The Importance of Mentorship in Driving More Diversity to Tech

In my roles over the years, I have been involved in my fair share of discussions around the need for more diversity in tech. Yesterday, we hosted an AI roundtable with Dame Wendy Hall and Dr. Claire Craig regarding the AI Review and the UK Government’s dedication to not only supporting the AI ecosystem by providing resources for startups but also investing in the infrastructure necessary to build a stronger AI workforce. More information on 'Growing the AI Industry in the UK' can be found here. Keri Pearlson of MIT Sloan was interested in learning more about this initiative, as it includes working to drive more diversity into the the tech workforce.

How do we do this?

The UK government is committed to ensuring computer science is included in K-12 curriculum as well as building programs for professionals who may not have come from engineering background to transition over.

I decided to write this post because I was one of those people. I graduated with an International Relations degree and had a pretty interesting and fun career in international economic development. I decided to put a hold on my career to learn how to code.

Why? A couple things—Jibo and my insane obsession to understand how an engineer thinks.

Jibo. I was one of the early backers of Jibo through Indiegogo back in 2014 and I told myself I would learn to code to one day be able to add new programs to my Jibo whenever I wanted (e.g. telling my husband to get me flowers, chocolates, and book a dinner reservation when he would get home early after we had a fight). Now that I have my Jibo, the SDK isn’t available so I can’t yet play with him.

Engineer brain. I once used to work with tech-heavy startups founded by engineers with no marketing or business-minded employees on the payroll. My curiosity kept building over their passion for the products they built not having ever checked to see if there was even a demand for it. Of course, there were also the engineers who had blind passion for the products they built with customers in mind, but in essence, I was drawn to their blind passion for their products.

At the time I was thinking of this transition, I had over 1200 LinkedIn contacts and had quite a few people in my network who I considered to be mentors for me. I was surprised that I knew no one who had made this transition. It was usually the other way around from tech to business. I received great and not-so-great feedback. The most popular feedback I received?

"You don’t need to do that and you’re not going to enjoy it. Your personality isn’t fit for an engineer’s."

"Why? You’re really good at what you do. Why don’t you keep doing that?"

These mentors were people I really looked up to. I know they meant well but it also showed they didn’t know me. While there are probably women out there who would heed their advice, I wasn’t one of them. I was going to pursue this challenge with or without their support. Whether or not I pursued a career in software development, I knew that learning to code would be a valuable resource for me in the future.

I quickly realized that I needed new mentors and I found one who I met randomly. Friends suggested I should check out Artisan’s Asylum in Somerville, MA and sign up for a couple of classes and see how I would do. During my first visit, I learned to solder and was sitting side-by-side with Jonas Rosland, who was a Solutions Architect at EMC at the time. We quickly bonded over soldering microchips and he agreed to help me through my journey. We discussed at length the pros and cons of going through university and if so, would it be enough to just get a certificate or go through an entire academic program, e.g. getting a B.S.? I met with computer science students at Worcester Polytechnic Institute and interviewed them. I looked into UMass Lowell as I had high hopes to go into robotics.

Learning to code doesn't get more difficult when you get older. The environment we live in changes. I decided upon Boston University's Computer Science certification program to eventually get my Master's, but life, as it does, intervened, and a family tragedy no longer made that option possible.

I then researched coding bootcamps. Should I join General Assembly? Launch Academy? I attended events at Hubspot, Women Who Code, She Geeks Out, among others. I ended up choosing Launch Academy, reading all the books necessary to ‘refactor my wetware’. The bootcamp was by far the most difficult thing I’ve ever done but it was also the best decision I’ve ever made for my career. Thanks to the fantastic team at Launch Academy!

You need a mentor for every stage of your life and when it comes to transitioning into a career in tech, mentors are essential to helping you grow. They’re there to give you advice, but they’re also there to guide you to where you want to be. They also come and go.

The challenge with bringing more diversity into tech is that we need to break the stereotype of who an engineer is. We also need to create an environment where people of all walks of life can feel welcome in making this transition. It’s great to foster an environment for children to grow up wanting to solve problems using tech. It’s also great to encourage students in university to learn a hard skill like engineering. What about those who didn’t grow up in those environments?

I’m dedicating this post to the Dell EMC {code} team. A company is only as good as its employees. One of the best career decisions of my life is directly attributed to Jonas Rosland, and by extension, EMC, and his unwavering support helping me take on learning full stack development. I still consider Jonas to be a true friend, mentor, and one of the biggest advocates for diversity in tech. The Dell EMC {code} team accomplished more than creating an open source community.

The Dell EMC {code} team just announced their conclusion. More information can be found here.  

Just in case you’re wondering, after graduating the Launch Academy bootcamp, I was offered a software engineering role at a robotics company, an automated QA analyst role at a telecom company, a sales engineering role at a CRM company, and a product management role at an e-commerce company. I chose the product management role at Wayfair and I never looked back. I am now the Vice Consul / Trade and Investment Officer for Technology at the British Consulate’s Department for International Trade in Boston, helping tech companies explore opportunities in the UK and vice versa into New England. I’m also the Co-Organizer of the Docker meetup in Boston where I get to still code for fun on the side.