What you can learn about CS outside the classroom
It’s been a while since my last post, but that’s because I’ve been traveling all over the United States during the month of October doing personal and professional development. Today I’m going to share with you some of my experiences from the past month and what I’ve learned about the things that I’m passionate about.
Earlier in the month I attended the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing, where I was able to network with 18,000 really cool women in tech in Orlando, Florida. Along with being able to network at the career fair and listen to Melinda Gates speak, I attended a number of sessions that brought light on some things I hadn’t thought about.
Most of the talks I went to were about accessibility, because that’s a hot topic in the tech world right now and something I’m fairly interested in. I attended a talk on accessible design, where we discussed the importance of designing products so that they are usable not just by the typical adult in the United States, but instead, is reaching all of the customers we want the product to reach. The example given was about designing an alarm clock.
When we think of an alarm clock, we typically think about the ones with the bells on the sides, or even a digital alarm clock that has buttons to set the radio on to wake you up. But what does this mean for someone who is hearing impaired? The typical alarm clock is virtually unusable for those users. We discussed different ways of making the alarm clock better for both the average individual and usable for customers who need accessibility considerations. Here’s a list of some takeaways:
- Think about impairment of all the senses. Take a product, and then imagine yourself using it without your sense of touch, hearing, smell, etc. Is it usable? Is there a way to use it if you can’t?
- Think about geography. Is your product usable for people who don’t speak English? Do you need it to be?
- Think about demography. Is your product usable for adults, children, teenager, and the elderly? Do you need it to be?
- Think about value creation. Is your product creating value for its customers, and did you test it to make sure it is?
Another talk I went to was about mental health in tech communities. Many individuals in the tech community who have suffered from mental health issues spoke out about their experiences and their efforts to making mental health a topic more spoken about. They addressed anxiety, depression, OCD, and multiple eating disorders. Some takeaways from that are:
- Food. Be more inclusive of people with dietary restrictions and certain “trigger foods” for eating disorders at large scale tech conferences and events. Start with a baseline of vegan and gluten free food and then build from there.
- Alcohol. With alcohol being a prominent part of tech events, it’s important have an equal number of events for people who want to socialize with and without alcohol. This is particularly prevalent in the startup community.
- Be an advocate for mental health at work. Work at companies who have mental health advocacy groups and value a work-life balance. You might love to work (I love to work), but taking a brain break is important. If your company doesn’t have a mental health advocacy group, start one yourself. Mental health days are okay.
I would 100% recommend trying to attend the Grace Hopper Celebration, as it was pretty life-changing. For more information about Grace Hopper, check out the website. It will be held in Houston, Texas next year.
A week later, it seemed like I couldn’t keep my feet on the ground. I flew to Atlanta, Georgia to Georgia Tech University, where I competed in a hackathon. Hackathons are great environments for learning because you spend 24–48 hours specifically dedicated to getting better at coding. I attended my first large-scale hackathon this month, and here were my takeways:
First, you get to meet people from all over the world. It’s really cool to see what people of different backgrounds and education levels can bring to the table. Someone’s first year CS class was entirely in JavaScript, someone else’s was in C++, and mine was in Java. Not only this, but you have people of varying skill level as well, from first year undergrad all the way to Masters’ students.
Second, you get to network with companies. Most hackathons have company sponsors who will award prizes on implementation of their products or APIs. The cool thing is that it’s not just a shameless self-plug to get a job, it’s a collaborative problem solving process in building a cool hack.
Then, there’s the actual hack. Hackathons are where you can dream of that really cool thing you wanted to build, and then actually do it. You can say, “wow, I really wish there was something like this that existed in the world”, and then you can actually build it. It’s a cool process.
Finally, there’s the expo at the end. This is really valuable because while running on espresso and Mountain Dew, you get to show off everything you worked on with a live demonstration. This can be seen as a combination of a demo and a product pitch — you’re both showing what you’ve done and convincing your sponsors to choose you as the best.
If you’re interested in attending a hackathon, I recommend checking out Major League Hacking.
I think one of the common themes that can be taken away from all the things I’ve learned this month is that lots and lots can be learned from people you don’t spend every day with. People have different backgrounds and experiences and they have a lot to share about life, both personally and professionally. Traveling and learning so much this month has certainly helped me become not only a better developer, but a little bit more confident in myself and what I could accomplish in my career.
I’m always open to new opportunities for personal and professional growth (and opportunities to travel), so if people have more ideas for development events I could attend like this, hit me up! I’m also happy to answer any questions you may have about what’s been happening in my life this month.
