I am a developer at The Washington Post and I help build newsroom facing tools. I also am the Chair of the DC chapter of ACM and produce a podcast called DC Tech Stories.
Good lord imposter syndrome ALL THE TIME. Usually of my own doing however - I have been SUPER fortunate to not have too much shade for being a woman in tech - I have seen it, but not had much directed at me, small things but nothing I cant nip in the bud.
The harder thing is convincing myself that I am not a terrible dev haha - I put A LOT of pressure to know everything, and progress quickly but that is just not the realities of tech. I try to reflect on all the things I HAVE learned to contextualize my own PERSONAL tech journey. That and I have an amazing group of technical women in the DC Tech scene lifting me up which makes a big difference!
Also, I wanted to congratulate you. I saw you were awarded one of DCA's "New Power Women of DC Tech" this year! I swear I'm not stalking you but I recognized you from the event they held earlier in October.
I am a developer at The Washington Post and I help build newsroom facing tools. I also am the Chair of the DC chapter of ACM and produce a podcast called DC Tech Stories.
Oh thank you! I have been SO honored this year to be recognized by a few orgs - it makes me feel like I really do belong in tech and people appreciate my work :)
Not Jessica but I work as a dev in DC as well. I'm in the political space. There's a ton of consulting jobs in DC for government agencies or third party government service providers. Security is another hot tech industry in the DC area. There are a ton of tech groups here in DC and like Jessica mentioned, there's great opportunities to get into tech from other industries. Organizations like General Assembly, DC Tech, DC Inno are great communities to meet fellow developers and network.
I am a developer at The Washington Post and I help build newsroom facing tools. I also am the Chair of the DC chapter of ACM and produce a podcast called DC Tech Stories.
The Tech scene here is actually really varied. Stand outs are journalism, security, government work, but there are lots of startups that are consumer facing, agencies, and design focused places too! Quite a bit bigger tech scene than people give it credit for IMO!
Journalism and Politics are some of the smaller industries for tech in DC in my experience. Government contracting / consulting is a huge industry, but there are also a number of large companies and startups in the commercial space. At this point it's achieved critical mass and the sector continues to expand and get more active.
AWS is in Herndon. AOL is out there too near Dulles. Capital One and a number of others in McLean, VA. Large professional services firms and systems integrators all over the area. Large number of startups, both gov contracting but also security, SaaS, etc. A vibrant meetup scene with something for everyone.
Pick your mission - lots of opportunities.
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Good lord imposter syndrome ALL THE TIME. Usually of my own doing however - I have been SUPER fortunate to not have too much shade for being a woman in tech - I have seen it, but not had much directed at me, small things but nothing I cant nip in the bud.
The harder thing is convincing myself that I am not a terrible dev haha - I put A LOT of pressure to know everything, and progress quickly but that is just not the realities of tech. I try to reflect on all the things I HAVE learned to contextualize my own PERSONAL tech journey. That and I have an amazing group of technical women in the DC Tech scene lifting me up which makes a big difference!
Also, I wanted to congratulate you. I saw you were awarded one of DCA's "New Power Women of DC Tech" this year! I swear I'm not stalking you but I recognized you from the event they held earlier in October.
Oh thank you! I have been SO honored this year to be recognized by a few orgs - it makes me feel like I really do belong in tech and people appreciate my work :)
Speaking of the DC tech scene, what's it like? Is it mostly journalism and politics? How's the meetup and/or conference culture from what you know?
Not Jessica but I work as a dev in DC as well. I'm in the political space. There's a ton of consulting jobs in DC for government agencies or third party government service providers. Security is another hot tech industry in the DC area. There are a ton of tech groups here in DC and like Jessica mentioned, there's great opportunities to get into tech from other industries. Organizations like General Assembly, DC Tech, DC Inno are great communities to meet fellow developers and network.
Yeah that makes perfect sense, thanks for the input!
The Tech scene here is actually really varied. Stand outs are journalism, security, government work, but there are lots of startups that are consumer facing, agencies, and design focused places too! Quite a bit bigger tech scene than people give it credit for IMO!
Journalism and Politics are some of the smaller industries for tech in DC in my experience. Government contracting / consulting is a huge industry, but there are also a number of large companies and startups in the commercial space. At this point it's achieved critical mass and the sector continues to expand and get more active.
AWS is in Herndon. AOL is out there too near Dulles. Capital One and a number of others in McLean, VA. Large professional services firms and systems integrators all over the area. Large number of startups, both gov contracting but also security, SaaS, etc. A vibrant meetup scene with something for everyone.
Pick your mission - lots of opportunities.