How A Software Engineer Turned Adversity Into Impact

In this episode of the WeArePoWEr Podcast, we’re joined by Asia Sharif, a Software Engineer, public speaker, mentor and all-round force of nature. Asia shares the story behind the origin of her name, how identity has shaped her confidence and her honest experiences with imposter syndrome in tech. She reflects on building self-belief, navigating underrepresentation in engineering and the importance of mentorship in STEM, while also breaking down her path into coding and software engineering and how public speaking became a tool for impact and advocacy. She also opens up about her battle with cancer, the challenges she faced and the mindset that helped her keep moving forward. What to expect in this episode: The story and meaning behind Asia’s name Imposter syndrome & building self-belief Mentorship in STEM and engineering Coding, software engineering & tech careers Public speaking and confidence Asia’s cancer journey, resilience & recovery Awards, achievements & success Find out more about We Are PoWEr here. 💫

You can listen to How A Software Engineer Turned Adversity Into Impact online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

How A Software Engineer Turned Adversity Into Impact is an episode from Northern Power Women Podcast by powered by Simone Roche MBE and Northern PoWEr Women .

This episode is 32:50 long.

This episode was published on Feb 9, 2026.

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