We Belong Here: Lessons from Unconventional Paths to Tech

Latest Episodes:

6. Kate Spitzer: From Fashion Design to Software Engineering Mar 30, 2019

Show notes

Today, Kate and Lauren talk about her time as a fashion designer and her eventual desire to find a career that surprisingly or not, demanded even more creativity: software engineering. We chat about her decision-making process behind choosing backend over frontend development and the magic that it holds. She explains the many overlapping parallels between fashion design and engineering and we discuss vocational training programs versus more formal four-year programs.

Kate implores listeners to do their research on the ethics of machine learning and artificial intelligence as she predicts what will be most important in the upcoming years in this ever-morphing and changing industry.

This episode is not one to miss!

Resources:

Indeed.com

Reddit programming challenges

Find Kate Spitzer on all things social: @K8Spitzer

We Belong Here Podcast:

Follow Lauren on Twitter @LoLoCoding

WeBelongPodcast.com website

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5. Megan Slater: From French Horn to Full Stack Mar 28, 2019

Show notes

Today Megan and Lauren talk about her upbringing in Montana, her education and pursuit of playing the french horn professionally, how she wound up working full time in finance before ultimately finding a career counselor and seeking advice on how to apply all of her interests and skills towards a new career. She discovered tech and decided to take a leap of faith to attend Code Fellows in 2015. She now works for a really neat consulting firm in Seattle called GenUI as a Full Stack Web Developer.

Megan shares how she was never encouraged to explore a career in STEM while growing up and opens up about the sexist and misogynistic behaviors of her classmates in high school Science classes that then discouraged her from pursuing a more technical educational path. Megan has since found her place in the tech industry and is fighting the patriarchy day in and day out.

Today she shares the skills and lessons that she learned from music and her time in the financial industry and how those skills differentiate her from her coworkers who may have taken a more traditional route to tech.

Resources:

Code Fellows
GenUI
Write/Speak/Code
Find Megan Slater anywhere online @meslater1030

We Belong Here Podcast:

Follow Lauren on Twitter @LoLoCoding

WeBelongPodcast.com website

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LoLoCoding.com

4. Kate Pond: From Alaskan Park Ranger to Programmer at Alaska Airlines Mar 28, 2019

Show notes

Kate recently graduated from Ada Developers Academy and is a Developer Apprentice at Alaska Airlines. She has an infectious laugh and such a zest for life that it’s hard not to smile while listening to her talk about her journey today. Although she eventually transitioned to tech, she studied to become a park ranger from a very early age and has her Masters in Environmental Education. Today she shares with me her obsession with nature and her love for storytelling, all Meetups, and geocaching. She’s passionate about promoting diversity in tech and helps organize for the Tech Ladies chapter in Seattle and lives life by the mantra: Every day is a school day.

Kate and I have an honest conversation about how grueling the tech industry can be and she opens up about her personal relationship with depression. We discuss the power of therapy and she acknowledges that although it may be difficult, it’s so important to seek help if you think you might also be struggling with depression yourself.

This episode interviewing Kate Pond (@OhKPond) is not an episode to miss!
Resources:

A resource she loved when first learning to code: Code.org
To find a local Meetup near you: Meetup.com
The nonprofit she’s passionate about: Tech Ladies
To find a therapist: Psychology Today
An Instagram and Twitter recommendation: TheLatestKate
Book reference: Creative Trespassing by Tania Katan

Find Kate Pond on all things social: @OhKPond
We Belong Here Podcast:

Follow Lauren on Twitter @LoLoCoding

WeBelongPodcast.com website

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts

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LoLoCoding.com

3. Stephanie Wilkinson: Blending a Love for Education with Tech Mar 22, 2019

Show notes

Stephanie and Lauren have a shared passion for education and technology and she talks today about how fun it is to have found a role that balances those two worlds. As the Director of Systems Architecture for the National Association of Independent Schools, Stephanie thrives as she manages, innovates, and inspires her distributed team each day.

She tells the story of facing a gatekeeper in college and the reasons behind not pursuing a more traditional educational path to tech. She's manifesting her dreams and has demonstrated what it looks like to make whatever situation you’re in work for you and to help you achieve your goals.

She tells the story of feeling like an outsider the first time she presented at a tech conference and she and I dive deep into the power of feeling comfortable in your own skin. She’s an expert in her field and is killing it in the tech industry- this is not an episode to miss!

Resources:

Stephanie’s app that links Goodreads w/ your Overdrive account, Yonderbook
Roda: Routing Tree Web Toolkit
Learn more about Stephanie
Find her on Twitter @stephanieblack
Github
We Belong Here Podcast:

Follow Lauren on Twitter @LoLoCoding

WeBelongPodcast.com website

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LoLoCoding.com

2. Severin Wiggenhorn: From Congress to Code Mar 19, 2019

Show notes

Severin and I talk today about all things ballet dancing, law school, and her passion for logic problems and patterns! We discuss our shared experience as students at Ada Developers Academy, our mutual feelings of imposter syndrome, celebrate the fact that we’ve both cried in front of our managers, and unfortunately discover that neither one of us were ever encouraged to explore a career in tech when we were young.

Severin dives deep on the importance of internships, asking questions, and the value in balancing your soft skills with your technical ones as a career changer. She’s a firm advocate of pushing yourself outside of your comfort zone and finding a great manager and team that you feel safe enough to fail in front of. She believes that writing code is an emotional process and lives for the excitement and thrills that is the roller coaster of being a developer. Her passion and enthusiasm alike are contagious -- this is not an episode to miss!

Resources:

MightyAI

BaseCS Podcast

Exercism problems

99 Bottles of OOP

Ada Developers Academy
Severing Wiggenhorn
We Belong Here Podcast:

Follow Lauren on Twitter @LoLoCoding

WeBelongPodcast.com website

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts

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LoLoCoding.com We Belong Here Podcast:

Follow Lauren on Twitter @LoLoCoding

WeBelongPodcast.com website

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts

Subscribe on Spotify

LoLoCoding.com

1. Ben Greenberg: From Rabbi to Developer Advocate Mar 18, 2019

Show notes

Today Ben & I talk about the lessons he learned from his time as a community organizer and Rabbi and how he applies them in his role today as a Developer Advocate at Nexmo, the Vonage API platform.

He shares the story of his brave decision to pursue his dreams and learn to code by attending the Flatiron School.

He and I discuss the value of embracing the qualities that make us different in addition to the importance of diverse perspectives and backgrounds on a technical team.

His passion for community organizing and storytelling is contagious and this episode is not one to miss!

Resources:

Follow Ben @RabbiGreenberg

Check out his talk about technical interviews & liberal arts students here

RubyConf Opportunity Scholarship

An article I wrote about the experiences @ RubyConf 2017 (where Ben & I first met!)
We Belong Here Podcast:

Follow Lauren on Twitter @LoLoCoding

WeBelongPodcast.com website

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts

Subscribe on Spotify

LoLoCoding.com

0. Introducing: We Belong Here Mar 10, 2019

Show notes

Introduction to the new podcast, We Belong Here: Lessons from Unconventional Paths to Tech
Sharing stories about the different routes people have taken to enter the industry and chatting about the skills they learned in their prior jobs, schooling, or life experiences & how they apply them to their current roles in tech.
New episodes every Tuesday!
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