1. N
W
E
S
My Journey to Challenge Myself:
Learning Ruby on Rails
How I learned to enjoy being the new girl in class
2. WHO I AM
Jacqueline Jensen (@JackieMJensen)
Smart, well educated,
responsible,
good at social media,
PR, and business
Co-founder and COO of TicketCake.com
Daughter, sister, friend, #VegasTech community
member
Developer
@JackieMJensen, #LexiLV (Nov 2013)
2
3. WOMEN IN TECH
How STEM Stereotypes Effect Women
When women take on STEM careers, unlike men, they risk being judged by the negative stereotype that women
have weaker ability.
Women hold
only 27% of
all computer
science jobs.
Less than 20%
of bachelor’s
degrees in
computer
science go to
women.
Forbes.com/ForbesWomen
NPR.org
Women
experience
“stereotype
threat”
around STEM.
An
unconscious
bias that
STEM are
“male” fields.
3
4. TIMELINE
My Life In Tech
First job: Format
disks for a quarter
Begin learning
about social
channels –
Twitter, blogging
1990
2008
1985
1993
Launch
TicketCake.com
2010
BORN Microsoft Encarta
is released
Left day job to create
TicketCake.com
Middle school, high school,
college: Math and science are
for nerds. Don’t be a nerd.
@JackieMJensen, #LexiLV (Nov 2013)
The nerds are making loads of
money and there is a shortage
of them. I should double down
on being a nerd.
4
5. M Y I N S P I R AT I O N
Powerhouse Women
Marissa
Mayer
Sheryl
Sandberg
Cyan
Banister
Tech Queen
Advocate
Founder + Investor Hacker
President and CEO of
Yahoo!
COO of Facebook and
author of “Lean In”
Founder of Zivity and
a angel investor
(Uber, Zappos,
PayPal, and more)
@JackieMJensen, #LexiLV (Nov 2013)
Susan Hinton
Developer and
advocate of the Syn
Shop Hackerspace in
Las Vegas
5
6. MY DREAM
Add Another Layer on the Cake
•
•
•
•
+
Business Development
Finance
Sales
Marketing
Developer
Tech Super Woman!
@JackieMJensen, #LexiLV (Nov 2013)
6
7. W H AT H A P P E N E D N E X T
”I’m Learning to Code!”
In August 2013, I set
a goal. In 2-3 years,
I was going to be a
proficient developer.
(Gasp)
@JackieMJensen, #LexiLV (Nov 2013)
7
8. P U S H I N G PA S T O B S TA C L E S
Reasons Why I Could Have Said No
There are many reasons why I could have said no to learning how to code. (And no one would have blamed me for
giving up.)
I have the
skills I
need
already.
It will be too
hard to learn
to code.
@JackieMJensen, #LexiLV (Nov 2013)
There aren’t
enough hours
in the day as
is for my
startup.
I might
fail.
8
9. FINDING THE YES
#VegasTech Made It Easy
The #VegasTech community makes it easy to learn a new skill. I joined the Las Vegas Ruby Users Group (@LVRUG)
for their weekly meet-ups and met with @VegasTechFund CTOs to get inspired.
Seek out free resources
online like SkillShare.net.
Eliminate excuses.
Design your goal. What’s
your goal? How will you
know you have reached it?
How long will take?
You’re dumb – it’s ok.
Accept being the
beginner in the room.
Always ask why. Why
this goal at this time?
@JackieMJensen, #LexiLV (Nov 2013)
9
10. M Y M O T I VAT I O N
Commitment
“Commitment is what transforms a promise
into reality. It is the words that speak boldly
of your intentions. And the actions which
speak louder than the words. It is making the
time when there is none. Coming through
time after time after time, year after year
after year. Commitment is the stuff character
is made of; the power to change the face of
things. It is the daily triumph of integrity over
skepticism.”
When women perform math, unlike men, they risk being judged by the negativestereotype that women have weaker math ability. Psychologist Claude Steele posed an interesting question about an everyday scenario: Let's say you stopped by a math classroom and saw boys and girls learning together. "The teacher is the same; the textbooks are the same; and in better classrooms, these students are treated the same," Steele wrote. "Is it possible, then, that they could still experience the classroom differently, so differently in fact as to significantly affect their performance and achievement there?" Steele and other psychologists said a psychological phenomenon could be influencing the performance of students. When there's a stereotype in the air and people are worried they might confirm the stereotype by performing poorly, their fears can inadvertently make the stereotype become self-fulfilling. Steele and his colleagues found that when women were reminded — even subtly — of the stereotype that men were better than women at math, the performance of women in math tests measurably declined. Since the reduction in performance came about because women were threatened by the stereotype, the psychologists called the phenomenon "stereotype threat." Stereotype threat isn't limited to women or ethnic minorities, Steele wrote elsewhere. "Everyone experiences stereotype threat. We are all members of some group about which negative stereotypes exist, from white males and Methodists to women and the elderly. And in a situation where one of those stereotypes applies — a man talking to women about pay equity, for example, or an aging faculty member trying to remember a number sequence in the middle of a lecture — we know that we may be judged by it." Over the years, experiments have shown that stereotype threat affects performance in a wide variety of domains.It’s a vicious cycle, says Jocelyn Goldfein, a director of engineering at Facebook. “The reason there aren’t more women computer scientists is because there aren’t more women computer scientists,” she told the Associated Press.3. Combat stereotypes. Female engineers are the brains behind a number of Facebook’s features, such as the news feed and the photo viewer. If more women knew this, perhaps they’d be empowered to jump into the field themselves. We need more visibility when it comes to the work female engineers have already accomplished, so young girls know it’s not just men who are behind technology they use in their everyday lives.
Stanford.eduThe CS program has seen an 83 percent increase in enrollment in its first two years, and computer science has become the largest major on campus. In the 2011-12 academic year, the department broke the all-time record for students declaring computer science as their major: More than 220 students in that one class alone chose to major in computer science, a 25 percent leap from the previous record in 2000-01. (dot com boom)
Don’t talk about doing stuff. Do stuff. The world is full of so many talkers, and so few doers. Too much planning is as bad as no planning. “Posting about your plans is shadow of Done“ Make stuff while your brain is young and fresh. The brain gets slower as you age. Figure out what you like. Try to become the best in the world at it. If you start early, you will have time to change your mind. Don’t worry if it’s not “prestigious” or won’t make you a lot of money. If you’re good at it, you’ll make it prestigious. Read “How to Do What You Love” by Paul Graham.
When women perform math, unlike men, they risk being judged by the negativestereotype that women have weaker math ability. Psychologist Claude Steele posed an interesting question about an everyday scenario: Let's say you stopped by a math classroom and saw boys and girls learning together. "The teacher is the same; the textbooks are the same; and in better classrooms, these students are treated the same," Steele wrote. "Is it possible, then, that they could still experience the classroom differently, so differently in fact as to significantly affect their performance and achievement there?" Steele and other psychologists said a psychological phenomenon could be influencing the performance of students. When there's a stereotype in the air and people are worried they might confirm the stereotype by performing poorly, their fears can inadvertently make the stereotype become self-fulfilling. Steele and his colleagues found that when women were reminded — even subtly — of the stereotype that men were better than women at math, the performance of women in math tests measurably declined. Since the reduction in performance came about because women were threatened by the stereotype, the psychologists called the phenomenon "stereotype threat." Stereotype threat isn't limited to women or ethnic minorities, Steele wrote elsewhere. "Everyone experiences stereotype threat. We are all members of some group about which negative stereotypes exist, from white males and Methodists to women and the elderly. And in a situation where one of those stereotypes applies — a man talking to women about pay equity, for example, or an aging faculty member trying to remember a number sequence in the middle of a lecture — we know that we may be judged by it." Over the years, experiments have shown that stereotype threat affects performance in a wide variety of domains.It’s a vicious cycle, says Jocelyn Goldfein, a director of engineering at Facebook. “The reason there aren’t more women computer scientists is because there aren’t more women computer scientists,” she told the Associated Press.3. Combat stereotypes. Female engineers are the brains behind a number of Facebook’s features, such as the news feed and the photo viewer. If more women knew this, perhaps they’d be empowered to jump into the field themselves. We need more visibility when it comes to the work female engineers have already accomplished, so young girls know it’s not just men who are behind technology they use in their everyday lives.
Most important when talking on a new journey to challenge yourself, remember what commitment is. Wake up every morning challenging yourself if you are taking a promise into reality.