I got my first job when I was 16. A few weeks after I got my driver’s license, I drove my red, 2002 Ford Focus over to a local Frisch’s Big Boy. I’d never eaten there, but it always seemed to be empty which I thought was just the right level of intimidating for my first job. My would-be manager, a white man of around 60, conducted an informal interview with me at one of the empty tables — we had every seat in the place to choose from. With
During the earliest stages of my nontraditional software engineering education, I would often sit down to code and place my computer on a table covered with books of poetry. I loved coding but drew my power and sustenance as a Black woman from the words of poets like Jamila Woods, Jericho Brown, and Fatimah Asghar. The apparent contradiction between my interests always left me with a tiny itch, somehow, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on what the feeling was trying to tell me. I went on improving my coding skills while
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
This story was orignally published by Wogrammer Ledo Nwilene, a third-year student at Drexel University in Philadelphia and co-founder of Students of LinkedIn, is not afraid of breaking the status quo. Ledo moved to the United States from Nigeria in pursuit of becoming a doctor. She found her purpose in technology instead. Discovering how present and ‘necessary’ tech was in every aspect of society, she switched her major from Biomedical Engineering to Computing and Security Technology. Ledo and her two best friends wanted a way to share their journeys into
“The beauty about community is that you often start off creating content, curating content then co-ordinating content created by the community” Andy Ayim Five entrepreneurs. One mission; building a business with ‘community’ in the center. If there is one lesson that can be taken away from the stories of these five founders, it is that a community first approach can be the key to success for a ‘start-up’. Black people [and people of color in general] know what it is like to not have their narrative told in the mainstream,
This article takes a look at some of the fantastic technologist hailing from Eritrea and Ethiopia [both in the diaspora and the motherland]. The list is far from exhaustive, so please feel free to shout out anyone else in the comments! 1. Betelhem Dessie At 10, she was coding. Now, at 19 Betelhem Dessie has been dubbed “the youngest pioneer in Ethiopia’s fast emerging tech scene” by CNN. Working at Ethiopia’s first Artificial Intelligence Lab [iCog], she was involved in the development of the world-famous Sophia the robot. This young
“Should I have a career in tech?” Up until about a year and a half ago, this thought had never crossed my mind. This all changed when I became the marketing manager of 23 Code Street, a women’s coding school. I read and learned a lot about tech, completed our web development course and became fascinated by the industry. When I heard about YSYS’s and Color in Tech’s Immersion program- I applied straight away and fortunately got awarded one of their scholarships! I spent one week in Los Angeles in
Originally published here by Frauenloop Over the past three years of training women at FrauenLoop to enter the tech industry, this question comes up again and again. Between my female mentors and students, I’ve heard the doubts and insecurities from women with high voices, women with children, women wearing headscarves, women with accents, women with brown skin, women who have female partners, women without valid passports, and women worried about finding work because their faces or figures no longer suggest they are thirty-two. “Is this a good company?” FrauenLoop students
Welcome friends 👋 I had the opportunity to run an interactive workshop this year at Afrotech Fest 2019 in collaboration with Cynthia Mukendy from African Gist. The purpose of the workshop was to brainstorm and create a library for individuals of the African diaspora in the UK who are currently working or interested in Tech. Things that we covered during the session: Forums/communities that cater to individuals currently working or interested in tech. Inspirational people in tech of Black/African/Caribbean descent. Local organisations / business that support with funding / co-working space / mentoring
A key component of our thesis at HBCUvc is how university-affiliated networks influence venture capital ecosystems. According to Richard Kerby’s “Where Did You Go to School?” — forty percent of venture capitalists attended Stanford or Harvard. Stanford and Harvard are also ranked as the top two universities for producing the most funded startup CEOs. I wanted to know which HBCUs are already producing talent in the venture capital ecosystem. I compiled a list of 59 HBCU grads who are working in venture capital or have worked in the industry in the past five years.
