Recognized by LinkedIn

LinkedIn chose me to be on their first "Next Wave" list of professionals 35 & under—I was in the top 10 for software (you can read more here). This is what they wrote about me:

Any good engineer can solve problems; Glauser challenges the assumptions behind them. If you missed the #ILookLikeAnEngineer hashtag and billboard campaign in 2015, then you also missed how Glauser, 31, prompted women and minorities throughout the tech industry to empower themselves and to express their identity as engineers. In a similar vein, she’s now working on a startup that will help further empower low-income individuals by giving them free training and helping place them in companies looking to increase diversity. Glauser completed Hackbright Academy in 2012 and has worked as a full-stack developer in several different companies since then. In addition to her tireless efforts to create opportunity in software engineering, she also serves as the Lead for the San Francisco PyLadies meetup.

I don't really know how they came upon my name, chose me, and found out all of those details (it seems a little too specific to be directly from my LinkedIn profile, but maybe not) but it was definitely an exciting day with a lot of people reaching out and following me on various platforms. My feelings were varied from embarrassment and not wanting to share, to doubt that they'd chosen the right person, to being humbled by being placed with other seriously amazing people, to being glad to have some of my hard work recognized in some small way.

I ended up sharing in many places for a few reasons:

1. I was still in the midst of running the crowdfunding campaign for Techtonica and didn't want to miss any opportunity to drive traffic to Techtonica,
2. Michael threatened to share if I didn't, and
3. I'm always hearing about how women understate their accomplishments and I'm working on not doing that.

Hilariously enough, when some people from LinkedIn first emailed me and said I was in the running for an award and asked for my best address, I stupidly told them, "This is my best address," thinking they meant email address. When they came back asking for a mailing address, I became really suspicious and asked what they'd be sending and if my mailing address would be added to a list and doom me to never-ending snail mail junk. They didn't answer me the first time, and when they followed up, I again asked the same questions before they told me, "We want to send you a gift for winning, but please don't tell anyone yet, and no, you won't be added to any list." Still, I wasn't quite sure if these people were really from LinkedIn, so I gave them Michael's office address.





These sunglasses arrived in a box much bigger than the sunglasses. They were in a special plastic case nestled in nice packaging and all of that was wrapped in tissue paper. I told Michael, "These are either the most expensive sunglasses I've ever owned or the most delicately-wrapped sunglasses ever."

Thanks for the honor and the gift, LinkedIn!

Working at Zana

For a few months now, I've been happily working as a developer at Zana.io!

A little bit about Zana: Zana is the brainchild of Shea Tate-Di Donna. Shea worked in venture capital for many years and felt that while many people have good ideas, they often don't have the business skills they need to make their ideas into successful businesses. Zana provides entrepreneurship lessons via videos of successful entrepreneurs passing on their best advice in a wide range of startup-related subjects.

The Zana team is one of the best parts of the job; right now we are a small team with a majority of women, and we are all dedicated to working hard, learning as we go, communicating well, and encouraging diversity in the startup world. I've been greatly impressed by Shea and am so glad to be working with her. She's smart, talented, knowledgeable, well-connected, and hard-working, and we share a lot of interests, so it was great to be able to go to PyCon in Montreal with her and to work closely with her on the Zana product.



Shea and I at our Zana table in Startup Row at PyCon in Montreal.


I also love that so far, I mostly get to work remotely, so I can really focus on the task at hand and not have to pack up my stuff all the time.

Best of all, being Zana's full-stack developer means that I get to work with Python/Django, HTML/CSS/LESS, Bootstrap, Postgres, and many other technologies every day, which is exactly the kind of role I was hoping to find. There are definitely positives and negatives to being the sole developer; on the one hand, I can make the code mine, avoid feeling intimidated by more experienced developers, and learn about/work on every bit of the tech stack, but on the other hand, I don't get regular code reviews to strengthen my code and I don't have someone sitting next to me who can answer my questions. However, I enjoy the challenge of figuring out solutions, and on tough days, the successes, interesting problems, my belief in the mission, and support from people I greatly respect keep me going.

It is thanks to my time at Hackbright two years ago and even more so, to the ongoing support of great people since then that has made it possible for me to continue growing as a software engineer. Thank you to the wonderful people who have made themselves available to answer my questions via Google Chat, Slack, IRC, Stack Overflow, Skype, email, and in-person working sessions.

I'm looking forward to all the great projects to come at Zana. Yay!

Tech and Me in Shanghai

Right from the start of our time in Shanghai in August, I was interested in helping more women join tech; I was in touch with Girl Develop It about starting a chapter, but after around December, I never heard back from them. By the time WomenWhoCode was in touch with me, I felt like it was too late and wished I had contacted them first.

Luckily, I still had several tech opportunities. First of all, as I had time, I worked on re-designing my blog (though that is a project that may never be finished because I want it to be just right).


At Barcamp Shanghai in October (put on by Techyizu), I spoke about/held a discussion about women in tech and my story.

Michael filmed me:


(How do you like that guy going on and on about how too many women on a team make so nothing gets done? Uh, okay . . . my on-the-spot responses to him weren't great. I think really there just needs to be more understanding about how to work with both genders rather than just always working with the team we feel most comfortable getting stuff done with.)

I had planned on finding a full-time job in Shanghai, but I worried that working full-time would mean I wouldn't be working on learning Chinese, which was the real reason I wanted to live in China, and also, honestly, I worried that my still-very-junior dev skills weren't good enough (technical interviews can be freaking scary!).

One company I started to interview at seemed pretty awesome (I was excited about being able to learn and work with Angular.js), but the non-Chinese CEO sat me down after he heard my salary requirements and talked to me about how they were way too high for China. Together with another foreign tech employee, he explained that junior developers in Shanghai make about 3,000 kuai per month (about $500), foreign or local, and that if I could go with around that then we could continue the hiring process. I told him I'd think about it and the employee invited me to lunch where he assured me that those were normal amounts for Shanghai. I was nevertheless a bit doubtful, especially once I realized that the least-expensive studios we'd looked at cost more than 3,000 per month. Then I talked to Michael's cousin, who had been a developer in Shanghai for a while, and he said, "No, that's just a Chinese guy trying to pull one over on you. You could probably make 15,000 or more per month." Imagine his surprise when I told him that the guy wasn't Chinese . . . I didn't go back there.

In November, I introduced the Hult Women in Business Club to HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

In December, I organized a RailsBridge HTML/CSS/JavaScript workshop for women.



I met many times from October to May with a woman named Jenny (who became a good friend) to teach her some tech skills, including HTML, CSS, JavaScript, git, and a tiny bit of python.

I planned on organizing another RailsBridge workshop and making a weekly JavaScript study group, but without being able to find a location and sponsors (asking for money and space is not my favorite thing to do), and with a lot of other things to do (always), those things didn't happen.

Michael's cousin introduced me to these really cool Taiwanese guys working on some intriguing projects. I showed them what I'd done before, and without a technical interview, they agreed to start me at nearly triple what the other company had offered and go up from there after a three-month review. Unfortunately, all of this solidified when we had only about four months left, and I felt bad jumping in to their company and getting a lot of training, only to leave, so I turned it down. Once again, though, two big factors were the fear of getting detracted from learning Chinese and my fear of not being good enough (impostor syndrome, grr). A third, more embarrassing factor was that I found out I'd have to get another, more complete physical for a work visa and that freaked the heck out of me.




Instead, for a couple of months at the start of the year, I worked on making a website for Michael's Hult Prize team's organization: Revive using some technologies I hadn't used before. This is what the main page ended up looking like.

In April, while I was recovering from my horrible sunburn, a friend from People Can Code Shanghai texted me, saying that he had some friends looking for some front-end skills and asking if I knew of anyone. I told him I may be able to give it a shot and I'd like to hear more details. It turns out that these two guys had an idea for a foodie app, and since they were accepted to Chinaccelerator (an intensive accelerator program for startups located at The Lighthouse in Shanghai), they were in need of someone in a hurry and were willing to pay wages closer to American wages. After we spent a lot of time comparing our favorite foods to bake and our favorite restaurants and bakeries in Shanghai, they said they'd like to have me work with them. Again, impostor syndrome had me scared even though I knew that this would be a good opportunity for me—to learn quickly, to earn some money, to get out of my misery about having failed at creating a positive Shanghai experience . . . and somehow I was able to talk myself into it.

And so I started working on ChiShen.Ma, which happily was flexible in many ways. Working with even-headed, hard-working, smart Rem was great. When it was clear that getting into the office was quite a long journey that was wasting the little time we had to get the app launched, he said I could just work from home, where I felt like I could focus and get more done anyway, and when I was needed in the office, he offered to pay for a taxi to speed things up a bit. He let me choose the tech stack, so I chose to build a Django back-end, and though ChiShen.Ma will eventually be a hybrid app, we started out with a mobile web app using jQuery Mobile, meaning the "app" is a website (accessed via a browser) that looks like a phone app.



The first paycheck ChiShen.Ma paid went to yours truly. Notice the mixed currency. Also, this was the first time I've seen the new, blu-ish dollar bills ("bluebacks?").



This is The Lighthouse on Changping Lu, where Chinaccelerator's office is.

As with any project, I butted my head against unexpected barriers every single day and as the only engineer, there were times when my resilience wore out and I felt bashed into the ground discouraged, but the successes were great, and I was able to earn some moola for our rent in London.

The most unique part of the app is what Rem calls the "Decide-o-matic," where you can swipe pictures to sort them into piles of likes and not-likes. Getting the right library in place for this took waaaaaaay longer than any of us could have guessed.















































Now that Rem and Ryan have demoed the ChiShen.Ma app, things are a bit up in the air as the search for funding takes off.

Writing this post makes me feel better about my time in Shanghai. We'll see what I get to work on next.

21 Reasons Why Tech is a Great Field for Women

This is the life you want.

After getting over my fears and transitioning into tech last year, I now have trouble not telling every woman that she should do the same. Why do I think that tech is such a great field for women? Here are 21 reasons:

1. Believe it or not, it's creative! You get to make ideas come alive.
2. There are so many different roles that I believe you can always find a niche for you within the world of tech, whether it be front end web development, software engineering, big data, internet security, project management, tech support, technical writing, or something else. 
3. Every field in the world needs people to run its tech.  If the medical field interests you, do tech for them. If working on improving life third-world countries interests you, contribute there with your tech skills. If you love phone game apps, build them.
4. There is a huge need for techies worldwide, so there is a lot of opportunity. Many people believe that providing women a pathway into tech will help women and whole families make their way out of poverty.
5. Your work is not only a career, it's a cause. The number of women in tech has decreased since the 1980s! By going into tech, you have the chance to forge a path for girls' careers in the future and support your sisters now.
6. Most people looking for people to work in tech care less about official education, personality, and looks, and more about skills and the determination to figure something out. To make learning tech even better is the fact that a lot of what you need to learn can be easily accessed online.
7. Working in tech is your chance to prove the stereotypes of men being better-suited to tech wrong.
8. As Audrey Tan wrote, "The rise of the Internet and its impact on the global economy has already proven itself. It has defined our generation. But we are just at the starting gate. If we as women fail to be involved in the formation of an industry, we prevent ourselves from being the future leaders of that industry. It is better, easier and far more likely to grow with an industry than it is to break into it."
9. There is a growing, very supportive network of champions for women in tech.
10. Men aren't the only ones using technology, but they form the majority of people developing tech. There is a great need for more women's voices to cater to women's needs in tech products.
11. Because companies are aware of the low numbers of female engineers being employed, they are always on the lookout for women. This means that they are more flexible in their work terms and you feel empowered.
12. You just need a computer and the internet to work in tech, so where you work is very flexible.
13. If you're an introvert like I am and need some space to survive, no one will be surprised or put off when you put on headphones and pretend the world is not there.
14. Tech is always evolving. You aren't expected to know everything from the start, and a good deal of your work will be figuring out new things. You will never stop learning, so your work doesn't get old.
15. Pay is good, especially compared to women's pay in non-tech jobs.
16. The gender wage gap is smaller between men and women in computer science. 
17. There is virtually no dead end to tech; the world is your oyster.
18. Generally, dress codes are pretty lax in tech. (Yay! No nylons!) 
19. Techies receive lots of free swag, including t-shirts (that you can then wear to work).
20. A lot of companies, especially startups, love to make a fun, positive lifestyle for their employees, whether that means providing catered lunches and gym memberships,  having weekly happy hours, or keeping ping pong tables in the office.
21. The new generation of techie culture tends to be generous, open (ever heard of open-source software, open leadership, or open-plan offices?), and tolerant. LOVE.

Have I convinced you yet? The ways to get started are endless. Go for it!


Whether you’re seeking further success in your current role or a new opportunity, Kaplan University can help you prepare for the exciting possibilities ahead.*

As an accredited university built on more than 75 years of experience,† Kaplan University offers a wide range of career-focused programs designed to develop the skills and knowledge leading employers seek. Our focus: to offer you the most direct educational path to achieve your goals.

Are you ready for a change?  Learn more at kaplanuniversity.edu.

* Kaplan University cannot guarantee employment or career advancement.

† Kaplan University is regionally accredited. Please visit http://www.kaplanuniversity.edu/about/accreditation-licensing.aspx# for additional information about institutional and programmatic accreditation.

How I Abandoned My Fears and Got Into the Tech Job I Love

How televisions should really be used.

Some days I can hardly believe that a year and a half ago, I was working at a job that didn't pay enough for me to pay rent, forcing me to rely on generous relatives. After struggling to figure out what I was doing for a couple of years after a Master's degree, I was relieved to finally have any income and I enjoyed working with a talented Italian, but the job seemed to be a dead-end one, and besides that, it wasn't at all what the job description had said; I had to do sales-type work, it was boring, it wasn't creative, and sometimes I felt like stabbing my eye out.

I tried to make the job fit its description by regularly putting content about the company in several places online and building a customer community, but the company engineers couldn't seem to complete anything so I'd have some good, original content. At one point, they were too busy to work on designing a website for a customer, so the COO and I started looking at website designs and he asked me to make a mockup. I didn't know how to do that, but I was fascinated by the idea and dedicated myself to learning by doing. My browser was soon overwhelmed with over 90 tabs as I started looking at tutorials for making Photoshop mockups, because I ran into more and more fascinating links about picking up tech skills.

However, when I signed up for an intensive course for women to learn web development and was accepted, I still hesitated. I was scared.

I didn't want to disappoint my co-worker by quitting. I wasn't confident that I could learn tech skills quickly. I'd already gone a couple of years without what I would consider a real job and didn't want to feel like a non-contributing member of society again. Dedicating myself to learning tech full-time would mean not having an income; where would the means for food, transportation, insurance, and such come from? To make matters scarier, my relatives needed their basement back, so housing was unsure. Not only would I not be making money, I'd be going deeply in the hole to pay for rent and the course. Finally, I felt too old to make a complete career change. In other words, there was every excuse not to go for it.

So why did I?

Somehow, despite all the doubts in my head, there were some ideas that refused to go away:

• It was clear that I was more interested in techie stuff than in what I was doing. Even if I didn't end up liking the curriculum or the course didn't help launch me into a tech job, it was a way out.
• I learned to make a mockup pretty quickly, didn't I? Maybe it was possible for me to learn more. 
• I realized that in the end, my career wasn't about always pleasing my co-worker; it was about finding some kind of satisfaction and being able to support myself, and I was underestimating him if I thought he wouldn't understand that. 
• If I could find a way to fund this career change, I could get into a job that would enable me to pay it off and have a higher quality of living.
• It was better to make a change now than to suffer for years and try later.

In moments of inspiration, I started to work things out, one by one. I got permission to work very part-time for a little while longer, meaning I'd still have a minuscule small income and I didn't feel like I was letting down my coworker as much. I found quite the alternative way to temporarily finance an education break and get a discount on rent by getting married and becoming an apartment manager.

Of course, with this transition of a lifetime and even with the support of a loving new husband, I still had fears, but it was those very fears that motivated me--if I didn't keep at it, I'd be in the hole even longer. If I gave up, I could be back in a job that sucked my life away without giving anything back.

I am so glad that I went out on a limb to transition into tech. I like my work, I've found a supportive professional network, and the pay would have made my eyes pop out two years ago. If you are considering a career change and are fearful as I was, consider the future. How will it be if you stay where you are? How could it be if you were to overcome your fears?

To any women even slightly interested in computers and the internet, I'd encourage you to move into tech without delay. Why tech? Stay tuned; I'll be addressing that question in a post next week.


Whether you’re seeking further success in your current role or a new opportunity, Kaplan University can help you prepare for the exciting possibilities ahead.*

As an accredited university built on more than 75 years of experience,† Kaplan University offers a wide range of career-focused programs designed to develop the skills and knowledge leading employers seek. Our focus: to offer you the most direct educational path to achieve your goals.

Are you ready for a change?  Learn more at kaplanuniversity.edu. 

* Kaplan University cannot guarantee employment or career advancement.

† Kaplan University is regionally accredited. Please visit http://www.kaplanuniversity.edu/about/accreditation-licensing.aspx# for additional information about institutional and programmatic accreditation.

Goodbye, Get Satisfaction

At my second home at Get Satisfaction with Casey, CEO Wendy Lea's dog.

As of 3:30 PM today, I no longer work at Get Satisfaction.

I have mixed feelings about that. I'm excited for where life is leading (Shanghai!) and the chances to try working with some other technologies (if I can get my foot in the door at another tech company). Heck, I'm even excited to sleep a little more for the next few weeks and work on some projects that I want to work on, but it's also sad because the Get Satisfaction team so great, the location is ideal (about 20 minutes of biking), hacking away at HTML, CSS, JavaScript/jQuery is fun and challenging, stable income is amazingly good for your mental health, and being able to interact with other people's dogs makes me happy. Up until the very last moment, I was using the word "we" to refer to Get Satisfaction, and I'm not sure I can kick that habit quickly. It's hard to let go of projects I had my hands deep in--so hard, in fact, that I extended a week to get some more projects completed.

I'm grateful for what I've learned and the connections I've made. Yay for Get Satisfaction!

My First Three Months as a Web Developer

I passed up my three-month mark as a paid techie at Get Satisfaction two weeks ago. Do you know what that means?

1. I got this fancy envelope from Hackbright:




There was money inside. A lot of money. Refunded tuition money for working three months at a partner company. Wedding money.


2. It's time for an update about working as a web developer.

Overall, Get Satisfaction has been a great place to be.

Every day, I marvel at how surrounded I am by talented, smart people who can collaborate well. Every day, I also spend at least a couple of hours staring at my screen trying to figure things out. Sometimes my questions are so general that I can't really share them with anyone, like, "How do I use PostgresQL?" and other times, all I need is for someone to spot that one ridiculous missing bracket (or to tell me to just paste the code into Sublime Text 2 so I can line them up!). I've loved learning about CNAMEs, SSL certs, and single-sign-on, and each time a light bulb turns on, I love that our platform allows me to post about what I've learned in our community to build up our customers' available and searchable knowledge base.
 
I also am so appreciative of pretty flexible schedule that allows me to go to doctor appointments and run errands without feeling guilty. It's fun to see ideas develop as we work on our new platform, and it's nice that everyone's opinions are valued.

And listen to how cool this is--last week, our CEO, Wendy Lea, invited all the female employees to her home. (Do I ever admire Wendy--when she speaks, I want to take notes, and often I do. Sometimes I even tweet what she says.) We mingled and snacked as we marveled at her view of the ocean and the sunset, then Wendy started a discussion about being women leaders in tech.  The discussion was positive and helpful, and I think we all feel really united from that evening spent together.

Like anyone else, sometimes I get annoyed or frustrated by questions or tasks. Sometimes, my brain is fried and it would honestly be better if I just went home (sometimes I go, sometimes I don't). Occasionally I get discouraged when I think about losing my Python skills before they were ever really strong, and there are still so many technologies I want to learn that I don't use at work, so I try to do a bit of hacking on the weekends.

I've been a Firefox fan for years, but Firebug just has not been enough and Chrome has become my hero for development purposes. It was amazing to realize this week that I have learned enough to help my mentee with some front-end development. Hurray!

So there's your update.

My First Two Weeks as a New Web Developer at Get Satisfaction

My random thoughts/observations after my first 2 weeks at Get Satisfaction:

• I started at Get Satisfaction on January 7th, with the title of "Customer Success Engineer." So far, that has meant doing some frontend customization and jQuery hacks (jQuery is a magical miracle), which I've really enjoyed. Soon I'll be working on figuring out some oAuth stuff and helping our customers' developers figure everything out.
• I've been pleasantly surprised. I hadn't heard of Get Satisfaction until Career Day, and at that point I didn't feel really interested. Well, now I love the company. Everyone is so friendly, helpful, smart, and motivated. And we're surrounded by bright orange beams and purple walls (yes, crazy color combination), so that brightens up every day. And, there is a whole slew food trucks three minutes down the street. And, people who bring their own lunches most of the time, like myself, still get to eat with everyone at the kitchen tables. And, there are all sorts of benefits in the kitchen: drinks (100% juice and hot chocolate, yay, someone understands me!), yogurt, bread, chips, popcorn, mini candy bars, etc. And, I've got a MacBook Pro at work so I don't have to carry mine back and forth anymore. And, the office is close enough for me to have a nice little bike ride. And, it's right next to 24 Hour Fitness, so it is more convenient to work out. And, there are sweet dogs in the office, including one that's 80 years old in dog years and still walking around breathing harder than me trying to get up Nob Hill on my bike.
• The most frustrating thing so far has seriously been trying to figure out which health insurance to choose.
• The most exciting thing has been how many great engineering things there are to learn. 
• Gender issues? Not an issue, as far as I can tell. I have noticed that the support people are all women, but I would attribute that more to the individuals' choices than the company's (and I'm kind of tempted to tell them how they could change their lives with Hackbright, but maybe they actually like their jobs). And there are a lot of female tech employees. Yay!
• I would normally feel very worried about being behind in everything and like I can't remember much of what I'm taught, but everyone is so nice that I don't feel pressured in a bad way. They know there's a learning curve and they're patient with their explanations. At first I tried to just struggle through even though I had no idea what I was doing, but when I finally asked, I realized I should just keep asking and asking and asking. I do still have that old feeling of "just let me go home where I'm alone and can read every single written word about every topic that I'm going to come into contact with, and then I'll come back and be ready." So far, I've stuck out staying at the office. I worried a lot about the open start-up-style layout of the office because of the way I get tired constantly being around people. Luckily, there are offices you can book, and when you get sick of one area, you can go to the kitchen, or to four couch areas, or whatever. There's a down-side, though. Through a bunch of research and occupational therapy, I'm trying to re-train myself so that I don't get such intense problems with RSI (repetitive strain injury), and it is not really ideal to be constantly changing work stations.
• I made some of my code live within the first few days. After staring at some JavaScript for a really, really long time, I figured out how to make a drop-down menu that automatically tags a topic, since there's no option to do that normally. I also impressed some people by offering to take on a needy customer and patiently sending things that said, "If you google [exactly what they asked], the first result will tell you how to do that" and getting them to finally figure out something on their own. I also got to play with API calls and configure some code to refine the results in a sidebar. It's so crazy that I didn't even know what API calls were four months ago!
• I'm still getting used to the idea that I'm on a salary, so I can pretty much leave whenever I want to as long as I get my work done. It's silly how guilty I feel leaving before 5 PM. So far I've just kind of left around then and usually after someone else leaves, but maybe some day I'll head out without a thread of guilt because I know that I'm doing my work.
• I love that Get Satisfaction is a well-established start-up. They're not huge, but they're also not tiny and starving, so it makes the whole place feel like a bunch of friends.

Getting Hired as a Hackbright Graduate and Negotiating My Salary

Hackbright Career Day was December 4th and graduation was December 7th. I planned on spending the next month studying, seeing as how I'd been in hiring positions before and knew that companies don't usually plan on hiring at the end of the year. However, most of the companies seemed keen on interviewing immediately, and since other Hackbrighters were interviewing, I felt like I needed to interview as well to have any kind of edge.

So I spent the next week catching up on emails, cramming, and interviewing. I actually really enjoyed seeing companies, meeting people, and working through code with engineers, and I felt like I was able to put myself across well.

That didn't stop me from being surprised and ecstatic when, one week after graduating, I got a call saying that a company wanted to give me an offer. As I'd been tutored to do, I didn't want to give "a number" when asked, so my potential employer said they'd put in their own number.

As I waited for the official offer, I worried about negotiating a counter offer. At Hackbright, we'd heard sad statistics about women making 75 cents to men's dollar; women don't make as many counter offers or ask for raises; we even downplay ourselves in interviews when men brag themselves up. When I received the offer, I was disappointed. I felt like they might have thought, "We can save money by hiring these Hackbright women because we can argue that they don't have any experience," or that they didn't think I was worth much, which started to give me a negative view of the company.  But I remembered what I'd been told--that in this case, most men would just forge on and make a counter offer, so that's what I should do, and it was not a big deal on the company's side.

The number was lower than the low I had prepared myself for, and the last time that happened to me, I was told the company couldn't pay more, but I couldn't pay rent, and I had to look elsewhere for work. I knew that if I ended up working at the company now offering me a job, I'd have to make a counter offer, or I would be forever bitter that my company undervalued me. But the counter offer I wanted to make was pretty high.

I consulted with David and with Michael (who both said that the job would be good experience anyway but that I could try for more) and decided that no matter how demanding it may seem, I was going to throw them a much larger number (about a 35% increase) and be willing to walk away if I didn't at least get 5,000 lower than that number (as Poornima of Femgineer suggests). I was also concerned because the offer said a different job title than what I thought I had been interviewing for.

Before calling back, I was so nervous that I practiced the phone conversation with Michael many times. I finally called and confirmed first that the position would still be engineering-heavy and that I would have opportunities to learn. When I was satisfied, I said that the number had been quite low and because of what previous Hackbright students were getting, the market average, and my experience in B2B companies, I would need closer to X to accept the offer. Then I paused (and held my breath). What did he say? "That's fair. Is the money the only thing holding you back?" "Yes." "Let me call you back after I consult with HR." Forty minutes later, he called back and didn't even haggle. "It's a deal," he said. Wahoo! It was so nice to have everything squared away before Christmas so that I could enjoy time with my family.

I honestly think that negotiating my salary was one of the scariest things I have ever done, but now I know I can do it and that it can turn out positively.

No matter what happens with this job, I consider how far I've come a success story already.
I've made so much progress in such a short time and I feel so much more satisfied now than I did in the career direction I was headed not even a year ago. Hackbright has changed my life and I would honestly tell anyone that it's worth any sacrifice if you can get in.

Next post: on being a brand-new developer!

Re-printed by Women 2.0 here.

HyperFair and Joe Career Fair Video

I know it's goofy (and I know it's fast and I know I should have tried harder to get someone with a stronger voice), but this video about HyperFair's career fairs has taken up a lot of time in my life recently, so be nice to my brain child, okay?



Note: "Joe" is my generous cousin Kameron Smith. (Thanks, Kam!)

Another note: it was originally a slide presentation in Sliderocket, which I screen recorded using QuickTime, then I imported it into iMovie, where I added voiceover, music, and sound effects that I'd mixed in GarageBand before converting them using Media.io. Each time, something was too slow or too fast, there were problems with getting all the sounds to work, uploading, quality, format, etc., etc., etc. I know it's not the most professional thing in the world, but HyperFair needed fun social media content. I am so glad I'm finished with this project.

Happy Birthday, Dad!

Happy 55th birthday to my Dad. (Please don't miss that link--the picture is classic.) Now he can get a senior discount at Arctic Circle and Denny's. What a great reason to live.

Do me a favor and let anyone in the Utah bakery/produce/store/restaurant/cafe/frozen yogurt industry know about his company and how awesome he is.

10 Reasons Why I Like My Job

1. There are two dogs who come to work with my coworkers, so it's kind of like having two pets without having to buy the food and wash them and walk them and clean up poop. (Although I kind of dream of bringing my some-day Bernese Mountain Dog to work with me.)
   
2. The company provides fresh fruit every day.
3. There's a Fußball table in the conference room (I won 3 out of 3 times yesterday).
4. The atmosphere is casual.
5. The layout, design, and furniture of the company is really cool.
6. mellowmessage is centrally located and I can ride my bike 8-10 minutes through the park to get to work or take the tram for 10 minutes and walk for 3.
   
7. I get to use my computer skills.
8. I have nice coworkers.
9. Everybody else likes technology as much as I do--we Skype each other regardless of how close or far away someone is.
   
10. There's a beach volleyball tournament every year and those who participate practice once a week for months.
    

Mellow in Sächsisch

Okay, so this is probably only funny for people who know German and have a personal link to Saxony (or who like to make fun of Sächsisch), but here's the website of my company, in Saxon-German. Hilarious.

Was gönn' wir für Sie dun?

Oh, and yes. I have a full-time job and a work visa. :)

Job Interview

I really enjoyed my interview last week, and it sounded quite like I'm going to get a job. The only disappointment is the fact that the boss thought I needed more experience and would only offer me the assistant position (which means less responsibility and much, much, much less money--even less than I made at the FHL when I started part-time, if you go divide the monthly wages into hours). I keep thinking that with so much education, you'd think I'd be able to get a real position. But the promotion chances are good, he assured me. So now I just have to decide if it's worth it to stick it out in the lower position until I have the experience I need. The company looks really cool and I'd really like to work for them.

Oh, and I also have to try to forget the fact that my side-effected dry mouth caused my lips to stick to my teeth as I was trying to answer questions. Awesome.

Here is the company. They do internet media, communication, marketing, etc. for companies.

My Larval New Job

Did I tell you about my new job? All I seem to do now is to worry about our kitchen. I wipe off counters and clean up crumbs and try to put everybody else's food away. My main job is to kill moths, larvae, and fleas. Our kitchen was completely attacked by them. At first I hoped they would go away since I could see the main problem wasn't coming from my food and my roommates are out of town, but when the problem didn't solve itself, I used two plastic bags as gloves and went through all my roommates' food. There were worms and eggs in the pasta, in the flour, in the baking ingredients, in the tea, in the cardboard, everywhere! I threw away a huge amount of their food (I would say sorry, but I'm not really). Every time I saw another larva that had found its way to the wall, I vacuumed it up immediately. I couldn't get the ones in the corners, so those I sprayed with windex. Hee.

I'm verrrry grateful that a friend of mine cleaned out the vacuum for me. I'm pretty sure there was no bag in there . . .

Now, several weeks later, we're still having problems. What to do? My roommates are back, but so far my strict instructions to have everything in Tupperware or glass or packaged well in the fridge are not being followed. I don't know where the problem is coming from now. I don't see larvae anymore, just moths. Each day I kill at least five with the broom and there are dust smears on the walls and ceiling. One of my roommates bought a sticky thing that attracts them, and about twenty died on there. But they just keep coming! It seems like the more I kill, the more appear! Ack. I have the broom nearby and two pieces of cardboard for killing moths in the air. Then there's a wedding invitation on the window sill that's being used to kill the fleas on the window (sorry, people, but aren't you glad it didn't just go in the garbage?).

I've also gotten rid of our garbage can just for food and instead labeled a pot with a lid on it as "Bioabfall." Vinegar didn't work. The new system seems to have gotten rid of the cloud of fleas that used to rise up when you opened up the cupboard under the sink, and because the pot is small, we have to empty it more often. Yay! (I never thought I'd be glad about that.)

But now I've just discovered that the fridge is no longer working, so I'm cooking up the three frozen pizzas I had in the freezer (I dare to eat cold cooked pizza more than cooked pizza that's been at room temperature for a long time). I'm also hoping someone will take out whatever is stinking up the fridge (I can't find it). I hope my food makes it til I can eat it all and we can get a new fridge. Oh man.

What would you say my job title is?

A Little German

In one of the sections of the English book I use, the students are supposed to learn how to get to know someone. One sentence always gets to me. It says,

"Jose speaks Spanish, English, and a little German."

For some reason, every time I read that, I think about a small German person instead of the amount of the language he can speak. Ha ha.

So in June I was asked what all those office hours were that I'd been putting on my work time. It turns out that I don't get paid for the half hour I have to be there before classes start. I found that really annoying, but at least they didn't make me change all the earlier months.

Somehow my one English class just loves me to pieces. They say that I'm organized, know what I'm doing, and know what they need compared to the other teachers. I laugh every time I hear something like that, because I always go in not really knowing what we're going to do. I guess I have a good feel for what needs work and just focus on that. And since I can read fast, I can quickly see what each page works on. One of the students is a lady from my ward (Christina Heidler) who has helped me several times now with health issues. I was actually disappointed when she signed a contract with the language school, because I thought she wanted to do private lessons with me, which would have been less expensive for her and more money for me. Not to mention that every time I get a new student in one of my classes, I don't receive any more money than before but I have to work harder to get the group dynamics just right and catch up new students with the old students.

One student who has joined the class is especially difficult. She's joining at chapter 5, but she actually needs the class that leads up to the elementary class. She has a hard time remembering anything and takes a long time to answer questions, so I feel bad that I can't help her more.

On Monday, for the first time since I was told in March to be at least twenty minutes early and not wear jeans or sports shoes, I showed up five minutes before class with jeans and sports shoes because I was getting everything done for the Halloween party and so I could leave thereafter to go to Poland. And guess who was at the school who is almost never there? My boss. That was great, having her tell me to be earlier and having her give my jeans a look. Oh man.

The only reason I'm still working there is because if I can't find another way, that school can offer me a work visa. There is a lot of drama in this office which is exactly why I come exactly on time and leave immediately following classes. I don't want any part of it. I do my job and get out. I would love to find another, real job, but I am focusing on my health right now. I would love to find something really, really flexible so I can do my own thing. We'll see.

Out-of-Culture Story of the Year

Since Melissa gave me a deadline for my paper, I was determined to get it done this morning before 11:34. As I often do when I have something due, I got up at 5 to work on it (I'm more productive in the morning, and I have to get my scripture reading and stuff done first). I thought about going next door to the (warm) school since I had to be there later to teach a class anyway, but I ended up finishing it at home in time to go teach my class.

I put the signs out, and then walked towards the door, key in hand. One unfortunate thing about the placement of the light in the hallway is that you can't see the keyhole. As I noisily missed it on the first try, I saw a shadow walk into the office through the door's blurred glass. It's not unusual for people to be there before me, but today I was earlier than usual. I had a split second before the key fit to think of two things: one, how I had seen the light on as I passed by yesterday evening around 10, and two, how I've thought a few times that it would be fun to sleep there just to say I'd done it, but which I would never actually do.

Boy am I glad I didn't go earlier and that I didn't get the key in on the first try. As I opened the door, I discovered all the lights out, a (male) co-worker of mine on the couch, and a pile of clothes on the floor. I don't know how I was able to think so quickly, but I said hello, stuttered out, "Did you work late?" and went straight into the classroom instead of into the office. There I busied myself with anything I could do to get the room ready as if I always went there first--erasing the chalkboard, turning up the heat, pulling some papers out of my bag, etc.

Awk.ward.

I knew someone else was also at the school, but I wasn't about to go out and meet her. After I heard some voices, someone left. A moment later, I looked out the window, and to my surprise, saw someone leaving who looked unbelievingly like one of my favorite (female) coworkers! I finally went into the office to retrieve the book and acted like nothing was up. But the office was in shambles (more than usual). There were wine bottles in the corner, a razor in a bag on the table, and, next to the razor, the keys of the second (female) coworker, which I knew were hers because of a conversation we'd had about keys just yesterday (I have to admit, I thought about hiding them).

Awk.ward.

After the first (male) coworker left, I answered the ringing phone three times and had someone hang up on me. I knew it had to be the second (female) coworker who had left her keys but didn't want me to know it was her who had spent the night. During class, the doorbell rang and I opened the door to find her. She said she had brought toilet paper for the bathroom and forgotten her keys. She even slipped in the word "yesterday." I could see that she had on the same clothes and that her hair wasn't clean.

Awk.ward.

I didn't say much then, and I didn't say much later when the first (male) coworker thanked me for waking him up and again talked about how he had worked until 2. (His being extra-polite can only be his kissing up to me in hopes I won't mention it to anyone.)

Awk.ward.

Part of me wants to let them know I can add 2+2 and that there's no reason for me to say anything about it (is there?), but another part of me just wants to act like nothing happened and hope it never happens again. What I don't understand is if people have such casual ways of life and don't feel bad about it, why do they hide it? Maybe it was just the fact that it was at the school . . .

What do you think? I'll tell you what I think.

Awk.ward.

My Job

Two months ago, I was thinking about buying a ticket to Salt Lake. Then I looked at my bank account and got scared. After securing a job interview at a kindergarten, I felt confident to do what I'd been thinking of for a while: I walked into the English school that has been opened next door to my apartment building and asked if they needed teachers.

A few days later, they called me to fill in for other teachers, a job which I quite enjoyed. I signed a freelancer contract and was offered a good wage because of my bachelor's degree. After accepting a permanent class, guiltily letting go of the offered kindergarten job, and learning that I really disliked teaching the kids' courses, I was soon helping people sign contracts on open-house days. Now I have five of my own adult courses every week, plus the time I spend in the office and filling in for other teachers.

The company has two offices. The one next door is brand new and hip (and its convenient location is awesome for someone who likes to do their writing at home):

When you walk into the building, this is what the hallway looks like (I love this about German apartment buildings):
















Here's the first view after entering the language school (I really like the flower sticker):














This is the main classroom (roomy and light, but chilly--okay, not as chilly as my apartment):














Another view of the same room (notice the Buddha on the wall and on the window shield):














The bathroom (who knows why you'd want to see this?) And those rugs bug me, they don't go at all! Oh well, have you seen my room?:















The other school is crazily huge and always filled with people and has a whole multitude of kids' courses, where kids have fun games, exciting CDs, colorful flashcards, and the like. It takes at least thirty minutes for me to get there, taking two trains.

Sometimes I ask myself, "What in the world am I doing, working as an English teacher?" First of all, in my opinion, language teaching is the excuse job for every expat. And as we all know, I don't like to be like every expat. I like to be as local as possible. This leads to the second problem. To me for the last year and a half, I've been avoiding English like the plague (except for when communicating with those who don't speak German, such as in this blog). Basically, if someone can speak German, there is never any reason to speak English with them. Ever. Even if they also have English as their first language (we can help each other, right?). So now, I am getting paid for speaking English with people with whom I could very well be speaking German. And I have to really work hard not to be super annoyed when employees talk to me in English, even though they're really nice. We've got the English-speaking areas covered: New Zealand, England, Canada, and America (Minnesota, Texas, and the others I don't know). One girl can't speak a lick of German and she's marrying a German this summer. Which reminds me--every last one of these people who have the expat excuse job also have the typical reason for expats to be here: they all married/are living with/had children with/are dating Germans. Seriously, every one of them. If I were ever to be in a relationship here I could say that I truthfully didn't come here because of a relationship, but because of a love for the land and the language, the relationship came later and as an added plus.

Another thing that makes it crazy to work there is the drama that goes on. One woman's really nice and obviously a good business woman. She just spreads stress wherever she goes and causes confusion with scheduling and keys. Then there are the salesman-like workers she keeps around, thinking they'll make up for the problems she tries to solve that others could have and would have figured out if she'd let them. Really, it just adds to the confusion, with three people showing up for a class and no one understanding what their role really is. Luckily, I haven't let it get to me the way some others have, but I'm not the one traveling across town to get there, or being told in front of parents and students, "I'm going to kill you." I listen a lot to the other employees (one who has fooooul language) and have given her some really friendly, but honest feedback that she didn't really seem to listen to. (For example, I said there should be a verbal warning and explanation before a warning letter, and she said it had to be done that way, even though nothing had ever been said about the subject.) We just have some learning to do together. That's how it is with everyone, isn't it?

But all in all, I find the people there to be enjoyable spice in the soup of life as long as I don't have to be there long. And I really like my students (okay, most of them. One older lady is always confused and who, even when I tried to help her in German when she came to a class too advanced for her, never answered). I love being paid to tell people how to fix their pronunciation, discuss differences between styles of English, and correct grammar (I do those things anyway, and when it's not polite I wish I could).

There's one class where the students agreed to have the class at a different time because they wanted to have me as the teacher, since my teaching was "livelier" (maybe they like my jokes). And my private student is awesome. We laugh a lot and have some really good conversations, such as her story about going to the Freiberg Temple open house when she was a little girl. She even had me come over to have my knee checked by her doctor hubby.

I'm so glad that my schedule there is finally semi-firm so I can get some work done on my thesis (I haven't accomplished anything in the last two months, not even my final essay for last semester). I've thought a bit about taking an online TEFL course, which would boost my wage by 2 Euros per hour. That means I'd need to teach for four months before the extra money would pay off the price of the TEFL course. Since I consider this job a temporary thing, it doesn't seem worth it. (Now I'm wondering if this is why people didn't want to get certified in genealogy at the FHL--they didn't want an excuse to stay there.) Plus, when do I have time to do a 100-hour online course?

Though not being TEFL-certified prevented me at first from getting my own permanent classes, I'm now satisfied with the amount I'm teaching. In fact, on Friday, I told them to stop calling me for Fridays because I need to have time to write my Master's thesis. Tuesday is also free of classes, and the time between classes on other days should be enough. I hope.

So, are there any questions remaining about my job?

Missing Brain

Do you ever have days where you're not sure where your brain is? I do (but you already knew that). Today I:

-Got up an hour earlier than usual and still didn't get to my job next door until only 5 minutes before class started.
-Set up an appointment with another ENT (for a second opinion in hopes of improvement in the sore throat epic) but made it for the first day of the new quartal, meaning I have to pay another 10 Euros.
-Reached the front door of my apartment building after class, saw that I still had six minutes, and went back upstairs to get a bag for my laptop.
-Went down a flight of stairs and went back for cough drops.
-Realized I'd forgotten the latest Liahona (international Ensign) but left anyway.
-Arrived at the university and realized I'd forgotten the paper that would get me my laptop back.

Then I debated the whole way into the library to pick up a book what I should do since I had an impending work meeting in thirty minutes, decided to try to get the laptop anyway, and succeeded. Wahoo (and the repaired keyboard is lovely)! My brain had returned! Or so I thought! Then I:

-decided that my foot hurt enough that I would wait however long it took for the next train to come. Unfortunately, I saw the train and without thinking boarded the one in front of it, going in the wrong direction.

I made it on time, so it was okay, but I:

-didn't even think to ask if Sarah was back from vacation yet. When someone says three weeks and it's been four, you don't think about it. Okay, I guess this wasn't actually my fault.
-took about ten minutes to figure out who should have the key to the school and where for what day.

But, happily, I:

-enjoyed the sun shining brighter than it has in months (though the wind was still cold).
-went the extra (five) mile(s) to help a patron of the school who was standing outside wondering why no one was there. I took her to my apartment (five minutes after I'd hurriedly told the girl looking at the room that I had to hurry and leave--she was still there when I came back) to call the other school (which was nervously waiting for my late arrival because no, Sarah was not back from vacation), and the lady ended up going to my class--she drove us there.

Unfortunately, I made more time-wasting decisions and:

-ate pancakes at 9:45 instead of going to bed or working on my essay.

But, happily, again:

-the pancakes tasted good.
-I was friendly to my roommate and even shared my pancakes.
-I chatted with Melissa who not only gave me a motivating deadline for my essay, but a reward if I finish on time. (Thanks, Melissa, and everyone else: don't be surprised if I don't have much of an internet presence in upcoming weeks. Or maybe, if I have more of an internet presence. Whichever.)

Anyone else?

Off Key, But in Tune

As a reply to the latest post of one of my favorite blogs:

When I first started my job at the Family History Library, it took me a while to get to know all of the other employees in addition to the missionaries. I would mix up Sherri and Bekah and David and Tom for a while, but Randy was immediately "cemented in my brain," as my mom would say. No one said anything to me about Randy, but I knew he was special. He was reliable with his hours, he always gave the patrons direct answers, he knew the document center in and out, and when I told him something funny, he laughed as if it were the funniest thing in the world. Randy loved people whether they loved him or not, and he never got involved in the nasty, girly gossip that whipped around. I liked to talk to Randy on the train home after work, and ask him (or I guess "tease him" is more fitting here) about his girlfriend. He was such a fun person that I was always happy to see him, even when I was completely overwhelmed with work.

Despite Randy's friendliness, I noticed that he sat alone in the front row during our unit meeting. So I grabbed the hymn book sitting on the chair next to him and joined him. To start the meeting, the person conducting announced an opening hymn, so I opened the book. He held one side, I held other, but that's where our harmony ended. His singing was loud, it was mis-timed, and it was severely out of key. My first reaction was to look around and wonder if anyone else noticed. They calmly continued singing, so I figured they must have been used to his tone-deaf ways, and maybe that was even why he was in the front row alone.

But Randy was Randy and I loved him for who he was, bad singing and all. I continued to sit by him week after week, and his singing made my day during many a "I think I'd better quit or die" week. His singing may have been off key, but it was in tune with another kind of music--that of happiness, of life. He didn't care what others thought, he let himself enjoy the music and sang exultantly, which was often more than I could say.

Good old Randy. I wish I could say I learned to let myself enjoy the music and that I always sing exultantly, but if I did, it wouldn't be true. All I can do is hope to continue learning that along the way.