After umpteen years in the tech industry, I left my career as a web developer\u00a0to go back to school and pursue a career in art. I earned my Masters Degree\u00a0hoping to become an art teacher. I needed to find a career that didn’t take me for granted. I needed to feel like\u00a0my ambitions and skills appreciated and not squandered. I needed to feel like I mattered to the world. I’d been feeling mostly like a cog.<\/p>\n
Sure, I mattered plenty to the companies I worked at but it seemed, only after I left. I’ve heard rumors that my last job had to hire two people to replace me. I gave one company a very detailed 6 month plan to help me advance my career. Everyone was on board, but I couldn’t make progress. I had to make good on my commitment to leave if no progress was made, only to have to sit and have the heartbreaking “what can we do to keep you” talk after the 6 months had come and gone with too many roadblocks and not enough progress. And damnit, I loved that job, but I had nowhere to grow.<\/p>\n
I’m modest, hard working, dedicated, inspired, creative. I am generally not a squeaky wheel and I go out of my way to grease other’s wheels, even when I get no benefits from it. I’m a silent wheel greaser. Maybe that’s my problem… Maybe this book will help me figure out I should be shouting it from the mountain tops. I am awesome, hear me roar! Maybe modest is a dirty word.<\/p>\n
I’m not cut out to be a cog.<\/p>\n
After graduating. I felt totally lost. I couldn’t see myself anywhere in art school except teaching tech classes. Turns out, I missed tech. I missed\u00a0it to my very core. I was the kid who took apart her toys and reassembled them. I was the kid who NEEDED to know how things worked. I was the kid who NEEDED\u00a0to know why and how things were broken and wanted\u00a0to fix them.<\/p>\n
I did some research and found out I’m a statistic. Women leave tech mid-career twice as often as men. If you’re curious why, make a very large pot of tea and\u00a0do a google search<\/a>. This women-abandoning-tech-careers business has got to stop. It’s a problem, I can see all the various ways this problem operates and I NEED\u00a0to help fix it. The (lack-of-women-in-tech) wheel is a-squeakin’ and I am at the ready with a giant tube of lube, just let me at it!<\/p>\n Getting back into tech after not having a corporate web developer job in 6+ years has been HARD. I always make it to round two of interviews, but the jobs so far, have been given to someone else. I know I’ll find my forever job soon, but damn, some days I get so frustrated and sad. I keep inspired by soaking up more learning and by looking for kick ass women. So much of my struggle is from my damaged ego, if I can just lean on the strength of others, I will relaunch my career. I will become part of this incredible new movement of women taking on tech.<\/p>\n
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