Women in Technology: Kudzai Vilika

The Events Calendar’s Content Marketing Manager on navigating different cultures, her deal with faith, and what excites her most a few profession in tech.

Born in Zimbabwe, Kudzai Vilika moved to the USA as a baby and grew up in Arizona. “My journey has been a little bit of a cultural rollercoaster,” she says. “After years of growing up and being Americanized pretty-darn well, I went back home and needed to relearn to be a correct Zimbabwean again.” Due to her parents, Vilika had kept her native language (Shona) and will communicate fluently. While back in Zimbabwe, she attended Bible School and was trained for missionary work. “After I began traveling on the mission field, I later learned that the cultural shifts I faced were training me to be flexible and capable of relate well to different societies,” she says. “It’s been an awesome journey, and I’m glad I went through all of it.”

That flexibility has lent itself to Vilika’s profession in tech, which began in 2003 when she worked for GoDaddy. “The corporate was very small. This was back in Arizona. They only had two offices. That’s where I learned to code, and where gained all the HTML chops I needed to construct web sites,” she says. After that, she went on to work for Major League Baseball, doing tech support for MLB.com.

Now, Vilika is the Content Marketing Manager for The Events Calendar. “We’re the makers of the primary calendar plugin for web sites built with WordPress,” she says. “My job is to market our product through various varieties of content, including videos, blog articles, social media, email marketing, and more.”

It’s work that Vilika finds rewarding. “I really like making things which can be changing the world. I do know calendars aren’t saving lives, however the proven fact that I’m involved in a project that hundreds of thousands of individuals are using all across the globe is basically exciting,” she says. “I also like that with tech, it’s an industry that’s not going anywhere. It’s going to turn into more essential and more vital.” It’s been exciting for her to get a front-row seat to see how a tech product gets made and the way much work goes into tiny details. “The teamwork that comes into play when deploying a new edition or a brand new update is just amazing,” she says.

Faith and family are grounding forces in Vilika’s life. “What motivates me essentially the most besides my family—my husband and my children—are the goals and visions I even have for my life.” But she attributes her profession success to God. “I believe since I used to be born, I’ve been taught to rely upon God with all my heart. I’ve prayed through almost every situation. My relationship with God is important to my success.”

She is most pleased with her faith-based work, specifically her work with Forward in Faith Ministries International. “I used to be an element of getting the web site up and running, and have been involved in web development. I’m pleased with the work that I did since it impacts lives. I’m also really pleased with the media work we did with teams in Zimbabwe and South Africa,” she says.

Her absolute favorite option to spend the day is together with her family. “I really like hanging out with my husband and the youngsters and treasure every opportunity for us to spend quality time together,” she says. And for Vilika, it’s crucial to construct in time for quiet and private reflection. “That’s been such an enormous life lesson for me—find time to disconnect, to meditate. For me, that’s spending time within the presence of God. Especially now, once we’re continuously surrounded by gadgets and computers and phones and televisions, it’s really essential to take time for private reflection away from all the noise.”

Vilika thinks the longer term is promising for women in tech, and he or she sees WordPress specifically as being a priceless tool for ladies inquisitive about exploring tech careers. “I’ve been encouraging people to explore WordPress, which lets you quickly and simply turn into a business person. There’s loads of financial potential and opportunity,” she says.

She believes that tech is a superb space for ladies to indicate their incredible capabilities. “I believe we’ll see loads of female tech entrepreneurs doing big things. That’s my hope—that we’ll proceed seeing more women in leadership roles,” she says. “And, I sit up for my daughters going into tech in the future and being successful too.”