What made you decide to work in tech? My mom was super controlling when it came to going on the internet. She used to set this AOL feature where it limited the time the child account was allowed to use the internet each day. My two other siblings and I had to share one hour of internet per day and it was horrible. My childhood consisted of modding the Sims, customizing my Myspace page, and figuring out how my older brother always bypassed the internet timer and parental controls. I played
What made you decide to work in tech? Coming into college, I didn’t have a clear idea of what I wanted to major in. I knew I wanted something that blended science and art, but I didn’t know what that something was. An advisor suggested CS, but it didn’t seem like anything I wanted to do. That summer I had an internship at Sandia National Labs, and I was exposed to web development. I took to it immediately, but the extent of what I could do was limited by the fact that I
This is a special episode of POCIT featuring former Twitter Engineer Leslie Miley. Please read his enlightening essay on Medium regarding Twitter’s lack of diversity, and how it informed his decision to leave a senior engineering position at the company. What made you decide to work in tech? I have what I call home field advantage. I was born and raised in Silicon Valley {laughs}. You couldn’t walk out the door without getting hit by a computer. It always fascinated me, I watched Steve Jobs as a kid, and witnessed
What made you decide to work in tech? Since as far back as I can remember, I’ve always loved gadgets. Technology and problem-solving have always piqued my interest. Back in the 80s, consumer technology wasn’t what it is today as far as being accessible and affordable and so we never had a computer in our household. To compensate, I read A LOT and also played with tech at school and even more so in college. This is where I got to build my first computer and never looked back. What was an
What made you decide to work in tech? I had no exposure to tech growing up. The only exposure I had was the tech I was consuming. I always loved tech and games, and I was a very early adopter of Facebook and MySpace. I always loved technology, but I had no idea I could be a developer; I didn’t even know what that was! Over a college winter break I came across two different videos: one was a TED talk by Kimberly Bryant of Black Girls Code, and [the
Designer & Front-End Developer mikedre.com Check out his projects: Barbershapp, The Right Spice, & The Arts Project What made you decide to work in tech? I’ve always had an interest in tech from a young age, always experimenting with gadgets and computers. I initially started with a much more Art & Design focus with the majority of projects that I was working on covering branding and illustration. I hated code at first and could never have seen myself doing anything more than copying and pasting from Google. But once I sat
What made you decide to work in tech? Before I even knew what I was getting into, I picked up on some knowledge during middle school that engineers make a lot of money! {laughs} I was always good at math and science, but before it was a desire it was: What do my skills tell me I should do? As I got into high school, I think I had a soft pulse on the evolution of technology, and where it would be by the time I was a young adult. I
What made you decide to work in tech? I’ve always been drawn to computers from a young age. I knew I wanted my career to be oriented towards something more analytical, so when I first saw programming I was sold immediately. What was the biggest obstacle you faced? I think one challenge I faced was self-doubt. The closest I’ve come to giving up on programming was actually my first time trying to program. Often when people encounter difficult subjects for the first time it is not uncommon to think “maybe
Melissa James is President and CEO of The Tech Connection, the premier marketplace for purpose-driven, diverse technical talent. Her mission is to help people reach their highest potential by accelerating their individual pathway to success. On top of running her business, Melissa is the founder of the Black Tech Boston Meetup, a platform created to celebrate the impact of technology within African-American communities. She recently received the U.S. Presidential Service Award and the 2015 Pursuer award from the African Youth Excellence organization for her relentless commitment to the community. What
Senior Product Designer & Culture Ambassador at Neo damian.is Designer of experiences at TheGlint. Founder of Hunie, a 500 Startups company. Product designer at Neo. Tell us about your experience at 500 Startups? It was great. ‘500’ is an awesome program, with a great community. It makes a lot of sense if you’re looking for traction with an existing product (having achieved product-market fit). Unfortunately I was more in the idea stage, and I was also a single founder, so that carried a few disadvantages. How did you
