Women in Coding. Our Game is Changing.

There has been so much talk lately about getting more women into technology careers. Most of the focus in media, education, and interest groups is about guiding and educating young women so they choose the technical arena for their first career path.

What I, as a Teacher’s Assistant at Devslopes, am most excited about, is helping a different group of women smash back in and secure a solid footing on the upward climbing technoLadder. I want to help a huge number of “previously techieRockStarMoms” re-enter technology careers.

There are many women who have enjoyed successful impressive technical careers who then did a wild and crazy thing and took some years off for kids and family. These women often spend some years “running interference” on all the daily life support issues to minimize life interruptions and catastrophes to better the chances that the dad can propel unfazed to stardom in his career — technology or otherwise.

This is all great until the kids begin school and mom wants or needs to get back in.

After years of what some recruiters silently view as “doing nothing” these previously successful techieRockStarMoms are about as marketable as their third graders who can’t quite get themselves to work yet.

In the world of information technology, it is very difficult to “get back in” if you’ve been out of the “do while loop” for awhile. Technology evolves so quickly that it’s difficult enough to keep up when you are fully employed at a progressive tech company and are enjoying frequent training and hourly interactions with other techie colleagues. But for moms who have been changing diapers or changing Band-Aids instead of changing code, the challenge to get up-to-date can seem impossible, and time and cost prohibitive. None of the current women-in-technology efforts that I know about are focusing on this promising demographic.

This is where Devslopes comes to the table with the solution. It is all about “re-tooling” with the most up-to-date development languages (iOS, Swift and Xcode baby) via online classes (at crazy cheap prices) where you will SEDFSFV (Smile Every Day From Something Funny in the Videos). Mark Price delivers when it comes to being able to teach a programming language and entertain at the same time.

Once “re-tooling” is complete, you do not shout from the mountaintop about what you can do. You put together an online portfolio that shows the recruiting masses EXACTLY what you CAN DO!

When a suburban boyherd or a suburban girlherd or a suburban boy/girlherd explode into a couple’s universe, dynamics immediately change. Typically, an adult, and most typically, one parent, needs to be on 24/7/365 family production support and live. It’s now important that someone take the lead on making sure all children get successfully relocated to the next house in the next state or country with each of dad’s worldwide zig zaging corporate relocations.

You can’t do that if you are in a high profile meeting six states away from the kiddos with your iPhone turned off. Can we say Momma? Most often, the mom becomes the 24/7/365 family production support person. Out of necessity, mom’s career often has to be on the backburner for awhile.

But then one day, the kids become self feeders and mom wants a fair chance again at gainful employment in technology; her industry of first choice, her focus in college, and where her passion, training and experience have worked out well for her in the past.

Unfortunately, at this point, while dad is doing amazing things leading the city’s CIO breakfast panel forums through the local chamber, the mom’s shots at the board room are comical. She might get a job with a temp agency to clean the board room at this point. Furthermore, forget the board room. Many moms can’t get back into information technology at any salary level with the “missing years” glaring from their resume like a bad case of leprosy.

There is a vast demographic supply of brilliantly capable women who simply can’t get hired in technology, at any salary. Recruiters simply don’t promote the resumes with “gaps in employment”. They equate them with those who have spent time at correctional facilities who also “leave off” some years.

Recruiters can’t picture how these “techie has been” resumes will fit in to any job description. The requirements that ask for three years of recent project management experience make my blood boil.

To many, it doesn’t matter how many years you have worked at Fortune 100 companies and how low you’ve set your current salary requirements. These mom applicants aren’t entry level as they have an IS degree and years of solid development and design experience and years of software project management expertise where they came in on time and under budget. But they haven’t “done anything” for years. So they fit nowhere… Definitely not at the top… Definitely not at the bottom… And, definitely not in the middle!

It is time to change that. Enter Mark Price’s Devslopes online training — the fun way to quickly become marketable in the most up-to-date programming languages on the planet for the mere cost of a family trip to McDonalds.

To all my techie mom friends who are interested in re-entry, here is my advice:

What not to do:

· Get an expensive time consuming master’s degree in IT

· Work for minimum wage watering plants at Home Depot while listening to “Everybody Hurts” by REM. OK, you can listen to the song once, but then move on to more inspirational stuff like Beautiful Day by U2 and Roar by Katy Perry (I must confess. I like the Roar message but I find the video cheesy; Sorry Katy:) Better yet, listen to whatever inspires you.

· Apply for 1,721 jobs on job boards for everything from junior developer to CIO hoping that recruiters will ignore the missing years while you served at Alcatraz with incurable leprosy and will grant you an interview.

· Spend 10–15k on a coding immersion program that is out of state. You shouldn’t waste the money. Plus, your technoBrilliantSavyHubnuts, if you still have one, probably can’t swing things while you’re gone and the nanny will up and quit and your backup childcare might not be able to hang. It isn’t hubnut’s or your ex-hubnut’s fault. He has no training. He does not know where the cough syrup is located or where your kid’s school is located and it’s going to be a problem. Hey you devoted dads, lighten up. It’s a joke for the other dads. You know the ones.

What to do:

· Fire up that LinkedIn account with 3 connections and start connecting with every person you used to work with during your techieRockStarDays. Half of the time, just pick IT strangers and let them accept to get your connection numbers up. For example, if you worked with a Tim Smith, just pick one who looks reasonably like the one who used to be on your team, especially if he is head of technology somewhere.

· If you have changed your name since your techieRockStarDays, like through marriage or divorce for example, it may be more difficult to get connections because people might not recognize your new name. Don’t feel guilty about the random Tim Smith connections to beef up your count. Consider listing your name strategically so more people will recognize you…Patricia Ann (Gates/Jobs) Kellner. Kidding. But, you know what I mean when it comes to married and maiden names and recognition!

· Buy an iMac with a big screen with fantabulous resolution and the memory and processing works that will knock your socks off. You won’t regret it. If you need some help financing the new computer, sell all your old baby equipment and baby clothes and toys at a place like mychildscloset.com in Loudoun county, VA or similar sales. No, I don’t get any kickbacks. I founded it once, back when I was “doing nothing”, but have since sold it.

· Take iOS, Swift and Xcode through Devslopes. Skip Mickey D’s that day so it is a financial wash.

· Develop an iPhone app, any iPhone app, and get it in the app store, pronto. Develop another one for a relative for free and get it in the app store. Develop another iPhone app for a friend for free and get it in the app store. Time is of the essence to get these rolling and it really doesn’t matter if similar functionality exists. There was already a McDonalds when Burger King came into play, so don’t worry about it.

· Pay for a snazzy domain name and put a gorgeously smart landing page and profile out there with info about you and “ALL YOUR APPS” in the app store. If you want to create some that will sound good to recruiters, create an illusive one with something like “smart” in the name. Like smartUtil. You can explain it as an app that is simply a much smarter way to stay on top of your interim utility costs. You better not actually do this, as this one is mine.

· Git your Git going. ASAP. Git is way more than a killer version control tool. It’s a way to concretely show what kind of badass code can explode out of your fingertips. It takes the focus away from that “doing nothing” time. Devslopes walks you through getting it up and functional.

· Update your resume with Mark Price’s advice from your online iOS, Swift and Xcode course and then fill in any necessary gaps with “substitute teacher in information technology”. How can that not be true? You taught your kids how to use a mouse while their Daddy was gone. Oh, wait, they taught mouse navigation to themselves and changed your Python code while they were in 3rd grade. Scratch this one. Well, change up your resume as Mark suggests but re-think the substitute teacher filler I suggest. Or hell, substitute for one day at your kid’s school if you need to and alter the lesson plans a little. “Kindergarteners, today we learn the difference between a live mouse and a technology mouse. Who can explain the differences and similarities?” Boom, done. You are now an information technology substitute teacher!

· Laugh, train, carry on. Know you aren’t alone. Watch Devslopes course videos each day and design and code a little more each chance you get. It will be just a matter of time before you become a hot commodity again. You are probably going to need to call yourself techieRockStarPrincess soon.

· The guys who instruct the Devslopes courses (sorry Mark Price and Caleb Stultz) are crazy nuts and they will crack you up. Smart. Crazy. Nuts. I think fun tech camaraderie is what we techie moms all miss when we transition from that world to taking care of a small suburban boy/girl herd. Well that and the fancy thing called a paycheck that puts smiles on our faces and visions of beautiful new shoes swirling in bubbles above our heads.

· Start with devslopes.com. Connect with me and the Devslopes gang on LinkedIn. We will encourage you! I was a cheerleader once for crying out loud, back when I was skinny and young and stuff. I’ll promise to cheer you on in this endeavor! You’ve got this.

· Stay focused on your journey and continue to take tech courses forever as technology will always evolve. That my friend, is the secret to successful technoLadder climbing and feeling good about homegirl being back.