New York

New York has been great. We have a hostel with really weird colors, but that's okay, because it's clean and it's somewhere to stay. Highlights:

-Meeting some cool Swedish girls.
-Seeing some of my favorites at various museums (Guggenheim, Metropolitan, Neue Galerie, etc.): Klee, Klimt, de Kooning, Rothko, Mondrian, Johns, Wyeth, Van Gogh, Kandinsky, and more.
-Following Jessi's example of sharing the gospel with EVERYONE.
-Laughing when Jessi told me that she gave a nickel to a homeless man who threw it at a car because "he served two years in Vietnam." (Do you think Iraq soldiers will do that some day?)
-Trying to convince Jessi at the MOMA that modern art is art.

















-Not liking the new contemporary museum myself.
-Accidentally taking the express train to Brooklyn.












-Having our feet hurt so bad from walking that we have to support each other as we hobble home.
-Getting a tour of the amazing New York Public Library from a really cool French lady.
-Getting a library card at the New York Public Library, as well as a photo of the Gutenberg Bible that we found out was prohibited. (Oops.) They also have the cane that Virginia Woolf used as she went down to drown herself, the room where Betty Friedan wrote The Feminine Mystique, and the scroll that Jack Kerouac gave to the publishers for On the Road.
-Noticing dresses, suits, colors, and flowers everywhere we go because of Tanya's upcoming wedding.
-Going to the Manhattan Temple and seeing Sam's dad there.













-Trying to get Wicked tickets three times and failing.
-Going in the wrong side of the subway at least five times so we have to wait ten minutes to go in the other side or ask someone to reset our cards.
-Accidentally taking the express train to Harlem and having a lady named "Cool" and Tanya join forces to try to convince me to get my hair braided.
-Attending a piano/opera recital at Steinway Hall and seeing some pretty amazing pianos.
-Discovering a cool clothing store and deli near Times Square that fit my budget.
-Awaking to snow and being really excited, then having wet, cold pants and socks the whole day.
-Limping along, trying to ignore what has simply come to be called "the toe."
-Eating so many bagels that we never want bagels again (the store sells a package of day-old bagels for a dollar).
-Seeing two Titans at church.
-Talking to Jessi in German so she can correct me while she answers in English so I can correct her.
-Taking the ferry to Staten Island.
-Making friends with the Bengalese hostel employee because he gave us the employee pizza after we complained that all the free pizza was gone before we got there.
-Thinking I locked my key in my backpack with my computer and struggling for twenty minutes to figure out how to best break it open before going to bed and discovering the key the next morning.
-Joking about my pink burglar hat. (All the pink things were gifts, so I have to wear them, okay?)

New York City 2012

Michael and I went to visit the Goughs (who have a new member of the family) in New York. I thought it humorous when I realized that the only two times I've been to New York City, it was during February. Although we didn't get to see the one tourist attraction we had planned on (we got tickets to the Ground Zero Memorial three times, but it never worked out), we greatly enjoyed our time with the Goughs.

See?


 


Dim Sum at Golden Unicorn (I especially loved the tofu ginger soup):

Chi-Town

Happy St. Patrick's Day! I celebrated by dyeing the Chicago River green! Yes, I'm wearing green in this picture, it's just hidden by my coat.














This is Scott and I waiting for the "El." I made him wear that green shirt.














This is what the houses look like in Chicago.














Isn't Chicago nice? They even provide fire to keep the homeless pigeons warm.















The Lincoln Building is so cool--it has rocks from all over the world. I had to walk around the building twice, but I found the coolest one.














I really enjoyed downtown. Chicago has its own personality that I think is more enjoyable than New York. I told Scott that Chicago is funky, Boston is classy, and New York is big and dirty. He contended that Chicago is better than New York and Boston combined, but I beg to differ. Boston still wins in my mind, but I at least know that Chicago would be an enjoyable place to live. I love that there are some more open spaces so seeing the buildings is easier.














This one made me do a double-take. It's for the First United Methodist Church. There are only a few Christian churches that still have temples like in Christ's day. Luckily we know what's supposed to go on in there.














I couldn't decide which version I liked better. Notice the nature vs. man-made theme.















This is a cool art installment. These two faces (the people change) stare at each other and sometimes water comes out of their mouths (not now, it's too cold).

















This is the Jay Pritzker pavilion, designed by Frank Gehry. SO COOL.















Scott and I being reflected in The Bean.














What lawn? Is there even grass in this area?












Dancing Scott:




We had fun looking at the enormous shoes at Nordstrom Rack. Scott's shoe fit inside of them.

Yet Another Invitation, This Time by the New York Times

Check out this New York Times list of places to visit in 2010.

Leipzig is number 10, between Antarctica and Los Angeles!

I've got a couch and a fridge located there if you want to make it to at least one of the New York Times's suggested places.

Hackbright Q&A with Kelley

More great Hackbright questions! (Of course, the answers are my own opinions.)

Kelley's 1st question:
The application emphasized a project; did you feel that Hackbright more emphasized the process/coding steps behind building this or the holistic product? I guess I'm using this to ask how much focus the program has on straight coding and how much focus it offers to other concurrent skills (i.e. you mentioned project management).

My answer:
A lot of us didn't really know what we wanted to do at the start of the program, probably because we didn't have much of an idea of what could be done, and that was fine. It was the coding process that was most important, and when we did come up with/share our idea for our projects, our teachers let us know if they thought it was too grandiose or too simple for our goal of solidifying what we'd learned and, of course, picking up new things. Most of the program is focused on coding, coding, coding. Project management pretty much came just from our guest speakers and networking events.


Kelley's 2nd question:
You've spoken about how overwhelming the 10 weeks were, but did you ever get a chance to debrief and do something for yourself? I know you said your family and friends can wait 10 weeks while you learn, but that's still quite a time to go without indulging in something for your personal sanity!

My answer:
Honestly, I did take some time for myself, but every time I did, I felt mad and sad later, because I could have been trying to catch up on curriculum or re-doing lessons to really learn what we'd been doing. That doesn't mean I didn't occasionally cook dinner or bake something (which I like), and Sundays always consisted of three hours of church and a looong nap. When I said that friends can wait, I meant that this time is very important for your future, so limits need to be set. I decided that asking friends to wait for a few months was the best way for me to preserve my energy. Maybe you can handle more of a life outside of the program than I could. I needed all the energy I could get to just study at Hackbright, which meant that almost all of my other time was made up of me sleeping. Some of the women had enough energy to go do lindy-hopping (a kind of dance), work a part-time job, close a family company, or take evening front-end classes. They rock, and I was jealous, but I think that even they would say that some limits do need to be set if you want to get the most out of the program. One thing that I definitely made time for, despite my exhaustion, was evening networking opportunities. I'll write more about that in answer #5.


Kelley's 3rd question: I come from a business background so I have to ask about the money...Do you feel the program is worth the cost when there are other options like Lynda, Codeacademy, Udemy, etc.? Maybe this is self explanatory and the reason behind why I'm applying (I've had accounts at all three mentioned sites, have barely made progress in any of them). However, Hackbright would strain ALL of my savings to be able to finance it (not to mention the cost of living in San Francisco for 2.5 months).

My answer:
Worth the cost? Yes. Every penny--even if I hadn't been hired by a sponsoring company. All of those online courses are great starts, but we passed all of that stuff up in about two days. We learned how to really apply the concepts. Also, because the course was intensive and full of other women, we had to learn quickly, so our good programming basis was jumpstarted.I think that Hackbright is worth any sacrifice. I wasn't so sure beforehand--I worried so much about the cost. I hadn't been making much and couldn't afford an apartment. I made arrangements that many people would consider crazy in order to finance the program, and I wouldn't take them back for anything--I married my boyfriend, who had a steady income that could bear some of the weight, and we asked for money instead of gifts so I could pay for Hackbright. Truly.


Kelley's 4th question:
I know I have an interest in tech but there are so many career options within the industry! Do most people enter knowing what they want to do and/or does Hackbright help you gain insight into this?

My answer:
I think all of us gained insight as we went along, and honestly, the field is so adaptive that you will probably make changes several times as you get to know more of what you like.


Kelley's 5th question:
The recruiting is heavily based in San Francisco, but I'm definitely interested in coming back to New York or possibly exploring other cities as well. Did you see many options of flexible location placement? Or were those graduates interested in other locations doing more self guided searches and networking?

My answer:
The companies that came to Career Day were mostly based in San Francisco. Several of them had other offices. I know that one of my classmates is from New York and interviewing with several companies there. I worried so much about getting hired by one of the sponsoring companies so I could get money back, but now I kind of laugh at that, because I'm making enough to quickly pay it off, and if I'd gotten hired at another place, I could have just asked for that much more. Ah, well. At the time, I'd never had such a good job and was worn down by money problems that lasted for several years. Anyway, you'll have a lot of opportunities to do networking. My advice is to take every one seriously and talk to as many people as you can, then connect with them via email and/or LinkedIn. The more people you talk to, the bigger chance you have of connecting with someone who has connections at places you're interested in that are in New York.

As always, more questions are welcome.

September's Links to Love

Artsy:

Making toys from kids' drawings.

The Leonardo, a new museum in Salt Lake City, has wonderful countdown videos (and I'm sure everything's going to be just as amazing inside):



Obsessive organization can be beautiful.

I'm pretty sure just about any time lapse of the Bay Area could be made to look nice--except for traffic. Anyway, watch this:

The Unseen Sea from Simon Christen on Vimeo.

100 years of London fashion and dance:

These latticed cookies look pretty, but I'm pretty sure they're waaaay too much work.

After hearing that the costume designer from MadMen made a Banana Repulic line, I think the Inception dude should do the same.

Paintbrush for the iPad.

Extension cord lamp:

Large map initial.

Split Decision Pie Pan. (I don't think I'd like the extra crust, truthfully. Just make two pies!)

You've gotta love fall foliage.

Beach garbage mural:



Beach garbage art:

One Plastic Beach from High Beam Media on Vimeo.

Average font.

Cool homemade chair:

Picnic in a lunchbox.

I've discovered another lovely blog where repetition is appreciated.



Mormon:

Quotations about Heavenly Mother.

President Uchtdorf's five lessons of the forget-me-not.

Just wanted to point out President Monson's fan status:




Literary:

Feminist sarcasm for you, "Why I Want a Wife" (makes me want a wife, too).

The Giving Tree, narrated and harmonica-ized by author Shel Silverstein:




Yes, I Love Technology:

Happy 13th birthday, Google.

Crittercism to give feedback to mobile apps.

Bump world map (thanks to Mr. Christoffer Perry).

I've been waiting for something like this sheet music app to come along. I knew it wouldn't be long.

Better gifts and easier good-gift-giving at Social Gift.

Another fun online time waster: draw a stickman.

Startup namer. Ha.

New Dynamic Blogger Views.

:D G-Male:



Peektree for sharing and rating your pictures.

Grow a virtual tree to improve your life (Mindbloom).

Washington Post Social Reader. Hurry up, Google, and get Google Reader and Google Buzz onto Google Plus!

Have you heard about reconstructing images from the brain yet? Fascinating:

I know people are still too freaked out, but I firmly believe there will be a live satellite cam of the whole world some day. New York's on the way.

Yet another ask-a-local-or-expert platform, Askalo.



Random:

Eye close-ups.

With the right music, watching feather starfish swim could really be mesmerizing:

Mindy Kaling's Flicks and Chicks article from The New Yorker. (By the way, I think her soon-to-come-out book might be worth reading.)

Legend of Zelda theme song:



Pet peeves.

After watching the first video of the Haka, I wanted to see if women ever do the Haka and found the second:

Haka from Ben Hall on Vimeo.

Weezer and Haley Williams' version of "The Rainbow Connection."

Muppet movie should be sweet:



Teeth tattoos--right up there with tooth jewels.

I'm not a big fan of milk, but I think that post-cereal milk is nice sometimes. Would you eat it as an ice cream flavor?

International Space Station night view:



I like these hanging measurers and these colorful knives.

Need a high five?

May's Links to Love

Artsy:

Stairs are one of those things you just don't think to decorate. But look at this:
















Jordan Matter's "Dancers among us" photos.

Hand-painted mural advertising documentary:




Artists' portrayals of favorite book scenes. (Picture Book Report.)

Awesome vintage wedding dresses.

Too bad this shop, Noun, is in Oregon. I think my mother would love it.

Engagement photos based on the movie "Up."

Happy Tape!

Comic Sans Destroyer. (I hate that font just as much as they do. And First Grader? Ick.)

Dreamy "Deviant Art."

My love for my bunk bed makes me want to always have a bunk bed. But unless I had stairs, it would be difficult when raising kids (waking up at all hours of the night and having to climb down would NOT BE FUN). But look at what showed up in Apartment Therapy's new book (found here):






















Music:

Why does Soko have such a lovely sound?



I already linked to Pogo's Alice remix, but the one from "Up," called "Upular," is also sweet. I just can't imagine how much work and awesomeness it would take to come up with such masterpieces:




I Love Technology:

I think some of my German friends would be jealous that the UK is getting gmail instead of googlemail.

Cool homepage design (let your mouse hover over the different options on the left).

Government requests that Google erase or give information.

The Google Job Experiment:





The Google Pac-Man Game! How to download the Google Pac-Man game.


Mormon:

LDS Humanitarian help.

Christian colleges' best Mormon blogs list.

The New Mormon.org (make a profile!).


Literary:
Lost languages found in New York.


Random:

Woolly mammoth hemoglobin (maybe this can help constantly cold people like myself?).

50 free online cooking classes.

Mariah Carey's crazy ring pop ring for her annual re-marriage.

Shi* my kids ruined.

Pimp That Snack!

Lebanese chefs set the new world record for amount of hummus. Yum!

McDonald's Playland for Grown-ups:



A video to get you ready for the World Cup.

Star Wars retold by someone who hasn't seen it (Hans?):

Star Wars: Retold (by someone who hasn't seen it) from Joe Nicolosi on Vimeo.

Happy Birthday, Uncle George!

Today would have been my great uncle George Bergman's 91st birthday. He contracted HIV and developed AIDS in the 80s and died in 1985. I never met him. Recently, I realized that since he didn't have any descendants, if I didn't ask my grandma about him soon, his story might be lost.



My grandma lovingly told me about George. Her brother loved music and played one of Chopin's polonaises before he ever had a piano lesson! He enjoyed singing (he was a tenor), playing the violin and piano (he and I learned on the same piano!), and going to the opera.



Their mother especially adored her golden boy, which I'm sure was hard for my grandma at times. There were quite a few pictures of him (as a child, he looked like one of my cousins!), and a few papers—letters from schools, news articles about him, and his funeral program.



When George died, my grandma was by his side in Philadelphia. One of the last things he said was, "There are so many astral people around."



I've enjoyed using library resources to research more about him—I found him in news articles and phone books, and was delighted to learn that he and my grandparents always lived within ten blocks of my favorite and longest-yet apartment in San Francisco!



I wish I could find people who knew him in the 50s and 60s in SF and NYC. My grandma said he was a music critic for an SF newspaper, but I've only been able to confirm that he worked on the San Francisco Examiner's classifieds and wrote one opera opinion piece. Every music critic has since died.





I wish I could find out the name(s) of George's partner(s) in New York City, San Francisco, Paris, and Philadelphia. Would he believe that gay marriage was legalized within his sister's lifetime? Did he face violence or arrests because he was gay? Did he join any early pride parades?

I'd heard different things about George's cause of death, so I requested a death certificate, but only immediate family members and direct descendants are allowed to receive a copy, which begs the question—what about decedents without descendants or living immediate family?



When I tried to request his transcript from SFSU to identify his major and graduation year, I was told I have to prove I was related. I'm trying to figure out how one does that—apparently a family tree isn't enough.

Thankfully, the SFSU university archivist was very responsive and easily found George's commencement program with his major (Italian) and graduation year (1962) that included a photo.



But one thing I keep thinking about was that big parts of his life are likely missing because the family didn't talk openly about George being gay, and he lived far away from family members still alive today.



So I started looking up some of George's former students who were named in an article about George's foreign language and performing arts video collection being donated to Germantown Friends School and found two who had talked about George in a Facebook post!

I ended up connecting with former students, a coworker, and the school's archivist, all of whom shared wonderful things! George was fashionable and always wrote with a purple flair pen. He had an “incredibly resonant voice with stylish cadences” (I'm trying to find a recording).



Despite the understood "don't ask, don't tell" attitude at the time, George made a welcoming space for closeted kids and faculty members. He earned respect by having no doubts about himself.



George recognized the school's opera queens and opera-interested and accompanied them, with his mother, to a New York opera and brunch at the World Trade Center restaurant Windows on the World, where he declared that everyone *must* see the amazing bathroom. (Anyone have a pic?)



Somehow, George was good friends with Coe Glade, a woman who held the world record for performing as Carmen in the opera the most times. He found out a coworker's mom loved opera as well and escorted her a few times, dressed very elegantly.



George played classical musical at "an ear-splitting volume." He showed up to support student songwriters and attended rock concerts with students. He surprised a coworker by telling her all about Pink Floyd.



Among George’s favorite movies were It’s a Wonderful Life, Sunset Boulevard, Casablanca, All About Eve, Ninotchka, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, The Philadelphia Story, The Lion in Winter, Notorious, A Star is Born, Rebecca, The Little Foxes, Wuthering Heights, and Becket.

George organized a celebration of 100 years of recorded sound and played the best recordings—Enrico Caruso, Leopold Stokowski conducting . . . and a song written by student Joshua Newberg, after which he announced, “That of course was Rudolf Schmidt and the Vienna Quintet.”

His extracurricular activities were: “Photography, Piano, Swimming, Theatre, Tape Recording, Concerts, Cinema, the Nations of the World.” He put on Romeo and Juliet with his French students and Frenchified everyone's names in the program. Thank you, GFS archivist!



He put himself in positions where he could support people who needed support and had an instinct for what people needed to hear. He accepted a very out-of-character role in a play for a shy kid directing it and told a visiting graduate, “You have evolved” (in French).



When George died, people at the school said he'd died of cancer without mentioning George having AIDS, and they said it was to protect his mother. I think that with how close George and his mother were, she probably knew he was gay and that he had AIDS.

Student David Dunn Bauer said, "George was glamorous, and we as a Quaker school were not, but George treated us as if we were. If we’d been in NYC, he'd have worn a full-length mink and it would have been fabulous. I graduated in 1977, and every one of these memories of George is vivid. George does not fade."



George's friends at GFS made a quilt square for the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt in honor of George. It didn't take me long to find it, and I was surprised to recognize it as soon as I saw it. That cleft chin is unmistakable.





What a gift to learn all these things about George so I have a clearer picture of him on his birthday! I'm also writing about my Grandma's life and love and learning more about her when we chat once per week.

Lydia's Hackbright Q&A with Breanna

Since Lydia has been answering a lot of Hackbright questions as well, she thought it would be a great idea to post them in the same place. I agree!  Here are her answers to Breanna's questions:

Do you live in the Bay Area? Did you know people in the program who looked for/found jobs outside the Bay Area?

• A few women were from New York and one woman was from France. Hackbright helps you meet companies, but they'll help connect you with anyone nationally. Just give them a list of companies you're interested in.
• What's really going to help you find a job is following the guidelines in this blog: http://blog.pamelafox.org/2012/11/proving-your-worth-as-self-taught.html
• You will need to network, build your portfolio, contribute code, find a mentor, and look for roles that suit your level. These things will help you find a job no matter where you live.

Have you found that people (outsiders) view the program positively? 

• It really depends on the company. There are large companies (like Google) that only hire the best of the best CS (computer science) majors. They are not willing to put in the time to mentor self-taught developers or people who have just graduated from bootcamps. I believe that medium-sized companies and start-ups that are growing are just right for graduates of Hackbright. They want to grow people. Hackbright has worked with companies like Survey Monkey, New Relic, and Eventbrite. These companies LOVED the graduates of Hackbright. Read more (from a guy that went through a similar bootcamp) here: http://hugomelo.com/becoming-an-apprentice/

Do you feel well prepared to work in programming now? 

• I do feel prepared, but I am a different case from most women. I was working part-time which is not advised if you're going through Hackbright. I believe that because I was working I was not able to put as many hours into mastering what I was learning. Because of that other women know more than me and were able to negotiate internships for 90K a year! I am currently working for a company I had connections with. I worked as a temp and helped them move offices. They wanted me back and hired me for Tech Support after Hackbright. I’m interested in Product Management or Sales Engineering in the future.

Assuming I do decide to apply to the program, do you have a good sense of how hard it was to get into the program?

• The program is getting harder to get into. There are more and more people applying. I think you should apply early and feel free to mention my name.  The founders like bringing on friends of friends.
• The main instructor is looking for people who like to solve problems.
• I am not really sure what an "ideal" candidate looks like for a program like this. Have you heard of any other programs like this in other cities?
• This program is the first of it's kind. Many new and innovative ideas in technology come out of San Francisco then the idea spreads to other cities. I think you should jump on this opportunity now.
• The women chosen come from all walks of life. We had women from electrical engineering, publishing, physics, Biology, architecture  and I was a former middle school teacher. I loved it because we all supported each other and helped each other grow. We all respected where we came from. And we're all helping each other find jobs now. It's nice to have a network!

Did you need your own computer for the program? / Do I need to buy a laptop capable of doing programming? Assuming I do decide to apply to the program, do you have a good sense of how hard it was to get into the program?

• Yes you do need a laptop but it does not have to be fancy. You just need a cheap laptop so you can do the exercises onlearnpythonthehardway.org and interactivepython.org at home on your own. Buy the cheapest one you can find.
•  You will probably be working on your personal project on the weekends on your laptop as well. I have a cheap Windows laptop that one of the instructors helped me put Linux on. Basically, other operating systems (Linux and OS/Apple) are easier to program on than Windows. I have a "virtual environment" that makes it easy to use Linux any time I want to (and I can switch back to Windows when I feel like being lazy....)
•  You can decide to buy a laptop with Linux (Ubuntu) on there: http://www.geek.com/articles/chips/geek-deals-sub-300-dell-vostro-2420-laptop-with-ubuntu-linux-2013014/ or you can buy a cheap Windows laptop and add a virtual environment. You just need something you can use commandline in (http://cli.learncodethehardway.org/book/)
• I hope this helps and I hope you get into the next class! It will change your life!

Inspiring Reactions to my Listserve Email

I received over 200 emails and tweets and LinkedIn messages as a result of my Listserve email last week (not to mention the plethora of birthday messages I received on Facebook!). I've loved hearing from people, especially since the response has been overwhelmingly positive. I thought I'd share my favorite parts of some of the messages.

From Katie of http://katality.com/: 

I think getting into development and engineering is a great way for a woman to be a builder and creator in all types of businesses.

One man just wrote and said that when he talks about SQL and bash scripts, women aren't interested. I basically said, "Well, if they knew what those actually were, maybe they would be."

Maggie kindly wrote: 

I'm a bookkeeper for a restaurant group, which is not necessarily a male-dominated industry, but your note really rang true and shed light on an upsetting truth about gender roles. I could go on, but my main reason for writing back to you is because, contrary to what you may believe, I think you're a terrific writer. Your note flows in a way that effortlessly leads the reader through your story.

Emily's story: 

I went to college for a Bachelors of Fine Arts. My parents both encouraged me to take computer classes, I refused every time, because when you are 18 - 22 you know everything :) Once I finished my degree I went into crisis mode - I had no idea what to do next. Again my parents encouraged me to take coding classes at a local university that offered day long classes. I did. I learned, and I loved it. I got my first job as a receptionist at an advertising firm, I showed up everyday and one day I got the courage to tell our developer and IT manager that I knew how to code. I'll never forget those men, they changed my life by taking a chance on me. The told me to show them some work, which I did and with in months I was on their team. I've been victim to the "aren't interested" faces, I've been told by good friends that they 'zone out' when I talk about work, which hurt, but it doesn't make them bad people and it has challenged me to be more clear about my work.

From Malena:

I am currently a senior at the Indiana University School of Informatics and Computing and am SO proud to be a woman in tech. I was lucky enough to know by the time I started college that technology was my career passion, but for so long in middle school and high school I almost felt compelled to hid these interests in fear that they weren't "cool." 

Martha from Nairobi wrote:

I'm a 19 yr old Ruby/Python/Clojure hacker from Nairobi, Kenya. I consider myself really fortunate that I was exposed to it when so young, and I think more girls NEED the same exposure - I have something cooking for them! :) And not just for Sub-Saharan Africa girls, but globally.

From Tim: 

I've been trying to do something similar in my life. The hardest part for me is to not treat failure as the end of the world, but as a guidepost on the path to success.

From Syl: 

I just graduated from college less than a year ago. I studied psychology and economics because I tried the biomedical route and found out that I was terrible at chemistry. I thought I wanted to be a psychiatrist because my own had helped me work through some problems. I wanted to be a writer, in public relations, in HR, because that's where women were. 

A turn of events placed me in a sales job that i hated. I asked that they move me to marketing and . . . they did! But something is still in the back of my mind. During my terrible days as a phone salesman, I found a company looking for an entry level web developer. They were willing to train, and only preferred previous experience. I was excited at the idea of a career change. A new life, a new job, a new interests.

My boyfriend told me I wasn't focused enough. He wasn't trying to discourage me, but he reassured me that I was good at writing. I had a wonderfully exciting personality that should be at the marketing department. 

I dropped it, and these days I rarely think about it. Until I read your email. Working in Silicon Valley, the tech stuff is everywhere. Maybe tomorrow, I will have forgotten about this new-found determination. But at least for today, I'm encouraged. 

Maybe I'm not such a good, concise writer after all, because what I mean to say is, thank you.

From Skip: "Why didn't you find your path earlier? [Because] When the student is ready, the teacher will appear."

From Shannon Harrington: 

I currently recruit engineers for startups and personally strive to encourage more females who are freshman in college to make that leap or jump if they are really enjoying the work in their CS classes. GO GIRL! Glad that you found your niche and I wish you the best of luck in your new job post HackBright! If you know of anyone who is looking for awesome work at exciting startup companies feel free to send them this link as these are the companies that I work most closely with: http://www.baincapitalventures.com/startupacademy/.

From Trevor: 

Seems that you were soo close to staying in the rut. Damn cool you broke the pattern and are doing good with that experience. A dad of a 7 year old girl.

From Max: 

It was heart-trying to read your story of the series of unfortunate events, and I cheered for you at the end, when everything started clicking. Good for you! Congratulations!

From Nick:

As an ex-Mormon, it made me happy that you had the courage to drop the M-bomb and mention your religious affiliation in an email to thousands of strangers. If there's any blowback, hope the ignorance is transparent, and that you can shrug it off.

From another Nick: 

I completely agree that technology is often a difficult place for Women to work, I think everyone wins when we have more of a gender balance.

From Kyle: 

I slaved through school thinking I was going to be a Professor of Comparative Literature.  It was what I always assumed I'd be.
But I stumbled into a job with a small niche software company, and I fell in love with it.  I started at the bottom, and worked my way into the development team.  I also braved several pay raise negotiations.  (They're harrowing aren't they)  It's funny how companies tend to pay you what you think you're worth, and you just have to realize what you're worth in the first place to make them see it.
I was just warmed to hear a similar story, and thought I'd say congratulations!  Where we end up in life seems to often be a process of surprises, and the end result is so often much better than what we first imagined.

[After I congratulated him for being the first man to tell me that salary negotiation is harrowing:] I wonder if most men don't actually feel that intimidation during the salary negotiation, or if they just feel silly admitting it.  My suspicion is that it's the second.  Men are supposed to be confident and self-assured, and it honestly hurts at times to admit when we're not.

But keep going with development, it's rewarding in many ways.  Especially if your company gives you the freedom to pursue lines of interest.  It's sad that women are discouraged from the work, because I know so many that would find it rewarding to themselves personally. Much like how there are men out there that I believe would be excellent in the nursing field, but feel pressure against pursuing it. 

From Allison: 

As a teenager, I loved web design and taught myself HTML and even made a few of my own websites. However I was never encouraged in this direction.  Like you, I took my studies and initial work experience in the direction of working in non-profits . . . perhaps becoming a social worker . . . doing something where I can "help people." Like you, I am an introvert, and discovered that I got WAY too much anxiety thinking about meeting with new people and working with them ALL the time. Then I stumbled into my job doing quantitative data analysis. I learned SQL, and have been learning Perl, D3, and JavaScript. I now help teach our internal SQL training. I LOVE it!! This is my favorite part of my job, and I am trying to find the best path to becoming a software developer. It is definitely intimidating, because it feels like the men in the field have been learning these skills their whole lives, whereas I am just starting now (I am 26). It is so hard to know how things will fall into place or will life will take me, but I am convinced that tech is the future, and I agree that more women should learn the valuable skills to enter these fields.
You may have seen this study on the bias against women in science, but it is fascinating and depressing and a call for change: http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2012/09/14/1211286109"

From Amanda:
As a woman who's always been interested in computers, CSS, web theory, but never considered programming, your story seems uncannily similar to mine. I am a junior at NYU and just now starting to regret my English major--I wish I could have picked up programming, too.


From another Amanda:

People just don't think to encourage girls to pursue stuff like this! So what can we do? Maybe start by doing some presentations in local schools. I know in my career  I will have lots of opportunities to do outreach, and I want to make sure the time I spend on it is effective. Do you have opportunities in your job? I know  a lot of tech companies in the bay do value community outreach. Maybe you could negotiate with your boss to have a few half days a month where you can visit a local high school and talk to some math courses about your career.

Also, as women in stem, we need to stick together, even after we find our dream job. It was courageous and rare of you (as a woman) to make a counter offer for your job. Why are we so intimidated by negotiating? (yeah, that is a blanket statement but a mostly true one)

So lets add each other to our networks of women in male dominated fields who want to make our field more accessible to other woman, and sometimes just need to know that we are not the only women who love this stuff!

From Michelle:

Being a woman in tech, I'm around men who constantly talk about

google glass
football
basketball
porn
drinking (brogrammers, sigh)
hackathon after hackathon 

it's great fun! But after the tenth conversation about all the prizes they win at hackathons, I start to wish we could have some conversations about politics. Literature. Tv shows. Angelina Jolie! 

So reading your listserve email today--even just reading the subject line,which got straight to the point--made me extremely happy. It brings me a huge sigh of relief to know that there are cool women techies in the bay area.
Have you seen this website? http://futurewomanintech.com/

From Jon:

I graduated from university in Economics last year and have recently been toying with the idea of learning more about computers. I don't know any programming whatsoever, but I am definitely interested in having specific skills rather than just the "soft" ones! 

From Sam:

I have no technology background whatsoever.  I don't even own a smart phone.  Nevertheless, I am trying to forge forward on a bit of technology.

From another Michelle:

Firstly, from a personal perspective, I'm currently trying to retrain with an aim towards a tech based career. Like you I've spent years being interested in technology, have a tendency to surround myself with technology types. I've recently left my job running a policy department for a learned society, and am trying to work out how to do this.  

And then there is a second reason; albeit it linked to the first. I am passionate about diversity - in all ways. As a properly working-class girl with an abusive family from an area in the middle of nowhere in the UK, who somehow ended up doing biochemistry at one of the best universities in the world, I'm so incredibly keen to ensure to help remove as many barriers to inclusion as possible. One of the areas in which I focus is science, engineering, and technology . . . my areas of academic interest.

From Kelly:

On the 25th, I bought a one-way ticket to San Francisco, and am going to try to make it in the start-up world (as a non-programmer for the time being). I graduated from Princeton in June. As an undergraduate, I was fascinated by computers and programming (the idea that you could make your living solving puzzles is beyond fabulous), but the few classes I took in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science were entirely male-dominated. Even the class nicknamed "emails for females" was tough as nails -- it was taught by Brian Kernighan, one of the authors of C, and was about 80% men. To make things worse, I came from a very poor public high school with minimal math and science. My classmates had world-class educations and included Intel prize winners. Any time a group project would come up, I would struggle to get a word in edge-wise, and didn't take much away. The CS degree was out of my reach, but I liked logic, so I studied philosophy.  Fast-forward a few years and I still have a burning desire to be a programmer.  I tinker with online classes and Project Euler, but I feel like there's a barrier that's very difficult to break through without the structure of a curriculum and guidance of a dedicated instructor. 

From Sara:

I live in the Bay Area, and I am interested in changing careers.  I've always done jobs related to tech (I help manage a college website), but I never thought of myself as geeky enough to become a full-on programmer. After reading your email, I realized that it was kind of weird to count myself out of a programming job because I like people too much and lead a life with balanced interests.  Maybe that makes me a perfect fit for programming!

From Francine:

My name is Francine, I'm a brazilian 22 years old and - just like you - I work with IT. I like developing web, even I work with developing for PC. But reading your e-mail made me thinking about RailsGirls. It's a Ruby event for Girls learning a little about developing, but in the better way of learning - we learn doing some application in Ruby on Rails. Here, in Sao Paulo/BR, these girls work in several areas: IT, journalism, management, marketing . . . I was thrilled to see so many women developing useful applications for themselves and  empowering themselves with this tool that can change realities.

From Anne:

Glad you have found a niche in technology.  I spent about a third of my career programming (jcl, COBOL as well as SQL). 

My town does a Women in Science fair and Robotics events - you might work as a judge. 

Also, you can be a good example in your family and your church.  

From Dana:

I agree that it isn't promoted to girls enough, and we all need to know what a great option it is! I keep finding that the programmers I know are such happy, fun people. I've been thinking about programming for some time now as I try to find a new job, and I still am trying to figure out if programming could be for me. (I work in nonprofit fundraising, but I'm trying to transition to do communications -- anything with a positive social impact that's ideally a little creative. Which programming can clearly be!) 

Your email was really inspirational, and just now it made me turn to my programmer boyfriend and say "Hey, can I work with you on practicing web development again?" 

Clara let me know about her experience at Year Up, a "one-year intensive program that provides low-income young adults, ages 18-24, with a combination of hands-on skills development, college credits, and corporate internships."

Bill shared www.coderdojo.com with me, a free and open learning collaboration around the world.

Jim let me know about an analytics conference in San Francisco mid-April: http://www.emetrics.org/sanfrancisco/2013/

Mariel told me about an event being held in New York on March 19th called, "How Tech is Changing the Way Women Work." You can find more info about it here (and see the live stream):

http://www.thegreenespace.org/events/thegreenespace/2013/mar/19/wnyc-presents-how-tech-changing-way-women-work/

From Heather:

I'm trying to make my first feature film, a Sci-Fi Comedy.  It features an IT woman who saves the world via her tech savvy and intelligence. The hero is a tech woman! 

I feel portraying a woman like this in film, not as though she's an anomaly, but simply as a fact, is extremely important - as art and life mirror each other.  And as a female film director, and comedy writer - I feel there's not enough successful female directors or comedians in power.  We do see more and more successful females in comedy, but there are still so few female filmmakers on top.  Many female oriented comedies are directed by men. 

As I'm in my fundraising phase (it's an independent film) I'm hoping to reach out to women in technology and that community - as people who might be interested in my project. Perhaps you are linked into this world, or could connect me to people such as yourself who want to improve the image of women in technology? 

I want to thank everyone who has reached out. I loved reading and responding to your messages and would love to read more (my address is first and last name at gmail dot com).