Technology

What It’s Like to Be A Woman On the Internet

5 years ago

Anonymous $L9wC17otzH

https://medium.com/newco/what-its-like-to-be-a-woman-on-the-internet-55f7e6d5044c

In July of 2017, I wrote an article on Medium that NewCo published entitled What It’s Like to Be a Woman at a Tech Conference. When it was first posted, it went viral, and the blank faced image of me giving a thumbs up in the middle of a crowded wine cave full of men (taken by a coworker at a tech conference in Napa) became a well-known symbol of women in tech. Over the last couple years, folks have recognized me at conferences I speak at and say things like “you’re the girl from that article!” all over the world (London, Vancouver, Italy, Atlanta, Kansas City — you get the point), and someone once shared with me that the thumbs-up image became a Slack emoji reaction for their engineering teams. I’ve been incredibly moved by men and women thanking me for the perspective and sharing my insight into what it’s like to function as a gender minority in the software engineering world. If you’re unfamiliar with my brand, I’m a a quirky white girl who wears bows in her hair, loves pink glittery things, owns too many enamel lapel pins, and has a bit of a LaCroix obsession; a stark contrast from your typical male engineer in a Patagonia jacket who studied computer science at Stanford (in fact, I have a theatre degree).
These days I work at Microsoft as a Developer Advocate. If you’re unfamiliar with Developer Relations, I’ll give you the TLDR: Typically, I have described my role as a “liaison between customers and engineers”, or “an extroverted engineer” (only partially true for me, as I’m an ambivert). My job involves using my engineering skills to help educate other developers how to do things well with Microsoft’s tools (I also do fun hacking on Furby dolls sometimes, and make fun Android apps- it’s a pretty sweet gig). In a way, working as a Developer Advocate involves being a public face for an engineering tool/brand/product- its equal parts marketing/branding/engineering/educating. I often keynote at conferences in other countries, speak at local Bay Area meet-ups, and get to meet a lot of cool smart people around the world.

What It’s Like to Be A Woman On the Internet

Jan 14, 2019, 12:29pm UTC

$L9wC17otzH

https://medium.com/newco/what-its-like-to-be-a-woman-on-the-internet-55f7e6d5044c > In July of 2017, I wrote an article on Medium that NewCo published entitled What It’s Like to Be a Woman at a Tech Conference. When it was first posted, it went viral, and the blank faced image of me giving a thumbs up in the middle of a crowded wine cave full of men (taken by a coworker at a tech conference in Napa) became a well-known symbol of women in tech. Over the last couple years, folks have recognized me at conferences I speak at and say things like “you’re the girl from that article!” all over the world (London, Vancouver, Italy, Atlanta, Kansas City — you get the point), and someone once shared with me that the thumbs-up image became a Slack emoji reaction for their engineering teams. I’ve been incredibly moved by men and women thanking me for the perspective and sharing my insight into what it’s like to function as a gender minority in the software engineering world. If you’re unfamiliar with my brand, I’m a a quirky white girl who wears bows in her hair, loves pink glittery things, owns too many enamel lapel pins, and has a bit of a LaCroix obsession; a stark contrast from your typical male engineer in a Patagonia jacket who studied computer science at Stanford (in fact, I have a theatre degree). > These days I work at Microsoft as a Developer Advocate. If you’re unfamiliar with Developer Relations, I’ll give you the TLDR: Typically, I have described my role as a “liaison between customers and engineers”, or “an extroverted engineer” (only partially true for me, as I’m an ambivert). My job involves using my engineering skills to help educate other developers how to do things well with Microsoft’s tools (I also do fun hacking on Furby dolls sometimes, and make fun Android apps- it’s a pretty sweet gig). In a way, working as a Developer Advocate involves being a public face for an engineering tool/brand/product- its equal parts marketing/branding/engineering/educating. I often keynote at conferences in other countries, speak at local Bay Area meet-ups, and get to meet a lot of cool smart people around the world.