UmaHub: A programming bootcamp by women for women
It’s happening
It’s been just a few months since it all started, but it seems like a lifetime to me. I’ve been coding since I was 16 and for a long time I played with a shy idea in my head which got bigger and bolder with the passing of years.
I wanted to teach people to code! I wanted my friends to be able to travel with me, working remotely, as I did. I wanted them to know they can have a voice and a better option than their current bosses who couldn’t see their potential. I wanted them to be free to live their lives as they will.
So finally I took the leap! I left my day job (in an act of courage, stupidity or frenzy caused by the dream) and I went all in starting UmaHub, a programming bootcamp by women for women.
A while ago a journalist asked me how I came up with UmaHub. I told her:
“I discovered I love teaching when I was in University and became a math and physics tutor to kids. It’s so rewarding to see how content people are with themselves when they understand something that was previously confusing.
What pushed me towards this decision is the huge shortage of good developers and even bigger shortage of female developers! This is such a rewarding profession in so many ways and women are not really in it, giving their contribution and reaping the benefits.
The final push was my personal need for a change. After so many years in front of the computer, I was craving more direct human contact.
UmaHub is uniting all these things.”
UmaHub is a place for people who want to learn to code and start a remote-work career but don’t know where to start.
We’re creating our program so that students feel confident in their skills. We spend less time in lectures and more time in hands-on exercises and projects. We mark milestones and celebrate our wins by the fire or surfing in the sea. We’re creating a sisterhood, a safe space where no question is considered stupid.
In UmaHub you come to learn to code, to make friends, to learn how to choose and get hired in the company you want to work for. In UmaHub you become part of a community, and in the process you end up learning a lot about yourself too.
The women-in-tech issue is complicated
Coming from an ex-socialist country I didn’t face sexism while I was growing up, although many people did say “that’s a faculty for guys” when I decided to go into electronics and telecommunications engineering. I didn’t give them much care. Luckily there were enough girls in my class to prove them wrong and one of them was actually the top student!
Fun fact: Three out of my five favourite professors and role models were women 👩🏼🏫👩🏻💻👩🏼🔬.
When i started working I never felt I was put down just because I was a girl. Quite the opposite, in the community my blogs and talks were remembered more because I was a woman. At work I was usually put into leadership positions and I genuinely think it had to do with that “we’re all equal” mindset I had from my upbringing.
But then I started reading more and more about the state of the tech industry and western women. So many stories about cultural conditioning, sexism in the workplace (probably caused by the cultural conditioning too) and even some women saying that companies shouldn’t have ping pong tables and beers because it was “bro culture” and it was making women pretend they’re the “cool tech girl”. My reaction to that last post was shock and a lack of words, by the way, but the point I’m trying to make here is that the women in tech issue is complicated! And I don’t think I have the right degree to try and crack the whole problem.
But I DO have a way of influencing it. I can teach women to code! I can teach them how to communicate in a dev team. I can teach them emotional resilience! And for our future bootcamps, when we have men students too, I will be their mentor. Those men will go into the tech world having strong female figures in their life and indirectly being an advocate for women in tech.
Is this your dream too?
We’re starting small. We’re bootstrapping, not going after funding, vary of how can it influence the path we want to walk.
We’re searching for allies who believe in the dream of more women in tech
Maybe you’re a company that needs junior full-stack developers and would like to sponsor a woman’s bootcamp, then hire her? Maybe you’re running an organisation and would like to share this story with your members? Maybe you’re an influencer who can mention Uma in a post? Or a journalist willing to write an article? Or you have years of experience in the area and would like to be our advisor, or simply give us a few tips over a coffee?
Give us a shout! Share our story and be sure that one day we’ll return the favour.
