In May 2018, Twitter officially released the Account Activity API to help developers build solutions that enable businesses to create better customer engagement experiences on its platform. On the team of engineers that worked on the API is Babatunde Fashola, a Nigerian software engineer that has worked at Twitter for the past three years building products now used by millions of people around the world. Many Nigerians may recognize the Twitter software engineer’s name as that of the former Lagos state governor and current Minister of Power, Works, and Housing.
At the start of Black History Month 2019, Google designed its daily-changing homepage logo to include an image of African-American activist Sojourner Truth, the great 19th-century abolitionist and women’s rights activist. But what would Truth say about Google’s continual lack of care and respect toward people of color? While bringing more attention to Sojourner Truth is venerable, Google can do better. As a professor and researcher of digital cultures, I have found that a lack of care and investment by tech companies towards users who are not white and male
I’d been working spotty freelance contracts for years and finally landed a stable full-time job in NYC. I was receiving a competitive salary doing something I would easily do for free, and I quit after a year — to do it my way. Teaching and uplifting others, building inclusive and innovative community spaces, and diversifying the technology industry from top to bottom have been personally important to me for over a quarter of my adult life. I’ve spent the last 6 years devotedly working as a software engineer, educator, and entrepreneur with
Netflix is hiring on pocitjobs.com In his career of more than 13 years, Chris Cochran has witnessed how the cybersecurity industry has changed and gained in popularity. Now, as a threat intelligence lead for Netflix, he is on the frontline of innovation, dealing with threat issues that no one has encountered before. Speaking at a high school event, Chris Cochran tells the story of the Bangladesh cyber heist. A group of North Koreans allegedly used the Swift financial system to defraud the US Federal Bank account of Bangladesh Bank of
Tell us about your personal passions! I’m incredibly passionate about increasing diversity in tech and making sure minorities are equipped with the proper skills to excel in the space. Over the last ten years, I’ve only had the privilege of working with a handful of minorities. Diversity and inclusivity in tech is a problem, and we can no longer blame it on the hiring pipeline. We have to be intentional and create a space that works for everyone. What’s one childhood lesson that you still carry with you to this
BetterUp is hiring on pocitjobs.com Long before working for IBM and BetterUp, Bryan Hickerson initially hesitated to pursue a career in programming. “Computer science has a reputation for being very difficult,” Bryan says, “having impostor syndrome, I thought that maybe I wasn’t good enough to do that.” In the 1990s as a young Black American, Bryan couldn’t find a role model in the tech industry he could aspire to. It was his father, a systems administrator at Boeing, who encouraged Bryan’s interest in computers and programming. “We actually built my first
I recently quit my full-time Software Engineering job and for the stereotypical Millennial reason; to pursue a career I love and have a passion for. I didn’t want to work to only be about making money but about making something that was impactful in the ways that I find most important in life, and that is by telling stories. Storytelling has always been an essential part of the human experience whether through words or imagery and in my life when I was unable to put words to my emotions, watching
About three years ago, I published a story about how the Twitter app I built in high school, Follow, reached 150,000 downloads in two years. In that article, I alluded to the even larger story about how I got into software. Well, here it is. Nine years ago today (wow!) I got my first remote gig writing software. I didn’t have an official title or anything, but I was writing scripts in Java. To give you some perspective, 10 years ago I was in 9th grade, 13 years old, with
When I first started at Lever I shared my story about my journey here with some coworkers. It was deeply personal, but the people I talked to encouraged me to keep telling that story. I wanted to share some of it here because I know others will see themselves in it, and I believe that we should be real and celebrate whatever paths we take to get where we’re going. Here’s a few things you might know about me. I’m motivated, passionate, adaptable, and determined. I drove more than 2,700
According to Terragon’s Digital Trends for Nigeria in 2018 report, about 6 million Nigerians use Twitter actively every month. Over the years, the social media platform has changed the way Nigerians interact with one another online and with other users all over the world. It has also bridged the gap between citizens and the Nigerian government as many government officials and agencies have active Twitter accounts. In Silicon Valley, San Francisco, California, the tech giant’s headquarters, various teams of diverse specialties, educational backgrounds work together to ensure that users of the platform all over
