Relaunched and Renamed!

My blog has moved!!

I have relaunched to my own hosted blog at http://www.blackgurlstech.com

And yes I will be blogging regularly now....life happened but I'm back!

Won't you come???

Black Women In Technology Blog referenced on Noiredigerati.com!

Soooo I was browsing some links the other day and I ran across an article talking about Black Women in Tech. And low and behold the article was referencing on of my earlier Blog posts!

I was so excited!! It is my goal to become an industry blogger from a Black woman's perspective. One step closer to my goal!!

Take a look: 10.14.10 - "20 African-American Women in Tech Academia you should know about."

"We are few, the proud, the Black women in technology!"

I just want to say thank you to the Women like myself who have reached out to me to say "Thank You for representing".

Many have said they too have pondered the lack of minority female representation in this industry or the lack of acknowledgment of it, and in their research they have come across my blog.

So again I say thank you for your support and hope that we can all do our part to make ourselves better known in the industry.

Shout out to Leslie Melville who is returning back to school and seeking a Degree in Computer Science. I wish you well in your academics and I'm sure you will find it challenging and rewarding all the same.

I double majored in Computer Science and Mathematics and LOVED my program, and the fact that the double major was a requirement in order to attain a B.S.

And lastly a huge shout out to Temeca Smith for this quote, which I have titled this post affectionately "We are few, the proud, the Black women in technology."

YES! This is exactly who we are and we are rising and we are proud!

Laid Off!

**Long Sigh** Last month I was laid off. I was quite upset, seeing that I had never been laid off before, nor fired in my life. But the bad part wasn't the lay off. The bad part was the circumstances surrounding the lay off, which I get to shortly.

Here's the back story:

So I had recently relocated to Atlanta, GA after not being able to find a suitable programming/development job in the upper NY state area for a very long time. I figured my chances here would be better, and they were! I found a job within a month after having only one previous interview (I was 30 minutes late having severely under estimated Atlanta Traffic). Not bad for landing a gig on my second interview in my new city.

The phone screening went well, the interview was great. I rocked it, as I always do. The Job wasn't actually going to start until the New year however, so I had some time to chill out and enjoy the holidays with the excitement of starting my new position as a UI Engineer.

This job was uber important to me for a few of reasons:

1. My previous back-end development experience was in VB.Net. I desperately wanted to transition to C# and this position would allow me to do so.

2. Although I have over ten years industry experience, my experience in key back-end areas spanned no more than two years in any one position. So I took this front end position , in hopes of transitioning to a back-end position in C#, building some longevity from there. This company had a position tier that was ideal for my professional growth.

3. In all my experience, and due to the above, I had not yet reached Sr. status and again, the position tier gave a clear path to that goal for me.

4. Overall, I was generally in love with this company, it's mission, it's product, etc.


Given the above, I was crushed, heart broken, and felt robbed of reaching these goals. I walked away feeling as if the company hired my team for a specific project, and probably knew that when it came to end we we're gunna get the axe. Why not just hire contract? I would have felt better knowing my position wouldn't be needed after the 8 months investment of 12 - 16 hour days/nights/weekends. After 8 months of over hype about sales projections and pending million dollar contracts, the company fell short, and I got the short end of one of many sticks. But did I really?

As my luck would have it, my lay off opened the door to achieving at least on of my goals, as I am now a Sr. Web Developer. Due to my sharp and much more stable for the moment, front end development skills, I landed a gig at a great company. BUT I am a contractor and unlike before have full knowledge when the end is near and my expectations can me minimized. I for all intensive purposes don't have to get so emotionally attached this time. I know where I stand from day 1. Don't get too comfortable, period.

This whole experience has moved me to the world of contract positions and recruiters for the first time. I just may dabble here for a while. Especially since it seems like no job is permanent these days, the way the economy is going. Which leads me to ask which is better in the tech industry, contract, contract to perm, or (seemingly) permanent positions? What are the pros and cons to each?

I guess I'll find out with this new position and new experience to forge ahead with. I'll come back and answer my own questions when I figure it out.

But until then, I'm just another Black Girl in tech who considered quitting when a contract job was enough.

Black Women Know Technology!

This past Thursday I was contacted by Adrienne Graham of "Views From The Top" - Blog Talk Radio Show to speak as a panelist on the topic of Black Women in Technology. Although I was unable to do the show, having missed the correspondence due to working 30 hours in two days on a huge project for a client, I relish in the idea that I was even considered and a blip on the radar. Take a listen-
Audio: Black Women Know Technology

As described on the radio show website, Views From the Top is a radio show that takes a look at the hard hitting issues affecting women in top corporate positions at the top of their game and in the world of entrepreneurship. Guests share their tips and stories of their ascent to the top. These women take no prisoners, make no excuses and play to win.

The Panelists, digitalsista Shireen Mitchell (www.shireenmitchell.com), and Chris Curtis - Web Business Expert, Internet Marketer, and Radio Personality, presented insight to the many sub issues that affect the larger issue of our presence in the industry.

One highlight is when Chris recalled how she contacted an industry magazine to inquire as to why no women of color were represented in the spread. The response given by the editor implied that they didn't know where to look to find women of color who are experts in the field.

I walked away from this discussion realizing that I'm not doing enough. It's great that I'm a Black Woman in this tech space. How ever I am doing myself and others a disservice by being somewhat shy and not making a large enough foot print in the space. I work my 9 - 5, I do my consulting gigs on the side, but my contribution to bringing the fact that WE are here to the forefront is minimal. I can even honestly say that I haven't given this blog the attention that it needs.

As discussed on the show, if you are a Black Woman in tech, it's our responsibility to make it known that we are here to the many non-profits, development communities geared towards women, etc. Some times talking amongst ourselves isn't enough, especially if we are complaining that there aren't enough of us.

So I'm going to charge myself as well as others like me to step it up. You may be working on a team for a large company or in a management position, you need to make yourself known. I'm going to give my 500% to make my imprint and make myself "undeniably worthy" to anyone who wants to engage me and my expertise. As Shireen says, "We are too busy doing the work, and not looking up."

A big Thank You to Adrienne Graham for bringing this discussion to the table. I am so excited to hear from and learn about the two panelists. Being young in the tech industry, I relish in being able to see seasoned women who look like me, that are knowledgeable about computing and making their imprint, so that others like myself know we have a place in this space and we belong here just as much as anyone else.


Audio: Black Women Know Technology

Are we still building a bridge to close the Digital Divide?

So its been a long while and I'm back. Sorry the writing is so sporadic but life has been crazy for me for 2009 - 2010. Since my last entry, I have relocated from NY to Atlanta, and started working full time again as a UI Engineer at a, shall I say, pretty well established company that will soon be saturating the enterprise level social networking market. Which brings me to the title of this post...

During my orientation for my new gig, my team had a chance to sit and chat with the big guy, the big kahuna, the holy grail of the company. He shared some wonderful insights on his goals and expectations for our new team, the direction the company was going in, his incredible rags to riches story, etc. During this moment he asked us if we had any questions for him. One of my colleagues rose to the challenge and asked him his thoughts on helping to bridge the digital divide. He couldn't answer the question. He skated around the issue, drew some similarities to other issues, but he never answered the question.

After that exchange I began to wonder, with all the social networking, mobile computing, and high Apple sales going on in the world, is there still a digital divide? Is anyone even talking about this anymore? Does anyone even care anymore? What are the major tech companies doing , if anything, to continue building the bridge? For the life of me, in my middle class world, I saw no evidence that the gap is indeed still present. Until......

Until I walked into an Apple store last weekend and saw something rather strange. I don't know if anyone else perceived what I believed I was perceiving. As I looked around at the store patrons, I couldn't help but notice the number of minority children standing in front of the display iMacs and Macbooks doing nothing more than listening to music on youtube and browsing facebook. Oh no ...they weren't shopping here....It is quite clear that these children were passing the time in the Apple store to access the internet to stay connected to their little tween worlds. At least that's what I concluded. If that's the case who really knows?

But for arguments sake let's assume it was the case. This would mean that the lack of internet access in largely urban environments have led those without access to seek non-traditional ways to stay connected via the internet. Where the library probably used to be a person lacking access' first stop, may have now turned into a trip to the Apple store in the mall.

Case in point, the young man in this Youtube video is clearly at the Apple store in the mall, doing a lip synced rendition of a Black Eyed Peas Song:



Why couldn't this young man do this at home? Could he possibly be in the percentage of minorities without internet access in the home? Well technically since he achieved the goal of making his video and broadcasting it to almost a million viewers, he has access right?

SO does this mean the gap has been closed because the internet can be accessed, even though it is not in the home per say? Has the criteria changed for what qualifies that gap and the need to keep building the bridge changed at all?

Well I'm going to do a little research and report back my findings. Stay tuned!

Jill of all trades Master of nothing?

I'd like to consider myself a well rounded person. I have a plethora of programming languages and web technologies in my daily arsenal that I pull from. In fact, if I gave you my resume the second page is just a list of skill sets, which I think is pretty common these days. One thing you will notice about my skill set is that none of them list that I am an expert. I range from intermediate to advanced, but not yet an expert.

Some time ago a dev buddy of mine, in jest, told me that I was a Jill of all trades, and a Master at nothing. I had never really quite thought of myself in that light and wasn't quite sure if I should take offense to the comment. This conversation recently, re-entered my mind when I found myself under tremendous self-pressure to learn the next hottest thing, the next big web dev or programming trend. I immediately went out and purchased books on various development languages and made a list of all the things I need to learn, and learn fast, in order to keep my skill set sharp and up to date. Once I looked at this list, I felt overwhelmed. A slight panic came over me and I asked myself "When am I going to have the time to learn and gain a sufficient experience in these new tools, amidst my duties as a budding entrepreneur, President of a Sorority Chapter, Division CEO of a start up company (not my own), contract work, and a host of affiliations in other associations and organizations, family obligations, etc.?? Better yet, how am I going to learn the new things and keep sharp with whats already established in my skill set ? I still haven't figured an answer to my question.

What it does lead me to question, is it better to be a Master of a few skill sets? or Intermediate to advanced on a wide range of skill sets that you can tap into when necessary? My personality and habits suggest that I'm better at being Jill. I get bored very easily and I don't like to be pigeon hold into one area. I once read an article in .net magazine that said the days of the Gurus and Rock stars are over...true? (I don't wanna be a Guru or Rockstar anyway cause I'm a WEB DIVA)

If you look into your repertoire are you a Jack or Jill? Or do you prefer being a Guru/Rock star?

I personally feel that its better to be the Jack or Jill. To me it shows that you area well rounded, unafraid to branch out into new mediums, learn fairly quickly, can wear many hats within in a team if needed, and make it appoint to stay abreast of all emerging technology. Not to mention that you can apply for a front-end dev job or a back-end dev job.

So bottom line, my post today is to ask the question, is it really necessary to master one thing when you can have a good handle on everything?