Last summer I gathered over a dozen womxn of color startup founders and small business owners to connect in Seattle, Washington. We shared our backgrounds, experiences, expertise, challenges and successes as a collective given the historical and systematic exclusion in the business ecosystem. We bonded on our common experience of being ‘the only’, steadily pioneering our own industries. We would have never thought that six months later the world would be facing a global health crisis and we’d be scrambling to secure funding to survive. On average, womxn of color
In college, I interned with a local health insurance company. When I was getting ready to complete my internship, a professional mentor of mine, who also happened to be another Woman of Color, offered me some advice on how to succeed in “corporate America.” She told me, “You need to get rid of your natural hair to survive.” It was the mid-2000’s, during a period of time when Black women were reconnecting to their roots and cutting off their chemically processed (and highly damaged) hair. It was a moment of
Two years ago, I decided to radically change my career from nonprofit STEM education to software engineering. I had no background in coding, outside of a single programming class in 7th grade and a little HTML when I was a teenager. I entered a coding bootcamp, Ada Developers Academy, in January 2018 and had full-time software engineering offers from two of Seattle’s tech giants in December of the same year. Being a nontraditional Black female software engineer, preparing for the interview process began as a terrifying and mysterious endeavor. Through much
Subscribe to the Techish Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, And Other Platforms. Episode Content: In this episode of this Techish, Abadesi and Michael discuss: ⚡ Am I a “sell-out” for joining big tech? 🌱 Are the young too afraid of risk? 💸 Do all big companies eventually suck without acquisitions? 🤔 Do you feel like a lucky person? Extras: Techish on Patreon: Advertise with Techish: Please rate and review the Techish podcast
Michelle has had an unconventional yet beautiful journey to UX-UI design. She started drawing at a young age and always enjoyed creating things. Although she was raised in a low-income Houston neighborhood where many failed to finish high school, Michelle was an exception. After graduating, she would eventually leave that neighborhood altogether to pursue a degree in toy design from the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) in New York. While at FIT, Michelle learned about the principles of user experience and user journeys. She parlayed this knowledge into her first
This was originally posted here: http://ahvc.school/blog Yesterday, a friend of mine shared with me the great news that he was planning on starting a family and asked: “what is the one skill that you would love to teach your daughter as she grows up?” Almost immediately I answered, “the ability to make smart decisions on a consistent basis when I am not in the room.” One trait that I believe has shaped me profoundly in the decisions I make in my career, with my family and in life, is the
Subscribe to the Techish Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, And Other Platforms. Episode Content: In this episode of this Techish, Abadesi and Michael discuss: ⚡ Sharing your salary on Twitter to help underrepresented folk negotiate? [3:00]⚡ Setting boundaries at work? [16:21]⚡ Should I leave my job? [14:16] Extras: Techish on Patreon: Advertise with Techish: Please rate and review the Techish podcast
What I love about the tech design community, is that we are so invested in our collective growth. I find myself constantly looking to network, collaborate with, and learn from other designers in the field. The following list is a collection of some of the Black Designers across the diaspora who are creating stunning experiences, invaluable products, but most importantly, long-lasting communities. 1. Mariam Braimah @ Netflix Design Team Mariam is a Product Designer at Netflix. She also founded the Kimoyo Fellowship, which is a design program teaching the skills required to become an
When Justina Sanchez first began working at TÜV SÜD 15 years ago, her role had absolutely nothing to do with engineering. She began her career as an entry-level administrative assistant, with no exposure to what an engineering path would look like. During her few years at TÜV SÜD, however, Justina found herself surrounded by engineers constantly testing and certifying products before they shipped to ensure consumer safety. Intrigued by the constant experimentation process going on around her, she felt drawn to learn more. “[The engineering team] would get to do
Subscribe to the Techish Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, And Other Platforms. Episode Content: In this episode of this Techish, Abadesi and Michael discuss: ⚡ Jeff Bezos donates $10 billion⚡ Are VC’s hyping up the Corona Virus? ⚡ HQ Trivia shuts down⚡ The Techish Parasite review⚡ Single mother founders? [24:16] Extras: Techish on Patreon: Advertise with Techish: Please rate and review the Techish podcast
