My Experiences With Women Who Code Silicon Valley
My journey with WWC SV started back in 2016. I stumbled upon their meetup page and saw that they were having a Whiteboarding meetup at Facebook. It was the kind of meet up I was looking for as I was trying to get back to work after a break. Honestly at that time I was not very excited to go as I had been to other meetups and did not feel comfortable but went anyways just to try.
I was pleasantly surprised the first time I went to that meetup. I was very much impressed with how well it was organized the first hour was networking and food. I connected with so many amazing women and suddenly I did not feel alone in my journey. I had found my community where I can discuss , share and ask for help. The other thing which helped me immensely was practicing on whiteboard . I had never done it and it gave me the confidence that I underestimate myself and I can get good at this if I keep practicing .
From that point on I started checking the meetup page and started going to some other meetups which were being organized some of the meetups I attended were the confidence series, behavioral interview prep etc. I started looking forward to going to these events as they made me feel energized and go after my goal. I made some friends for life in these meetups.
In July 2017 I attended a leadership meetup organized and decided on the spot that I wanted to Lead a meetup. I started Android Beginners series in September 2017 it was a 4 week series and it turned out to be a success. I cannot even explain in words how awesome it felt leading a meetup. It gave me immense satisfaction and confidence. I did this series again in 2018 and planning to do it again next month.
The experience I gained from WWC helped me a lot with my Job Search. I eventually landed a job at a startup they were impressed with my role as a leader with WWC SV.
I am currently working as an Android developer and happy with the place I am in my career at this point.
From being an attendee to a Leader it has been an amazing experience. I want to thank all the volunteers,leaders, directors and everyone involved for creating this beautiful community. A big shout out to Akanksha Lonhari, Bindu Mohan and Anuja Varma for mentoring and believing in me. I want to conclude by saying get involved and do whatever you can attend/volunteer/lead and I can guarantee that it will be no less than a rewarding experience. My journey continues and looking forward to more amazing adventures with WWC SV.
