As someone who recently started attending some tech conferences through work, I’m curious about what are some of the best conferences to attend as a woman. Specifically excluding conferences just for women in tech (e.g. Grace Hopper) because although those are great too, I’m looking for what general tech conferences do a good job at making it a positive experience for women.

As an example, it looks like EuroPython 2024 had a day with lots of PyLadies events. There’s typically a lot of conferences to choose from in a given topic area or concern and this is the kind of hard to tease out factor that I’d like to weigh when picking what I attend. For me, the purposes of attending conferences are primarily 1. topic area learning and 2. networking and community (especially since I work a remote job). Conferences like Grace Hopper have a lot of the latter but not so much of the former, and it’s hard for me to evaluate what the subjective experience would be like based on agendas alone so I am seeking collective wisdom!

Hi y’all. I work in helpdesk at a healthcare company where lots of docs work from home. We’re not super corporate, which means we don’t have a formal procedure for most things. Sometimes people will ask us for housecalls, for doctors or employees who work from home, and my (all male) coworkers usually do them, I never volunteer for them, because it makes me uncomfortable to go to someone’s house. We even had a doctor request us to fix his son’s xbox… So my question is, am I allowed to say no to these, if I do get assigned them?? I feel like my coworkers will be understanding, but I don’t want it to reflect poorly on me. To be honest, I’m willing to go if I’m helping a woman. But lots of male doctors have made me feel uncomfortable, so I definitely don’t want to go to their houses

There’s a position I’ve been interviewing for. I met with the hiring manager and felt I did pretty well. But with how competitive this environment is, I wanted to find a way to stand out, so I wrote a cover letter expressing my interest and qualifications.

I made sure it’s easy to read, so it’s not too traditional or formal. It’s a list format with relevant pictures, not too long.

I’m doing this because I’ve been looking into the company culture and feel like they seem to hire people who are passionate about what they’re doing. I saw another person landed a job writing a similar letter, but of course that doesn’t mean their situation is the same as mine.

If you were a hiring manager, would you welcome a letter like this in the middle of the process, or think it’s overkill?

It’s worth noting: I work in tech but this is not for a technical role. So the usual coding interviews, etc, don’t apply.

At stand-up this morning my boss asked us if we feel confident about getting the tasks done that are slated for demo on Monday. I asked if we could list out the tasks again to make sure we’re all on the same page. He responds “we should know that already… but okay.” It was a pretty condescending tone.

Okay dude… I wasn’t saying I had no knowledge of what the tasks were. I’m trying to make sure nothing falls through the cracks bc we’re all really busy. I’m trying to make sure we all focus on and genuinely consider the question with all the info.

Later, we had a meeting and he asked why there are more issues being found in code review. I thought about it, and answered that I think the time pressure we’re under is affecting things and causing small mistakes. Not saying that’s the sole reason, not saying I’m exempt in that, but you asked and I gave my thoughts. 2 other coworkers agreed with me. Welp, my boss says that that’s just an excuse and that the real reasons are xyz. Okay… you asked. I answered honestly.

The thing is, I feel like he’s always a bit more intense/rude about these things when I’m the one asking or responding to questions. It’s like I’m being punished for communicating.

I’m over it. Good thing I’m actively interviewing for another position already.

Hello all! I’m looking to switch careers soon and tech is where I’m headed. I’m just not sure which avenue to take seeing as though it’s all new to me. In the near future, I’m looking to land a tech job overseas. Any recommendations on where to start. I was looking at cybersecurity, hacking and software engineer… Do you recommend any schools or programs? Help please

Edit Thank you everyone for the kind words and great advice. Just wanted to express the gratitude. Truly nothing like the warmth of women supporting women, it’s been so helpful. Thank you 🙏🏽

Just a little off my chest. I've been in IT Support for over 10 years, my current job for almost 3 as Tier 1 internal support.

My company has been really free falling and basically froze all upwards movement a few months after I started. I was really gunning for some experience so I could get to higher tier / governance and compliance since I've been stuck at this level and denied a few promotions from my previous job (hence why I left, with promise of growth).

Found out through back channels that the AI bot we've been training under the guise to "lighten our load" is actually set to completely replace my team (of mostly women) by the end of the year. They're not even going to tell us, we found out because on of my peers was obligated to be told due to their country's labor laws.

I'm scrambling to find a new gig before they officially cut us. I'm so disheartened at the thought of doing ANOTHER few years of tier 1 before I can finally move on up.

Anyway, I'm just venting. I know I'll be ok, I've bounced back from worse, but any kind words or success stories would be helpful

Hey girlies. I've never posted here before but I really like the female-focused Reddit communities. Anyone here pursued a Masters in Data Science in the past few years? I have a life science background and have learned some Python, SQL, and R on my own and just gained admission to the UT MDSO program. I'm so nervous and have some impostor syndrome here. Would love to hear your stories from anyone that went down this path from a non-computer background.

tldr: Do you know an activity of around 15 mins for children/girls aged 7-10 to get enthusiastic about InfoSec?

Hi all,

I enrolled in a role model program where they invite women in traditional male roles to come and talk about their job. I am working as an Information Security Officer, and I would love to have more girls join the workforce in infosec, or IT in general.

They have asked me if I would want to give half an hour show/tell for kids(mixed but mainly girls) around the age of 7 to 10 years old at a nearby school. I can talk a little bit about my job as the computerpolice, but it would be so much more fun if I could include an activity for them in the last 15 minutes. It's not like a police that I have a uniform or something, but I would be very happy to show my enthusiasm and passion for my job.

What would be fun for them to do for about 15 minutes to make kids enthusiastic about security? Thank you!

Currently a student with two male lab partners in an upper level class, and had the absolutely bizarre experience of them refusing to talk to me?

Deadline is on Friday, but neither of them looked at the assignment or responded to my texts about meetings until yesterday. I commute an hour, so I told them I really needed this timing figured out now. Gave a time and location, one of them showed up but the other took his sweet time. Annoying, but seems pretty normal for college students.

Neither of them knew python or github and also weren't bothering to google or chatgpt instead of just sitting there silently doing nothing. That's also annoying, but hey, I've TAed intro classes. People are like this.

I asked one of them to push his code onto another branch so we can merge it. He says he doesn't know how to merge, I tell him that it's okay and I can do it if he just gets the branch up. He says he doesn't know how to make a branch, I tell him what tab to click on vscode. He doesn't know what I'm talking about, and I end up doing it for him.

It started to get a bit weird once they downloaded the repo and realized that I had done half the assignment already. The lab partner that had been talking to me before went silent, and when I asked his input on a line or if he could tell me something from the documentation page, he stopped answering.

The other one never looked me in the eye even once, and never responded to any question or comment I made. I figured he was just an awkward duck and since he wasn't really contributing or responding to my overtures, I'd just leave him be.

At one point, I moved to charge my computer and within minutes the two of them started chatting up a storm and explaining the code to each other as if they'd written it. I walk back over to talk and they just flat out ignore me or address each other.

I made up an excuse to leave after that because I was definitely getting pissy. I don't quite know what I did wrong there. The way I spoke to them is how I've always spoken to classmates, coworkers, TAs, professors, and it works out for me. I was clearly the most experienced programmer in the group, and none of us can afford to fail this assignment. It makes zero sense why they were ignoring me. They still haven't pushed anything to github, and I'm not sure it's from incompetence or malice.

I don't know if anyone here has an idea of why this happened or how to make them actually engage with me, maybe I need to review exactly how I spoke or maybe I should have slowed my pace down? I was more than a bit stressed due to the deadline, so that might have been an issue. I suspect that gender might have played a role in this but I am regularly called intimidating/aloof/etc by people of all genders, so it might just be me.

EDIT: I haven't finished up the assignment yet, but I did manage to get ahold of the prof. He gave me full approval to not put their names on it, and told me to send an email for documentation purposes and he'll see if he can get me a new partner or let me do it myself next time.

I’m in my mid thirties and I decided to go back to school to get my degree in software engineering. This was a year and a half before the tech industry crashed. I’m halfway through my degree and all I read on the news and in job subs is how hard it is for junior SWE to get jobs or even internships.

I have lots of work experience in sales but decided to get into SWE when I became a mom and needed more flexibility and a better income. I’m also completely burnt out from sales and desperately want to get out of it.

I really enjoy programming. However, I’m now terrified that I put my family into debt and am halfway through a degree that I won’t be able to get a job with.

Am I over thinking it or did I make a mistake?

Edit: thank you everyone for the encouragement and advice. This is such a wonderful community. Sounds like I didn’t make a mistake, but finding my first job is going to be a grind and I’m going to have to use all of my resources.

And that your teammates know of you are slacking/not working every moment you are at your desk?

I am bootcamp graduate with 4 YOE and suffering from anxiety during this horrible job market.

I feel like my team and manager all know if I'm not working every minute until the day is over. I feel guilt about taking breaks or having any downtime because I'm afraid to be viewed as a slacker and laid off.

My company also does quarterly performance reviews (so 1 every 3 months) which doesn't help with anxiety at all.

How can I overcome this feeling? Does anyone else feel like this?

I have a monthly meeting with my skip level (director). And I’m curious what you guys talk about with yours in tour 1-1.

With my manager I talk about my performance, catching them up on what I’m working on, state of the project, blockers, feedback/complaints, etc. But I don’t believe I should be this granular with my director. Don’t expect them to need to know all the little details.

Any advice is appreciated!

Not sure if this is allowed, but I'm doing research for National Novel Writing Month. I want to write a book about women's experiences as software engineers, but anyone can answer questions, so I can get an all around perspective. I'm supplementing with research from books, articles, professional associations, etc as well. All answers are anonymous, but I do have the "collect emails" setting on, so if you want your answers emailed to you, you can have that. I'm a software engineer since 2014. I'm really hoping to make the world a better place for everyone in it. I've never seen a book just about female software engineers, we've always been lumped in with other IT careers, and I absolutely love all women in tech, but project management isn't the same as QA, which isn't the same as business analysis, which isn't the same as engineering, You get my drift. Please, if you've got any free time, help a gal out. https://forms.gle/g7Y4hqge5TLbXZsx7

I went on LinkedIn today and saw that a friend from college is going to be giving a talk at GHC. Why am I suddenly feeling jealous about this even though it’s not something I’d be interested in doing?? And then this leads to me feeling guilty about not being passionate enough about tech/women in tech. Anyone else have these weird conflicting feelings?

It’s probably just imposter syndrome…. Ugh!

Hello,
Is there a trend on which GHC companies usually have onsite interviews? Would love to get access or know about it.

If there is a WhatsApp/discord or any other community with GHC participants discussing these things. I would love to be added.

Does anyone know what the expected Covid Safety Protocols are going to be or what they have been in the past (mask requirements, temperature taking requirements, hand sanitation stations, etc)? We are in the middle of a covid spike and being in a large group freaks me out since i'm immunocompromised. I'm sure im not the only one who is that's also interested in attending afrotech but i might skip it if there aren't any safety measures.

Hey village,

As the title suggests. I'm looking for a great online course that can improve my data visualization skills for corporate data analysis / visualization projects within the next year (8 - 12 months). My budget is $50.

What are your go-to courses, books, blogs?

This new grad thanks you 📝

This is my first time attending and I was wondering if there was a database I could check to see where after parties and such networking events are held?

I’m extremely confused by the platform. I downloaded the app and clicked on “career fair” but I see literally 2 companies and 3 universities in the drop down list and none of them have any available times to book

If so, can you share? I’m curious to learn the different experiences and boundaries you’ve all had. Thanks!

Can GHC Tickets be downgraded or cancelled for extenuating circumstances, or is it truly non-refundable regardless of the situation?

After spending some time in the male-dominated programming subreddits and numerous tries working with male programmers, I’m finally doing what I should have done since the beginning.. look for other girls to work with. I’m setting up a startup in London (got no money yet but looking for funding) and want passionate girly pops to work, nerd out and build cool stuff with.

Hbu for more info :)

Hey everyone all the ghc one on one meetings seem to be over what to do now?

Hi! I‘ve been scrambling to make up the money to pay for GHC this year in Philly, but I’m having second thoughts largely because of what I heard about it last year. Would GHC be worth it for new grad Product / PM roles, especially if paying anywhere from $500 to $1000 to go?

I know the law of "Never Outshine the Master" seems to be important for career development. For those who are unfamiliar, that means never bruising your superiors' egos by being better than them, correcting them publicly, etc.

I've struggled with this when it comes to a senior male engineers who will constantly degrade the work of less senior women, invent scenarios that make us look bad, and publicly blame us for things that are his fault. In other words, I've struggled to follow the "Never Outshine the Master" law when the "masters" are hard to work with.

Context on me: I come from a family that is brutally honest, if not hypercritical. We believe in respecting our elders and always being kind, but no one is encouraged to tolerate nonsense. For that reason, workplace politics in general do not come naturally to me. I know better than to criticize or correct unnecessarily, but it is foreign to me to tolerate untruths and double-standards.

I'm not very sensitive so I can tolerate it emotionally until I can get out, but I'm worried about my reputation in either direction if I speak up or if I don't. I'm also a woman of color so being labelled either 'mouthy' or 'incompetent' is probable.

Does anyone have an example where they handled this well? What choice most benefited you in the long run?

Does anyone know what the difference between the Expo and Career Fair is? Does anyone know how access groups are assigned? One of my friends got Pink and its unrestricted, but I got Blue and it looks like I can only access the expo around 3 hours per day :(

I’m traveling alone so would love to connect with people and meet other fellow women in tech! I can also create one if one doesn’t already exist

As the title says. I am an SWE with 4 years of experience. I am at my 2nd job and have been here for 8 months. I did not have the best time when I started because I kept getting moved from project to project, do a couple of tickets before being moved again in our 20+ people team. Finally, when I was about to take a 2-week vacation, I was put on a very deadline-driven project which was handed off to me from 1 of the leads of 1 of the projects. He said it would be easy and I would just need to copy and paste is hold PR, change all the dates and product Ids, and that would be it.

It didn't turn out to be easy and I needed help from multiple people because no one else was working on this project with me. Then came time for our mid-year reviews and 1 of the engineers who I kept asking for help (after trying on my own for 2 days) gave me a review that I asked for too much help, even though he would never explain anything to me.

Ever since, then I have been so nervous and anxious and feel extremely guilty whenever I take a day off.

My vacation was even ruined because I couldn't stop thinking about if I would be let go when I came back. Fortunately, that didn't happen and I got an On-Track rating.

However, October is the final performance review of the year and it has taken over my mind.

Everything feels extra worse because of the unstable job market.

Does anyone else feel this way? How do you overcome these feelings?