Being a woman in tech is exhausting.
Early in my career, I was given the feedback "just be careful there aren't too many women at your meetup- we don't want it to be too homogeneous", and I think about the absurdity of that statement every fucking day.
Being a woman in tech is exhausting.
There were way more men than women attending these events- there were just more women than usual... ya know, the whole thing companies have been trying to solve for YEARS, I had accomplished on my own, and was scolded for. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Also wrong. I went through hundreds of names, 1 by 1 for hours (shout-out to @Meetup for making this difficult at the time), and most of the women were senior engineers who attended university and the men? Most self taught.
Not only do you have to do your job, but you also have to PROVE that you're doing your job.
Check your biases- they have consequences on others.
But think about how many women and other marginalized folks who don't have that luxury? I would have left the industry for sure.
Your words have consequences.
Words have impact. Think before you speak, and call this shit out.
https://t.co/Kac6wUkY47
TECH CONFERENCE PRO-TIP \U0001f4e2:
— Chloe Condon \U0001f380 (@ChloeCondon) November 15, 2019
Never ever
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walk up to two women at a booth and open the conversation with
"so- HR or recruiting?"
It's 2019, do better my dudes. \U0001f610\U0001f611
https://t.co/qFaRGPIiWb
So this super awks thing happened to me yesterday at @Official_GDC registration. As I approached the line for speaker badge pickup, a security guard stopped me and asked where I was going. I pointed to the speaker registration booth ahead. He said, \u201cthat\u2019s for speakers\u201d.
— JC Lau \U0001f996 (@drjclau) March 18, 2019
https://t.co/18Rn1BGBFk
Adding to the fatigue, there's an expectation for the marginalized to educate the unaware. It does move the game-piece forward, but it's more work that *should* be done by the 'entitled'. Do your part to seek out ways to be better w/o relying on the oppressed to spoon-feed you. https://t.co/XLxTD5WmOA
— Ed Gonzales | #MVP | MCT | MCSA | #PowerAutomate (@PoweredbyEdG) January 9, 2021
More from Life
As a dean of a major academic institution, I could not have said this. But I will now. Requiring such statements in applications for appointments and promotions is an affront to academic freedom, and diminishes the true value of diversity, equity of inclusion by trivializing it. https://t.co/NfcI5VLODi
— Jeffrey Flier (@jflier) November 10, 2018
We know that elite institutions like the one Flier was in (partial) charge of rely on irrelevant status markers like private school education, whiteness, legacy, and ability to charm an old white guy at an interview.
Harvard's discriminatory policies are becoming increasingly well known, across the political spectrum (see, e.g., the recent lawsuit on discrimination against East Asian applications.)
It's refreshing to hear a senior administrator admits to personally opposing policies that attempt to remedy these basic flaws. These are flaws that harm his institution's ability to do cutting-edge research and to serve the public.
Harvard is being eclipsed by institutions that have different ideas about how to run a 21st Century institution. Stanford, for one; the UC system; the "public Ivys".
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make products.
"If only someone would tell me how I can get a startup to notice me."
Make Products.
"I guess it's impossible and I'll never break into the industry."
MAKE PRODUCTS.
Courtesy of @edbrisson's wonderful thread on breaking into comics – https://t.co/TgNblNSCBj – here is why the same applies to Product Management, too.
"I really want to break into comics"
— Ed Brisson (@edbrisson) December 4, 2018
make comics.
"If only someone would tell me how I can get an editor to notice me."
Make Comics.
"I guess it's impossible and I'll never break into the industry."
MAKE COMICS.
There is no better way of learning the craft of product, or proving your potential to employers, than just doing it.
You do not need anybody's permission. We don't have diplomas, nor doctorates. We can barely agree on a single standard of what a Product Manager is supposed to do.
But – there is at least one blindingly obvious industry consensus – a Product Manager makes Products.
And they don't need to be kept at the exact right temperature, given endless resource, or carefully protected in order to do this.
They find their own way.