“I help junior women in tech understand the broader business landscape. This exposure helps them move beyond just ‘technical support’ to becoming well-rounded consultants who understand the diverse needs of the market,” says Khoo Sher Lyn, a Technical Specialist at Exabytes Group.


Women in tech continues to see growing momentum in Southeast Asia. Today, women in tech in the region are not only taking charge in leadership roles but are also growing their presence in technical roles.

According to statistics, women make up 27% of tech workers in the U.S. and only 22% in Europe and Asia-Pacific. However, they are increasing their influence in specialized fields. Currently, women hold 22% of AI roles and 12% of cybersecurity positions and these figures continues to only increase every year.

In Malaysia, PIKOM’s latest Economic & Digital Job Market Outlook flags specialized roles like cloud architects as a priority demand area, with salary increases already recorded across levels in 2025 and upward momentum expected into 2026. But how much of these roles are actually taken up by women in the industry in Malaysia?

In conjunction with International Women’s Day on 8th March, CRN Asia caught up with Khoo Sher Lyn, a Technical Specialist at Exabytes Group, a Malaysian-based solutions provider. Exabytes is actively involved in Malaysia’s cloud skills ecosystem and workforce development efforts, with Sher Lyn being one of the few female technical specialists in the country.

Sher Lyn shares her career journey with the region’s leading AI, business app, cloud, digital and e-commerce solutions provider as well as the importance of having more female representation in the tech industry.

Can you tell us a bit about your journey in the tech industry and what do you enjoy most about working in the tech industry?

I started my career as an intern in a call center support role. My transition into tech accelerated when my manager moved to the product team and sponsored my move, opening the door for significant career growth.

My passion for the industry was sparked by my first project with an F&B company. They needed to cut costs by retiring a custom mobile app used for maintenance. I helped them migrate their entire workflow to Lark—building a comprehensive system that covered trip planning, inventory management, daily sales tracking, and customer feedback. That project made me realize that with the right tool, you can turn abstract ideas into reality while optimizing costs and maximizing efficiency. I also discovered a love for learning the specific “jargon” and operational intricacies of different industries.

Currently, my work involves troubleshooting complex issues and “solutioning.” My clients are experts in their fields but often need help translating their operational needs into digital workflows. I act as the bridge between their business goals and the technical implementation.

The most satisfying part of my job is the problem-solving aspect—taking a client’s rough idea and turning it into a working reality that makes their daily business smoother and more efficient.

Why do you feel representation matters in practice in the industry?

Representation matters in practice because it changes who feels they ‘belong’ in the room and that directly affects participation, confidence and retention. When people see someone like them doing the job, it reduces self-selection out of the pathway. It’s not just symbolic; it makes it easier for newer talent to ask questions, take up space, and persist through the steep learning curve.

In technical work, representation also improves outcomes because diverse teams tend to challenge assumptions and spot blind spots earlier which matters in cloud environments where reliability, security and user impact are non-negotiable. It’s less about optics and more about building stronger teams and a bigger, more sustainable talent pool.

With demand for specialized digital skills accelerating, including cloud, expanding and retaining the talent pool isn’t optional anymore, it’s capacity.

Why is “job-ready cloud talent” important in today’s industry?

Job-ready cloud talent means someone who can contribute in a real environment, not just complete a course. In practical terms, job-ready people can work with cloud fundamentals confidently, apply basic security and governance habits, troubleshoot with structure, document clearly, communicate well with stakeholders, and take ownership of tasks even small ones in real projects.

It’s important today because the market demand is clearly moving toward specialized roles like cloud architects and cloud-related capabilities, and organizations are under pressure to execute. Malaysia’s job market outlook continues to flag demand for specialized digital roles including cloud, and salary movements reflect competition for these skills.

So job-ready talent isn’t just about hiring faster, it’s about reducing project risk, improving reliability, and helping teams deliver consistently as cloud adoption scales.

What are the gaps new hires and teams face in the industry? Can mentorship help with this?

Recently I have interns in my team. One of the most common gaps I see is that fresh graduates are often excellent at technical execution—they can complete assigned tasks perfectly—but they struggle to ensure those tasks bring actual value to the business.

In university, success is often about getting the ‘right answer.’ In the industry, success is about solving the ‘right problem.’ Learning to shift from simple task completion to providing solutioning that has business value is a skill that only comes with real-world working experience.

This is frequently a confidence issue. New hires often hesitate to look beyond the instructions or challenge a requirement because they fear being wrong. They stick to the safety of the ‘task’ rather than venturing into ‘solutioning’ because they do not yet trust their own judgment in a business context.

Because this business instinct takes time to develop, mistakes are inevitable. Even with advice, new hires often need to navigate these situations personally to truly grasp the lesson. That is why effective mentorship in my team focuses on providing a safety net. My manager always emphasizes: ‘Everyone makes mistakes; that is how we learn.’ We ensure we know that we are a team, and we have each other’s backs to support them through that learning curve.

How do you contribute to women in tech enablement?

To put this into practice, I believe in making learning engaging. I frequently organize small, scenario-based challenges for my team to test their knowledge and agility.

These aren’t just tests; they are teachable moments. Once the challenge is done, I use the results to mentor them on how to simplify their thought processes and demonstrate faster, more effective ways to solve the problem.

Beyond the team, I actively share my experiences from customer engagements and industry events. By discussing how different industries value different things, I help junior women in tech understand the broader business landscape. This exposure helps them move beyond just ‘technical support’ to becoming well-rounded consultants who understand the diverse needs of the market.

Lastly, with AI taking over more roles, do you think that this will have an impact on how women view the tech industry as well?

AI will definitely change how people view tech, including women, but I don’t see it as ‘AI replacing people’ as much as ‘AI changing what good work looks like’. The value shifts toward people who can combine technical literacy with problem-solving, judgement, communication, and responsible implementation.

Globally, employers are signaling that AI and data skills are rising in importance, alongside cybersecurity and tech literacy but also skills like creative thinking, resilience, curiosity, and lifelong learning. That mix actually creates opportunities for more people to enter tech through different pathways, not just one traditional route.

At the same time, we should be honest that AI will transform some job tasks more than others, and some reports suggest women’s work can be more exposed to automation in certain occupations which means we should respond by widening access to upskilling and ensuring women are part of the AI-enabled future, not pushed to the margins.

So my view is AI makes enablement more urgent, not less. If women see clear pathways where learning converts into real roles and growth, tech becomes more attractive, not more intimidating.

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