This week, I published Pariss -Athena- Chandler's #DevJourney story on my eponym Podcast: Software developer's Journey. Among many other things, here are my main personal takeaways:
- 4 Years ago, Pariss didn't have a career in tech "at all". Her first interest for software development came from a real scare of being left behind. It is a concept I have heard many times before, but never from the main protagonist, and never that clearly. It's impressing to see how much of a motivator "fear" can really be.
- One day, Pariss tweeted "What does Black Twitter in Tech look like? Here, I’ll go first! 💪🏽📸👇🏽" and it exploded. The #BlackTechTwitter and #BlackTechPipeline movements emerged out of this. Those movements now take a major part of her time. This is a very practical example of what can happen when you are not searching for something, but ready for it.
- Pariss said that she will have to learn some managerial and entrepreneurial skills in 2020, to be ready for what might come. Like the previous point, this is a great reminder that you have to be ready to make use of opportunities when they arise. This reminds me of the book Great by choice and the concept of Return on Luck.
- Pariss praised the mentors that accompanied her in her life. It never ceases to amaze me how important willing and skilled mentors are. Yet it is still a very much underused practice.
- As a bootcamp graduate-female-of-color, Pariss was hired as Engineer N°4 at a Startup. This gives me so much hope for the future. Our industry will get out of the hole it dug for itself and embrace diversity.
- The one advice Pariss decided to give is: "do not compare yourself to others". This is crucial. This resonnates so much with the philosophy and goal of the DevJourney podcast itself: every journey is unique!
Thanks Pariss for sharing your story with us!
You can find the full episode and the shownotes here:
- On devjourney.info
- Or directly here on DEV
Did you listen to her story?
- What did you learn?
- What are your personal takeaways?
- What did you find particularly interesting?
Since this is the first personal summary of an episode I write here, I'd also be interested in your feedback. Should I write some more?
Note: this article was first published my blog: timbourguignon.fr
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