TIY Week 2: Using Downtime Effectively, Being Your True Self in New Fields

We ended up having an easier weekend assignment this week, and it’s got me thinking about how to optimize moments where there is less direct demand on my time during this hyper-intensive period.

I have 10 (or 11, counting the final job prep week) more weeks of this program, and I want to do my best to suck the marrow from its bones . . . not to sound creepy or anything. But I also want to be able to hit the ground running on the other side, hopefully having set up interviews for pretty soon after the program is over, so I don’t end up having a huge time/energy crash at the end, going from hyper-intensive bootcamp to low-energy job-search and temping.

This morning I spent some time researching MeetUps here in town. This is nice and relaxing for me as an extrovert, because it allows me to think forward to the kind of people I’ll meet and the social engagement I’ll get from going. But it is also a beginning to engaging with the Austin coder community, and specifically finding outlets to the ways I personally would like to have an impact, however small, on the Austin coding scene. I found several feminist tech MeetUp groups in the area, for example, and messaged the founder of one to ask if there are ways I can help or volunteer. Since that particular group’s MeetUps are focused on the presumably second-wave feminist ideal of cis-male-free spaces for women, trans, and genderqueer people in male-dominated fields like tech, just going to the MeetUps themselves without having an official reason is off the table, but I thought they might know of other ways I could help out.

One of the biggest things to keep in mind is that I don’t want to lose sight of any of the aspects of myself that are important to me during this huge transition. I still care deeply about feminist and gender egalitarian issues, and I want to find ways to express that in this new world I’m entering. Beyond finding jobs and supporting myself and my wife, this is about finding a place and a way to work that will be more receptive to all the parts of me. I believe that the tech industry can be that, but also that it won’t necessarily hand me that on a silver platter — most of this is likely to be about finding the right “in” and helping co-create the kind of humane, ethical work environment that I want to see with a team of other people.