sometimes it comes when you least expect it, but you need to ask and wait, and it will come. Whether it's God or the universe, whatever you believe in, that's how it is. This applies to everything in life, your personal life, your love life, your work, everything. You can create your own path. You don't have to follow what's expected or what seems to be the only option available.
02What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
The biggest challenge is the fast pace of change. Everything changes so incredibly fast in technology. Just over the holidays in December, people were slowing down, but when you come back in January, everything has changed, everything is new. There are so many new technologies and things coming to market so quickly that you have to speed up and learn everything constantly. At the same time, when I look at the news and see people saying AI is going to take over the world and nobody's going to have a job in the future, I don't agree with that based on what I see in practice. I talk to customers who have 20 or 30 year old core systems and they're just trying to evaluate a modern system, not even AI. They're very cautious, especially in such a regulated field like insurance, and they're right to be. So while there's this narrative about AI revolutionizing everything, in practice, things are still moving more slowly. AI is not going to kill everybody's job or every SaaS or software as a service. That's not what I see, at least not yet.
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