Thank you for showing up, for trusting and for engaging in these conversations. The next diversity in tech #yeswecode twitter chat happens on Sunday August 24th at 8pm Central Time. Please connect with me on Twitter to stay updated. I am so inspired by all of you.
If you’re reading this, I hope you can join us for the next one. If you missed the first chats, you can read more about them here. Before participating, please read the guidelines so you know what to expect and how to best participate.
Is there space at the tech career path table for non coders?
Yes, there is! From my perspective, diversity in technology is about finding a place at the table if and when you don’t fit the stereotype of who you think you’re supposed to be to work in tech. This week we’ll be talking about the importance of diverse tech skills as a way to make the tech space more diverse.
I’m a user experience designer, which means I’m in charge of shaping the emotional experience you have when you interact with a website or mobile app. There’s more to it, and you can see my ideas about UX here.
Coding is great, and we definitely couldn’t run our web development company without it. But, our team also does user experience design, graphic design, seo, social media consulting for clients and more. We couldn’t create great websites and apps for our clients or our social wedding planning startup if we didn’t have diverse skills.
Here’s the quick history of the #yeswecode twitter chats: A few days before the #yeswecode events in New Orleans, LA from July 3rd-6th, I decided to host a tech inclusion chat, focusing on creative ideas to help make the tech space more diverse. My husband and I run a tech startup in New Orleans, and our company collaborated as local partners with the #yeswecode hackathon.
I wanted to host a chat for the following reasons:
- I wanted to engage the #yeswecode participants who would be traveling to New Orleans in a conversation as a way to connect us all.
- Secondly, I wanted to leverage twitter to have a global conversation about a topic that affects all of us in this space.
Chat Goals:
- To always focus on solutions
- To network and create visibility around diverse tech communities
- To find out what the diverse tech community needs are and help support it
Feel free to hit me up in the comments with your ideas. Note: If you’re here to share positive suggestions, feel free to post. You don’t have to agree with me (in fact, I encourage everyone to share their perspective), but being respectful is important. If you feel the need to name call or say mean things for the sake of being mean, then this conversation is probably not a good fit. Thank you!