Keynote talk titled "Tech Career Lessons I wish I knew when I was in college Through Taylor Swift" given at AthenaHacks 2023 (February 25) in Los Angeles
7. "Surround yourself with people who
motivate you and make you want to be
stronger, wiser, better."
- Taylor
8. “Confidence, ultimately, is the
characteristic that
distinguishes those who
imagine from those who do.”
- Katty Kay,
journalist, author and broadcaster
9. "Are you ready for it?"
Do the job you want before you have the
title.
10. "Betty, I won't
make assumptions…"
Based on appearances!🎀
Technical people can dress up 👗
💃🏽
19. Cold-Emailing 101
Show them you know them Be too generic
Build up to the ask Be pushy
Be real Use a template
Good subject line: “Quick
Question”
Be too wordy
A/B test! Be discouraged
Don't
Do
21. "To me, FEARLESS is having fears. FEARLESS
is having doubts. Lots of them. To me,
FEARLESS is living in spite of those things
that scare you to death."
22. " The key to success is failure"
&&
"...I've failed over and over and
over again in my life. And that
is why I succeed"
- Michael Jordan
25. "You have to take opportunities and make an
opportunity fit for you, rather than the other
way around. The ability to learn is the most
important quality a leader can have."
― Sheryl Sandberg
26. "Because these things will
change
Can you feel it now?
These walls that they put up to
hold us back will fall down"
27. “Women need to shift from thinking,
I’m not ready to do that, to thinking,
I want to do that, and I’ll learn by
doing it.”
-Sheryl Sandberg
28. "Success is not final; failure is not
fatal: it is the courage to continue
that matters"
-Winston Churchill
29. "What if I told you none of it
was accidental"
-Mastermind
31. "I have to practice to be good
at guitar. I have to write 100
songs before I write the first
good one"
Notas del editor
To quote the esteemed feminist philosopher Dr. Taylor Allison Swift, “you’re on your own kid.”
Except you shouldn’t be. You won't be. You're not.
Now…"I close my eyes and the flashback starts, I’m standing there…" Back when I was in your shoes, when I was in college way back when, I said I wanted to be a developer evangelist, like ones I met at college hackathons.
They were the ones giving demos, workshops, and mentoring and helping me. I used to want to be a teacher so I was all, "you get paid to travel and code and teach me?" And they were all, "yes!" So I was all "I want your job." And here I am. So how did I get to be here, speaking to you today? How did I get into tech?
I grew up in the Bay Area surrounded by science, technology, and innovation, yada yada yada, I wasn't a STEM person. I wasn't good at it. I didn't particularly enjoy math or science, but instead reveled in the Humanities, like English and writing–I actually just started writing a women's fiction book about a mixed-race engineering manager in San Francisco who joins a political campaign.
So what changed? What happened? I credit confidence I gained in environments for underrepped genders.
It was a one-day all-girls coding camp where I got my first peek into programming and tech when I was nearing the end of HS. I attended it on a whim, thinking it would appease my Chinese-American mother.
To my surprise, I loved it. I loved the instructors, who were Stanford women CS students. They debunked every stereotype I held in my head about what a programmer looked like. They played volleyball, danced, dressed fashionably, and of course were terribly intelligent. They showed me not just that you could be multiple things at once, that I could be a programmer. Because they looked like me, like my friends..they made me, who wasn't good at STEM, want to be like them, and good at STEM.
They showed me that programming could be fun..collaborative…creative.
That it could relate to so many different fields. For a long time, I wanted to use my computer science degree to work for the SF Giants baseball team or for a magazine like Seventeen or Teen Vogue. Maybe even a newspaper like the New York Times–they have a big data team, and I actually do know people who now work there as software engineers! In short, I wanted to use programming skills to work in what I considered a "fun" industry (which at the time to me, did not mean tech.)
I left the day feeling so inspired…and I hope you're feeling that already and the weekend hasn't always started.
That's how I felt in college too. Before that coding camp, before I'd selected a major in CS…I picked a historically-women's college because I thought it'd be supportive, inclusive, and welcoming.
And who would have thought? It was a welcoming, inclusive, and supportive tight-knit community. I had HS friends who expected to study CS at schools like UC San Diego and UC Berkeley, and then they ended up switching majors. Why do you think so? It's at least in part to them not feeling good in their classes. They didn't feel comfortable, or included, or accepted. They felt judged and intimidated by guys in their classes who already had prior programming experience. These guys talked over them and looked down on them. Raise your hand if this sounds familiar? I've felt this way in industry and when I used to attend coed hackathons.
Studies have shown that women who learn in environments just for underrepresented genders are likelier to go on to graduate school, likelier to go into a male-dominated field, and likelier to have more confidence. I've doubted myself, I doubt myself often…but I never think that I can't do something because of my gender. That a guy can do something better than me.
Years ago, I co-directed Spectra, the largest hackathon for underrepresented genders in the Bay Area. Some of the feedback we heard was how attendees felt like they could be beginners at Spectra. They felt that they could make mistakes, take risks, ask more questions to mentors and sponsors and each other, and just be themselves. This environment made them more confident because it made them feel like they could do all those things.
Here are some lessons I've learned in my career that I wish I knew when I was in your shoes
So I got confidence in an environment with underrepresented genders. How did I get the job I wanted? A developer evangelist job? I did the job I wanted before I had the title. I began speaking at conferences and meetups and writing blog post tutorials about apps I built before I got paid for it. People used to bring up my age because there were not many developer evangelists who were new grads straight out of college. This made me feel like I had to prove myself…prove that I belonged…because I did not look how people imagined a developer evangelist should look. So I tried to work extra hard to show I was, indeed, ready for it. Which brings us to…
Don't make assumptions based on how someone looks. When I attend tech conferences, I hate when people presume that I'm a recruiter. That I'm non-technical. That people don't think I code. This happens pretty often, and I'm also guilty of it. I'll never forget in my first month at Twilio, I met a woman I'd never seen before in the office bathroom who was dressed very nicely, so I asked her if she worked in sales. She turned out not just to be an engineer, but an engineering manager. I was so embarrassed, I wanted a hole to open in the floor so I could crawl into it. I remember apologizing profusely and saying I hated when that happened to me, and she got it. She knew it wasn't either of our faults–it was society.
“Freudenfreude” is the bliss we feel when someone else succeeds — even if it doesn’t involve us. Support other women! Support others' joy–it'll make you happier.
Check in with your friends and loved ones about their small victories or the bright spots in their day. Then you can find friends as well as people who will help you professionally, like mentors and sponsors.
Mentors give, provide advice, they answer questions, strategize career moves and professional development. Sponsors promote a protégé to other people to help advance the protégé's career.
I have two mentor moms.I met 1 because she was my first manager at my first in-person internship. It's actually a fun story of how I got that job–I followed her on Twitter because I somehow found her there and she was an Asian woman (like myself) who wore pink and liked cats. She created cool JS projects and was a developer evangelist in San Francisco, which I wanted to be! One day, she tweeted that she was looking for an intern for her team. I of course applied, and I would reply to some of her tweets so she'd notice me (though she never responded back.) I went through the interview process and I like to think tweeting at her helped, but it's hard to know. Anyways, we are good friends now! Mentor mom #2 taught me Android one summer when I did Twitter Early Bird Camp, which was a weeklong program for underrepresented computer science students. She never managed me but still would give me advice. I think of both of them as mentors, but if, say, one of them was given a speaking slot at a conference and did not want to attend so they tried to give me the slot, that would be very sponsor-like of them. And that as Faith Hill, who Taylor cites as a mentor.
On the topic of mentors–I hope you remember that you have something to offer mentors and your friends. You can provide valuable insight and ideas and passion and a different background than many people in industry do not have. Even if you don't work in tech yet, you can provide something to those who do, and don't you forget it: mentorship is a two-way street! I'm inspired by you all who are giving up your weekends to be here. The organizers who have worked so hard to get us all here.
Here are some tips for mentors: Find people you want to be like. Follow them on Twitter (or Mastodon or something now–RIP the bird app.) Find their emails on their GitHub profiles. Use your college alumni network.
Get someone a few steps ahead of you. They'll be close enough in age and experience to you that they can remember what it was like to be in your shoes, yet they're far enough away that they have insight into where you want to go.
By that same rationale, you can also provide mentorship to your peers and friends.
Find your support system, a board of advisors. Maybe some of them are here today. If you have some and they know each other, make a group chat.
Who here is in some group chats?
Here here! These are some of mine, and I'm convinced they provide therapy to me. We mentor and uplift each other. And of course they have to have a nice group chat name! I'm really outing myself here with gc names like Get Lizzie a Good BF". Whoops…
One way to do so? Put yourself out there. Be vulnerable.
Vulnerability fosters human connection. Vulnerability breeds vulnerability so if you yourself open up and are exposed, more vulnerability is often returned.
When you have the courage to show people who you really are - regardless of the fear that they won't like it - you learn more about yourself, and understanding yourself is the first step towards self-compassion.
But what does vulnerability actually look like?
It might be putting your hand up for a task when you’re uncertain of the outcome. It might be admitting that you need help. It can be telling someone what you want or need, regardless of how that might make them feel about you.
It’s these small, mundane moments that can come together as a powerful force that can–and will– lead to innovation, creativity, and change.
Do things that scare you. Take risks. Shoot your shot, both personally and professionally. And If Harry says so…
Ok real talk.
IK the current economy and job market looks intimidating. But diamonds are made under pressure. Shooting your shot professionally could look like you reaching out to someone you don't know and asking for a job.
I used to scroll on Google Maps around San Francisco looking for tech companies to apply to. I'd then go to their jobs website and if they didn't have an evangelism internship role, or an evangelist role, I'd email the general jobs@company-name from the jobs page. I'd say "hey, you don't have an open role for a developer evangelist or a developer evangelist intern role. Here's why you should have one, and here's why it should be me." I didn't always get a response, but sometimes I did get an interview or a "we'll keep in touch." Always, people were impressed that I asked at all.
So how-to cold-email?
Research the person's website, LinkedIn page, their company’s news, the company site—anything that can give you insights so you can connect in a meaningful, relevant way. Provide value on that first contact with a research report or article, for example, to build trust and credibility.
Use a subject line that stands out and is succinct. If a cold email doesn't work, try changing your email or subject line.
So cold-emailing is like professionally shooting your shot…on the personal side, I've been trying to shoot my shot this month mainly so I could include this graphic here.
To quote Frozen, "What are you so afraid of?" And we're all afraid of rejection. We're afraid of failure and of looking dumb. Leading us to #8…
Don't fear failure. As Michael Jordan said, "I've missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed." And Thomas Edison got it–he said he did not fail 10,000 times, but instead he "successfully found 10,000 ways that will not work.”
Failure can also be a huge motivator. I learned more from failing–yes, I got a D–my computer graphics elective the first time than I did in classes in which I got an A.
Think of rejection as redirection. Oprah needed to get fired to become Oprah.
Millie Bobbie Brown was rejected from Game of Thrones but then got Stranger Things. Emma Stone missed out on Alice in Alice and wonderland and then got La La Land. To quote another feminist philosopher Ariana grande, “thank you, next.”
You didn't get a job you wanted? No biggie! You'll get a better one later on instead.
Be yourself. Tetris teaches us that if we try to fit in, we disappear. I used to be insecure about liking Disney. Looking cute at the office! I thought I wouldn't be taken seriously as an engineer or in tech in general. I saw my manager/mentor mom be taken seriously despite being feminine, and it inspired me to be myself.
Do things that only you can do: that is one of your many superpowers.
Being yourself can still mean being flexible and adapting. There is no perfect fit so this means dealing with the hand you are dealt. Given an opportunity, you make it fit and work.
Being flexible is a form of problem-solving. It's listening and taking in new information.
It means adapting to change. Change is the only constant. I do believe that it is still better to go to college than self-study or go to a boot camp because in college, you learn how to learn. You learn how to handle change and learn on the fly.
Do things before you're ready.
If you wait around for you to be ready, that time may never come. There is no perfect moment. heard this stat: Men apply for a job when @ only 60% of the qualifications, but women apply only if they meet 100% of them.
Hackathon fails: I was assigned to build out a feature and I did not, could not do it in time. That's okay because you learn by doing. To quote Adventure Time, "sucking at something is the first step to being kinda good at something"
Success is not linear. The journey will not always be straight. Your career will sometimes require you to restart, over and over.
I learned from that failed hackathon. I was more embarrassed because to be honest, that team wasn't as nice as the UCSD guys. And that's okay. I learned. I grew. And I overcame my fears of looking silly, of not being ready, and of failing.
How do you get over those fears? By failing. If you fail, you'll see how resilient you are and how you can overcome it, and that it really wasn't as bad as it seemed.
Don't compare yourself to others.
IK IK this is so hard to do! Social media shows off people's lives, but it's just a highlight reel! What if I told you none of it was accidental that social media does not show you the work that happens behind the scenes.
I used to think programming assignments just came easily to some of my classmates, but as in You're On your Own Kid, people can "[give their] blood, sweat, and tears for this' without you knowing because guess what? They're not going to post about their hardships!
Your chapter 7 is different from someone else's chapter 7–they might be on chapter 9! So Be competitive with yourself and not with others.
My favorite debugging method, besides console.log or print statements, is going for a walk or taking a shower.
My CS dept head told me that computer science isn't like math, where the better you get, the less time a problem takes. You'll still invest a lot of blood, sweat, and tears if you're a tech lead or senior engineer.
Trust the process. The right process will bring the right results. Be patient on the road toward mastery.
Computer science isn't easy. You don't need to love programming. I did not like most of my classes, but I loved hackathons where I could build what I wanted.
Popular science author and Wharton professor Adam Grant agrees: Passion is not a prerequisite for progress. It's often the result of progress."
Some of this advice can sound simple. Be vulnerable. Take risks. Shoot your shot. Cold-email. Trust the process and enjoy the ride. Reach out and use your friends and professors and the hackathon community–your network is your net worth. Don't be afraid to ask for help.
To quote Winnie the Pooh, "You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think."
And to paraphrase Ariana Grande, if you want it, you got it…
Thank you.
