“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
This past summer I had the opportunity to intern in the infamous California Bay Area (otherwise known as Silicon Valley) for Accenture. I worked in Accenture’s Ventures division, where they partner and strategically invest in the most promising innovations in the market. Being in Silicon Valley taught me valuable lessons that I could not have picked up anywhere else. Network The network in The Valley is incredible. I was able to network with venture capitalists, tech entrepreneurs, and corporate innovation groups. The individuals I met took my learnings to the
Across the board, facial/human recognition tools have proven to be erroneous when it comes to accurately identifying dark skin colors. These errors show up in two ways: I. The product mistakes people with dark skin for something/someone else. II. The product is unable to detect dark skin I. Product Mistakes People with Dark Skin for Something / Someone Else Google Photos Google Photos is a platform that provides users with a place to organize, manage and back up their personal photographs. It uses machine-learning technology to categorize photos with similar
A spat between the UK Government, PayPal and Kenya freelancers has got everyone mixing up issues. “Thousands of jobless graduates from Kenya who help lazy university students in developed countries to cheat academically could soon be forced to find something else to do after the UK government started clamping down on essay mills. On Thursday, international digital money transfer service, PayPal, announced it was withdrawing its services to essay-writing firms selling to university students. This was after weeks of pressure from the UK government, which insists on stopping payments for
Sitting in my African American Psychology class, I was introduced to Design Experience and Thinking in a guest lecture Skype session by Shayna Atkins, product consultant and founder of Atkco Inc and The Queens Brunch. Probably 5 seconds after the terms rolled off her tongue, I was on her website and searching for anything I could find on this topic. Naturally, I came upon user design experience and instantly fell in love with the idea of solving problems by meticulously crafting experiences in a collaborative and dynamic process. I saw
I love mission-driven jobs. In fact, I’m borderline addicted to them. My whole career has been in the nonprofit sector because I want to spend every ounce of my working life on missions I believe in. And yet, as a leader and a coach in the nonprofit sector, and someone who cares deeply about gender parity and race equity at work, I know that for lots of us — and especially women of color — our passion for the work we do sometimes makes us vulnerable to inequitable pay scales
Abstract.com VP of Engineering, Rukmini Reddy, shares the pivotal events that helped shape her path and underpin her leadership philosophy. Originally published here. Yes, I said bad-ass. I went from being just another Indian school girl being taught in a convent, to being a VP of Engineering for three incredible companies in Silicon Valley. While having twin boys who are now 5. So, yeah. I lean into my badassery because I have worked very hard for it. Courage is one of my core values. But it wasn’t always that way.
Every year around 0.2% of business funding goes to Black women so last year when Joycelyn and I set out to raise £360k ($450k) whilst I had a very visible baby bump, we knew we’d have a serious fight on our hands… At this year’s London Tech Week, I was flicking through my notes and saw that a year ago we didn’t know the difference between VC and angel investment. Under a year after attending events to learn about investment, in an environment where young black women aren’t funded, we
This was originally posted here by the Black UX Collective. When I learned about UX design, I fell in love immediately. The idea of being able to enhance the experience of users resonated with me in ways I did not fully understand. As I became more immersed in the field, I realized why it felt so much like home. Black people work to enhance the experiences of our community consistently. We fight every single day to design a world where we are seen, heard, and loved. Space-making is an iterative
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
