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
Clayton State University – BA in Legal Studies UX/UI Designer and Front End Developer uxace.wordpress.com What made you decide to work in tech? I knew that being in law was not really for me. I prefer the challenge of creating products that people can use. Tech allows me to be more of myself and more expressive in ways that law did not allow me to be. What was an obstacle you faced and how did you overcome that obstacle? Just being able to get into tech was an obstacle
Stony Brook University – Computer Information System Director of Web Development and Production www.abrianharris.com What made you decide to work in tech? Isn’t it obvious? Girls love nerds, duh! However, in all seriousness, “tech” involves all that is new, exciting and creative. I love all of the aforementioned, so it was a no-brainer to decide to get paid for it. The adage is: “Do what you love.” What was an obstacle you faced and how did you overcome that obstacle? I don’t “look” like a nerd. When I use
What made you decide to work in tech? I’ve just liked computers for as long as I can remember. What’s your earliest programming memory? I didn’t start programming until I was in high school. I took a computer science course. We used JavaSwing to draw things, and it was really awesome! What was an obstacle you faced ? Oh yeah. In college, I had a project based class. My professor made me lead developer. I was normally the only girl developer in my class, and I was the only girl
