A little while ago, I was having a mentoring session with a young woman working in fintech. She’s ambitious, and she’s been building her career in the industry for several years.

At some point in our conversation, she mentioned something almost in passing. She’d decided not to apply for a role she’d been interested in. A role we’d actually discussed a couple of weeks earlier.

Naturally, I asked her why. She told me she’d gone through the job specification and counted how many of the boxes she ticked. While she ticked quite a few, she didn’t tick all of them.

So, she’d made a decision. She wasn’t ready.

Here was a capable, experienced woman who was interested in progressing her career and, rather than putting herself forward and letting someone else decide whether she was right for the role, she’d ruled herself out.

So, I asked her a question. “How many of those boxes do you think the last person in that role ticked?” She couldn’t tell me. Honestly, neither could I. But I’d have been willing to bet that they didn’t tick every single one.

This isn’t new. I’m sure we’ve all seen the stat that gets regurgitated on LinkedIn every couple of months about how most women apply for jobs only when they meet 100% of the qualifications, whereas with men, that number’s around 60%. We call it a confidence gap.

New research published this year may offer a different way of understanding why this happens.

What the research says

This year, a new piece of research on the confidence gap really stuck with me.

It came from Harvard Business School‘s Katherine Coffman, who has spent years studying how stereotypes shape the way women see themselves.

She found that even when men and women have the same qualifications, women are less likely to apply for promotions and that a big part of that confidence gap comes from stereotypes.

We tend to think of stereotypes as something other people hold about us. Her point is that they shape what we believe about ourselves, too. If the industry around you has spent decades signalling that finance is a man’s game, it’s not a huge surprise if some of that seeps in, even when your track record says otherwise.

The gap gets wider when the criteria are vague.

When the rules are clear, women are more likely to go for it. When they’re not, though, the stereotypes creep into the gaps, and women rule themselves out,

By vague, I mean a job ad that asks for strong commercial acumen or senior presence, for instance. Or, a promotion that depends on being ready for the next level, although nobody has clarified what the next level involves.

Essentially, if you’re left guessing what the employer wants, or whether you qualify, it’s likely the vague language Coffman is referring to.

How to fix the confidence-gap in fintech

I’ve been careful to put both tips for women, and fintech employers, as I don’t believe this should be left for women alone to fix.

There are, of course, things we can all do to challenge the way we see ourselves. However, if the environment around us continues to reinforce the very behaviours we’re trying to unlearn, we’re only addressing half the problem.

So here’s what I think can be done on both ends.

For women in fintech

1. Write your own criteria down

If vague criteria are where self-doubt creeps in, the most useful thing you can do is take the vagueness away yourself.

I like to do this, and it’s hugely helped with any imposter syndrome I’ve had over the years.

Instead of measuring yourself against a spec that someone’s likely rushed through, or used AI to help draft, you should measure yourself against your own accomplishments and the brilliant things you’ve achieved since starting your career in fintech.

You can do this by making a comprehensive list that you continue to build on after each significant milestone. This could be the banking relationships you’ve opened, the volumes you’ve helped to move, the markets you’ve launched in, or the audits you’ve got through.

Be sure to put numbers and metrics next to each achievement. That way, when you’re weighing up an opportunity, you can check it against that list rather than the voice in your head.

2. Don’t underestimate your worth and what you bring to the table

This one’s for anyone who advises, consults, freelances or negotiates their own package or salary. Decide what your expertise is worth before the conversation starts, not halfway through it when the other person goes quiet, and you panic.

I work in high-risk payments and banking, and I know how valuable the work I do is. It’s the difference between a business getting banked and being able to operate, or not being able to trade at all.

It’s very easy to price the work you do as if you’re doing someone a small favour. So work out the value of the outcome and write your number down. When you’ve said it, let the silence sit. Silence isn’t a no.

3. Apply anyway

While this may sound like a no brainer to a lot of you, I feel I’d be remiss not to include it in this op-ed.

Job specifications are of course important because they tell you the skills and requirements needed and the ideal candidate for the role.

But, it’s important to remember that they’re just essentially wish lists and, a lot of the time you don’t necessarily need to have every single skill on them to still be considered.

So, and I mean this wholeheartedly, if the role excites you and you feel that you can do the majority of what they’re asking for, apply.

The worst that can happen is that they turn you down. Which, in my opinion, is always better information to have than the a no that you gave yourself.

For fintech founders

1. Make “ready” visible

If you run a fintech, write your promotion requirements down and share them. All of them, in plain English. This way everyone will have a clearer understanding of what’s needed to be promoted and what you’re looking for.

What does a compliance analyst actually need to have done to become a manager? I don’t mean vague niceties, but what exact proficiencies and experience? What does being ready for the next level actually look like in practice, at your company, this year?

Coffman points to Progress software as a good example here. The company realised its employees, particularly women, were struggling to work out how to advance. So it mapped out clear promotion pathways and made the expectations transparent, and it saw lot of improvements in both development and retention of its employees.

2. Name the gap when it matters

There’s been another study that came out this year that found something really interesting. It was by … and essentially shows that telling women about the confidence-gap can change their behaviour.

The caveat here, though, is when you tell them. Because the timing really is important apparently. The research suggests that the best timing is the exact moment when they’re thinking about applying.

To do this, you need to be sharing information about the gap in your job ads and bringing it up to employees in performance reviews or when you’re looking to hire internally.

Tell the women on your team, directly, that the research says they’re less likely to put themselves forward for this role, and that you’d really like them to.

A little encouragement goes a long way.

Final Thoughts

As for the woman I mentioned at the start, she applied. I don’t know yet whether she’ll get the role, and I’ll be gutted for her if she doesn’t. But the research is pretty clear that the applying is the bit that matters, and she’s already done the hard part.

We’ve spent so many years telling women that they need to be more confident and I just don’t think that’s done much. Maybe, moving forward, we need to be showing them the rules instead.

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