In honor of #FOSDEM rejecting our Diversity, Equity, Inclusivity, and Belonging (DEIB) track, and time permitting, I will be posting numbers about diversity in tech and my personal experiences in IT today.
Feel encouraged to share numbers and experiences as well ❤️
First of all, ✨ I was a DEI hire once ✨
Ya girl had studied PolSci, and didn't have the attention span yet for her big girl job as a policy worker in Parliament, so she applied for a junior dev role. I already knew some programming, because as students we were always protesting something, and protesters need a website (html, css, javascript, php).
Capgemini gave me a Java bootcamp. Quote: "this will look great for our diversity numbers." Despite the wording, I'm still grateful they hired me. ❤️
Without this DEI program, I wouldn't have worked in IT. Again, grateful to Capgemini ❤️
Unfortunately I now worked in corporate IT. I was the only woman in every team. A self taught junior dev. The micro aggressions that I had to deal were _insane_.
Daily:
- expected to get coffee and take notes
- ignored, side eyed or talked over
- expected to write CSS as a Java dev because "girls are good at that"
- SO MANY weird and inappropriate jokes and comments
- weird invites to a senior devs house