Embracing the Sisterhood of Code

I was a bit hesitant to attend female-only meet ups. All I could imagine is something crazy from the Ya-Ya Sisterhood. But now I get it.

When I left my last job, I had multiple people tell me I should check out groups like Women Who Code or Girl Develop It. I didn’t quite get it. Why would a female only meet up group be better than one that includes everyone in the industry? It’s not like there’s a Men Who Code or whatever group. I understand I am a minority in the tech field, but why draw attention to it? Since it’s a male dominated field, shouldn’t I just get used to it now?

I decided to go ahead and embrace the sisterhood of code and join the groups on Meet Up. One topic was particularly interesting and I decided to sign up for the wait list despite that it was in Denver (gSchool is in Boulder and traffic on 36 sucks y’all). I figured that perhaps I wouldn’t get into the event and I could continue to my avoidance plan. Welp I got into the event and since there was a wait list, I needed to decide if I was really going to attend. I didn’t want to prevent other women from attending if I wasn’t going to go. I decided to go and at least check it out. It wouldn’t hurt after all.

After a devouring some pizza, I narrowed in on some girls that seemed friendly and kinda like me. One was attending another code school and had a couple months left. One was in the insurance industry and didn’t have any coding experience. A couple others were at the end of their code school. We started chatting and had more in common than one might expect. We were bored in our current or old non-code job and felt like we had reached as far as we could or wanted to go. It was time for a change. Sweet- I have stuff in common with these girls.

The topic was “Landing Your Dream Job in Tech”. Women Who Code had a panel of five women with varying expertise. Most of the advice wasn’t female specific, but definitely helpful:

• Have an awesome portfolio that you’re proud of
• Communicate what you are working on in your spare time, what drives you, what you want to learn
• Get to know the company you are interviewing for. Maybe look beyond start up scene at schools, gov, ect
• Look at the company website and evaluate what you like, what you don’t, and how you’d change it
• Get involved & be available — meet ups, github, twitter, and beyond
• Ask about the workplace culture and environment

But there was some differences which really made me appreciate being in a room full of women. A question was asked about how to adjust or get back into the industry after having a child. One panelist had recently rejoined the industry after being a stay-at-home mom for years. I appreciated hearing some their horror stories from interviews. Apparently some companies are afraid of how you as a woman will fit into their culture = red flag. I doubt these questions would have come up at a general panel session.

A few take aways from the meet up:

Men’s vs Women’s Perception on Skills

I know that I do a good job at things. I strive to do them correctly and in an efficient manner. I typically believe that most people have this mentality and this is the norm. I am not going above and beyond or anything special, but I’m learning that I’ve been wrong about this. Apparently I do more than the average person, but I don’t always realize it.

It was highlighted that men who have maybe 5 out of 10 necessary skills on a job description will apply for the job and feel really confident about it. A woman might have 8 out of 10 skills and think she doesn’t have enough skills and won’t apply. Perception and confidence frequently impact what jobs women get (or more importantly don’t get) because they don’t think they are worthy. Just knowing that I am prone to this perception, I can be aware of it and toss it to the curb. I was always the little sister that wanted to do whatever my older brother was doing. I can apply the same mentality to my career as well.

“Be a learning animal”

Always be learning something and continue to evolve. Enough said.

“Don’t be a tech dinosaur”

Opposite of being a learning animal… don’t get behind because it’ll be harder to catch up aka you are pretty screwed.

The sisterhood of code is worthwhile

For some reason, the sisterhood just seems more inviting. I think I’ll use female meet ups as a place to build my confidence and confide in other women possibly going through the same thing as me. It’s almost like Girl Scouts. Yeah I can hang with the boys, but every now and then it’s great to relate to some females. I’ll see you ladies soon.