the importance of personal branding for marginalized groups in tech

This is my first blog post, so I’ll introduce myself. I’m Jasmeet, and my pronouns are she/her. I identify as an Indian American bisexual cis woman and I have been a software engineer for about five years. Recently I decided to start writing, so I can share my experiences in the tech industry and work through some of my thoughts and struggles with a broader community. As I started to brainstorm what my first blog post would be about, I noticed myself rejecting many of my ideas with a feeling that they were too … “soft”, or “non-technical”. I began to question why that mattered, and started thinking it would make me seem like… not a good software engineer? This led me down a rabbit-hole about my personal brand.

I have been working at my current company as a software engineer for about 3.5 years. During this time, in addition to doing ✨ stellar ✨ engineering work I have personally spent mountains of time, effort, and mental & emotional resources towards improving the experience of those in marginalized groups on our engineering team (and at our company as a whole). This has included

• working on making our hiring and interviewing practices more equitable
• spending hours in conversations with management on how we can create a more inclusive culture
• creating and recruiting for DEI initiatives within the company
• participating in promotional materials as a woman of color engineer

and a lot more like that.

Suffice to say, I am extremely passionate about DEI in tech. I work so hard on these efforts because I am lucky to be in a position of privilege to make an impact and help others who are struggling to stay/succeed in the tech industry despite all of the barriers that are put in front of them. However, what I didn’t realize is that by being so outwardly passionate and skilled in all of these areas, I was potentially doing myself a disservice. I was unknowingly creating a brand for myself that might have not been the best one for my career.

My brand was something I had never thought about at all until a few months ago. I knew it was pretty important for people whose jobs relied on creating connections with other people, like sales or marketing, but I assumed that it was just not something I needed to think about as a software engineer. After all, all that matters is I know how to do the job well… right?

As things tend to be when you’re underrepresented in the industry, it’s a little more complicated.

I’m a great software engineer who also makes a bunch of positive impact on the team and the company. How could this at all affect me negatively? (aside from emotional burnout and exhaustion, which is a topic for another post)

The conclusion that I have come to here is that anyone in a marginalized group has to be much more mindful about how we are building our brands, especially since we are the ones likely to be spending more time advocating for others and doing things that are perhaps “non-technical” and “not part of our jobs”.

personal brand affects marginalized groups’ career development

About a year ago I first read Tanya Reilly’s amazing article about “Glue Work” (this article changed my entire mindset about how I work), which talks about how there are certain types of work that are important for the team to function, but essentially just do not involve writing code. She talks about how in this industry, doing too much glue work can hinder your career development because you can be perceived as “not technical enough” — you might even get “career suggestions” from others to switch to a less “technical” role. Also, doing glue work will basically set a precedent for you to continue to do more glue work. I think those two things really stuck (heh) with me.

Reading this was probably the first time I realized that how I am perceived at work affects my career path. Sadly the white-male-dominated tech industry has put this huge priority on “being technical” and less of a focus on “soft” skills that are necessary for teams to function because those are not their strengths. (I keep putting “technical” in quotes because I think it’s really hard to define a person that way. There is technical work and non-technical work and a software engineer is usually doing both.) So, regardless of the fact that glue work is extremely important, it… doesn’t really matter if you aren’t being loud about the technical work that you do as well.

I think these conclusions about glue work can be extrapolated to one’s entire personal brand. Even if one is pushing code all the time, the team as a whole might not perceive them to be very “technical”. If the type of DEI advocacy they have been doing, for example, is inherently louder and more public than merging PRs, their peers and managers may implicitly assume they are “less technical” (often times it is not explicit at all, and that’s what makes it more difficult to catch). This then becomes a barrier to one’s career development, also just generally affects one’s interactions with people day to day, their morale and self-esteem, and the kind of respect they receive.

Who tends to spend time on this kind of glue work the most? (and usually don’t get compensated for it? but again something for another post) You guessed it. People of color, queer people, people who are a marginalized gender, disabled people — anyone who is in a marginalized group is much more likely to do the work to advocate for others, is much more likely to be asked to do glue work, and therefore are much more likely to have their career path affected by their “non-technical” brand.

brands are “built” differently for people in marginalized groups

Maybe you’re reading the above and thinking, I know all these straight cis white able men who also do a ton of advocacy and glue work! Are their career paths affected too?

First of all this is awesome, and we need more people like that! ❤ Especially since they are in a much better position to do this type of work. What’s wild is that they could do the exact same things someone like me is doing, and yet their brand will be perceived differently.

When someone is in a marginalized group, there is a higher expectation to prove themselves as “technical”, and there is also a general assumption that they will take care of doing the glue work. As we went over before, if they are very publicly doing other types of work, there is also an implicit bias that they are not a great engineer.

However, if one of your aforementioned white male friends is really good at something “soft” like communication, or they take on DEI initiatives and planning, or start to loudly do other types of glue work, the perception tends to be that they are a great engineer and they are also so good at all these other things! Which is honestly great for everyone because it encourages them to share the load — but wouldn’t it be great if we would be viewed this way as well?

there is a higher expectation to have a personal brand for those who are underrepresented in tech

It is trending in tech these days when hiring and creating career ladders that software engineers be more than just “robots” or “coding monkeys”, and there is some level of expectation for everyone to do a bit of glue work. But these descriptions, when written, are usually vague enough that they can be affected by implicit bias and vary based on who is being evaluated. We obviously can’t be 100% objective for something that is inherently subjective, but this is an opportunity for managers to actively be aware of and counteract their biases (again, probably a topic for another post).

There is usually a much higher expectation both when hiring and promoting, for people in marginalized groups to have a well-defined personal brand — and it’s not even an explicit expectation. We’re never really told that we need it, either — but then we find it hard to sit in the shadows and do our work without constantly having internal and external pressure to prove ourselves (and be recognized and respected) as “technical” people.

Okay so what’s the answer? I don’t have one yet. I really care about having a positive impact on others, creating an inclusive environment, and inspiring others to do the same. That being said, I want to be known first and foremost as good at my job, because that is what my career (and money/livelihood, and some of my self-esteem) relies on. I’m definitely still figuring out how I can navigate doing what I care about and making positive contributions while also making sure my brand represents me as “technical” 🙄 enough to be considered an excellent software engineer.

I hope this journey through my thoughts about personal brand has been helpful and thought-provoking!