Junior software engineers from under-represented groups should feel ok focusing on their technical work. I recently got my first software engineering job. As someone from an under-represented group in tech, I’m constantly reminded of the inequalities in access to the web development industry. Of 80 developers in my department, I am one of few women, one of two mothers and I may be the only black woman (the department doesn’t track data on this yet). This balance feels wrong to me. It feels unjust. I don’t understand why this job,
Building a network is a common recommendation for career development. A strong network can help you access unique opportunities, and offer advice to help you grow and handle challenging situations. Yet, many people — especially introverts — struggle with networking because they feel they lack the mental energy, time, or know-how. They sometimes have the perception that networking requires meeting more people than they can handle, or that the people they want to connect with are inaccessible. Over time, I’ve learned to overcome those challenges and grow my own network
Originally published by Wogrammer here. Ananya Cleetus has a day named after her in the city of Pittsburgh. She is the creator of an app called Anemone, a TEDx speaker, and a computer science student at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She exudes a unique type of confidence while speaking intelligently and thoughtfully about the journey that led her here today. While Ananya has accomplished so much early in her career, her success hasn’t come without its share of personal adversity. Earlier in her collegiate career, while studying Computer Science
Posted in Open Design by Sara Zhang “Product Designer.” When I first moved to San Francisco and was looking for a job in the design world, this title appeared in listing after listing, and I had no idea what it meant. I wondered, What is product design? What is product? And what on earth is Sketch? The year was 2013, and I was fresh out of Florida State University with a shiny new art degree. I’d been creative since I was young and began taking art classes in middle school.
This post first appeared on Elpha, a community for women in tech to talk candidly online” If you’re a woman (particularly a woman of color) in tech, you’ve probably felt it. That feeling that you’re the “only one” in the room. The feeling that you don’t belong, that you need to prove yourself, that you’re alone. According to a study by Leanin.org and McKinsey & Company, one in five women report being one of the only women in the room. In senior leadership, this is twice as common: 40% of women are the only
Arlan Hamilton — founder and managing partner at Backstage Capital — summarized best why investing in Black Female Founders (BFF) isn’t just important, but could produce high yields: “Less than 0.2 percent of all early-stage venture funding goes to Black women, while we make up approximately 8 per cent of the U.S. population and are one of the fastest-growing entrepreneur segments in the country,” Arlan wrote. “It is my firm belief that because Black women have had to make do with far less for centuries, equipping them with early-stage capital that is
In this article Maryam Nahhal, a part-time writer at Medium and tech enthusiast, dives into the taboo subject of money! She takes us on a journey through her personal experiences with money and illustrates how much our thoughts and feelings towards money have been shaped heavily by our gender, race and culture. As a POC who works in tech you may be all too familiar with the new issues that arise once you start making money, especially in terms of how you use that money. I think Biggie put it
Meet Carmen Bocanegra, a first-generation, Peruvian-American Senior UX Designer. In this interview, Carmen talks about her journey, explains why UX is so much more about the people than it is about the technology, how using twitter helped her career, and why working in UX can mean so many different things. TrussWorks is hiring on pocitjobs.com Tell us about your career path? I was a really curious kid. I asked a lot of questions. I had a love of science because my parents were both in the medical profession. I grew
I am officially a “yellow badge.” If you’re not familiar with Amazon’s peculiar culture, that means that I have been at the company for five years! It also marks my five years a professional as Amazon was my first job after I graduated from Colorado State University. When I started at Amazon on June 16, 2014, I honestly had no idea I would make it to five years. I had only been to Seattle twice before moving (onsite interview and house hunting trip), I didn’t have any friends, and so
This article captures the pain-staking yet exhilarating fundraising journey of the TRIM-IT App founders Darren Tenkorang, Nathan Maalo, Nana Darko and Peter Lloyd. TRIM-IT is a mobile barbershop service that via an app offers a subscription service for men to get their hair cut [sans the hassle of traveling or long queues]. On the brink of shutting down their companyy, the universe threw a life jacket of $250,000! Based on this viral twitter thread, CEO Darren shows us that resilience is key when it comes to fundraising! For those that
