Thanks for your interest in our event on Tuesday night, and to everyone who came along, the #weAREhere organisers and Science Gallery for hosting. And of course, a huge thank you to the panellists who imparted great advice:-
- Christina Lynch (Moderator)
- Elizabeth Murphy (Senior Recruiter - EMEA - Sojern)
- Sorcha Bowler (Software engineer, Betbright)
- Sarah Doran (Software Development Manager, Travelport Digital
- Ingrid Epure (Software engineer, Intercom)
Congratulations to VELDA CONATY for winning a free ticket to devitconf.org which will be held in Greece (Sat 20 - Sun 21 May), and huge thanks to Simona Cotin (who’s MC’ing at devit) for offering this opportunity.
A couple of reasons to go to devit:
- the conf organizers have put a huge effort in making sure they have a diverse lineup => 50% of their conference speakers are women
- the conference lineup covers 360 in terms of topics with international speakers (all talks will be in english)
Bonus: super friendly people, good weather in may, delicious food
Note: Yip, I wrote a quick Python script to pick a winner from the registered csv file. :-)
Notes from the panel discussions
I didn't take notes till half way through panel, if anyone else have notes to share, please do so in the comments, thanks in advance.
How can I suggest tech interviews to be conducted in a format I’m more comfortable in e.g. whiteboard, coding on laptop, etc.
- Get practice in:-
- Be open & communicate in interviews. And flexible but be aware that you are going to be in that environment. Just mention that you are uncomfortable.
What are the most important criteria in evaluating young candidates for a tech role in your company? What qualities do you consider essential to have in the long run?
- Curiosity; prob solving; open mind
- Passionate; prob solving
- Articulate, passion, drive, motivation over phone
- Not a jerk; fine line between arrogant and passionate
- Good interviewer recognise someone's skillset
- Communication skills
Self taught v tech school
Some companies do look at formal third level educations and require 1.1, however, times are changing, job spec should be updated from option of years equiv experience to a degree.
How to break into the tech scene as a female developer with little coding experience.
- Networking (internal & external)
- Open source projects
- Hackathons
- Go to events
Top Tips
- Find a way to get a cv internally to avoid hr keyword search
- Apply for lots of jobs
- Networking
- Don't assume know everything (especially on job spec)
- Job spec may not be up to date; apply anyway. You might have something on your cv they might like.
- Interviewers are not there to catch you out.
- Don't be afraid; get a mentor, talk to friends
- No one talks about imposter syndrome, talk about it.
- Be part of the community.
- Be deliberate & selfish and who you associate your name with.
- Join Linkedin.
Side-note: Imposter syndrome
Imposter syndrome has been mentioned. Let us know if you want us to run a workshop on imposter syndrome.
I would recommend contacting Pauline Sargent (Digiwomen) who have a lot of experience with imposter syndrome workshops and discussion around this topic.
Here's a great video about imposter syndrome:
Upcoming events
And here’s more info on upcoming diversity-friendly tech events and references.
- Coding Grace Dublin: Introduction to the Tidyverse Toolkit for R - Sat Mar 25 (11:00 - 17:00) @ Microsoft Ireland, Sandyford
- Women Who Code Belfast: An evening with Instil & Women Who Code - Mon Mar 27, 19:00 @ Instil Software, Belfast
- Ireland Girl Geek Dinner: March Meetup - Thu Mar 30, 18:00 - 20:00 @ Phorest Salon Software
- Dublin R-Ladies: Data Import into R - workshop - Wednesday, April 5 (18:30 - 20:30) @ Nitro EMEA HQ
- PyLadies Dublin: April Meetup - Tue Apr 18, 18:30 - 21:00 @ Etsy Ireland
References
- GOTO 2013 • Career Advice for Programmers • Trisha Gee - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlAn452X4Lc
- PROGRAMMERS ARE CONFESSING THEIR CODING SINS TO PROTEST A BROKEN JOB INTERVIEW PROCESS - https://theoutline.com/post/1166/programmers-are-confessing-their-coding-sins-to-protest-a-broken-job-interview-process
- A Career Retrospective—10 years working in tech - https://medium.com/@sailorhg/a-career-retrospective-10-years-working-in-tech-ea0bf2a29696#.k6jclm5zh
- Feeling shy? This is how introverts win at job interviews - https://www.siliconrepublic.com/advice/introverts-job-interview-tips
- How to Make Tech Interviews a Little Less Awful - https://medium.com/@racheltho/how-to-make-tech-interviews-a-little-less-awful-c29f35431987#.grwy9i926
- ImposterRoster - http://www.impostorroster.com
- [Shout out] BAML return to work programme “Returning Talent” - https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/bank-america-merrill-lynch-launches-returning-talent-programme-ward?trk=v-feed
- Return to work - https://www.siliconrepublic.com/careers/women-reboot-back-to-work
- European Women in Games Conference 2016 - Panel: How to get a job in the games industry - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jx4HpyvKIY
- Julie Pagano: It's Dangerous to Go Alone: Battling the Invisible Monsters in Tech - PyCon 2014 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1i8ylq4j_EY
