Mums in Tech ft. Laura Norwood

As part of the ‘Mums in Tech’ series, MotherBoard caught up with Laura Norwood, Junior Developer at Sy Limited.

The purpose of our ‘MotherBoard’ content series is to highlight incredible working mums within tech, as well as individuals and businesses that are supportive and progressive within their approach to creating more inclusive tech teams for women.

Firstly, can you please introduce yourself and tell us a bit about your current role?

I’m Laura, a Power Apps developer working at Sy Limited. I build business applications using the Power Platform, working closely with clients to turn messy, manual processes into structured, scalable systems. I came into tech after a career break raising my children, so I’ve taken a slightly unconventional route into development.

If you could sum up what it’s like being a working mum in tech in one sentence, what would it be?

It’s a constant exercise in prioritisation, you can’t do everything, so you get very good at doing what actually matters.

How do you find the balance between your career and motherhood?

Balance is a bit of a myth. It’s more about trade-offs and systems.

I plan aggressively, protect my focus time at work, and accept that some days one side wins. The key is removing guilt from the equation; you’re not failing, you’re allocating resources.

What has been your greatest challenge as a working mother in tech? 

Transitioning into tech from an accounting background while raising children.

You’re not just re-entering work, you’re changing industries entirely. That means learning a new skill set from scratch, getting comfortable being a beginner again, and proving yourself in a field where you don’t have years of direct experience to lean on.

The challenge is less about capability and more about confidence, backing yourself while you’re still building.

What skills have you developed as a mother that have helped your work life?

• Resilience – things go wrong constantly, you keep going anyway

• Efficiency – you learn to work in short, focused bursts

• Communication – explaining complex things simply becomes second nature

• Prioritisation – urgency vs importance becomes very clear

These translate directly into being an effective developer.

When you were returning to work, what one thing helped you / would have helped you the most?

Practical exposure to real tools and real problems.

Courses are useful, but what actually moves the needle is building things, breaking things, and understanding how systems behave in the real world.

I built up a personal portfolio of projects in GitHub relating to things that I’m passionate about. It’s much easier to pick things up when you’re interested in the subject matter.

What do you feel should be the top priority for employers who want to support working mothers better?

Flexibility, but real flexibility, not just a policy on paper.

That means:

• Trusting output over hours

• Understanding that rigid schedules don’t reflect real life

• Creating environments where people don’t feel penalised for having responsibilities outside work

Any final words of advice for other mothers in the Tech Industry?

Don’t wait until you feel “ready”, you won’t.

Start before you’re confident, build in public if you can, and treat your previous experience, including motherhood, as an asset, not a gap to apologise for.

You’re not behind. You’re coming in with a different kind of leverage.