My Motivation Behind Code Blossom

So many supporters and allies have supported me in changing careers to the tech industry, and to become a successful leader. At the same time, I can see a significant lack of diversity in the tech industry. Code Blossom is for me a way to accelerate the “lifting each other up” movement, as well as to help increase diversity in tech.

My career in a nutshell

In order to explain my motivation behind Code Blossom, let me tell you a bit about my career first.

Background

I have a non-technical background, having done my Bachelor in Translation and my first Master in Business Administration. After that, I looked out for a job that comes with daily challenges and great working conditions. I didn’t have to look far to understand that the tech industry is great in meeting all of these requirements.

The move to tech

Once I had made the decision to move to the tech industry, I soon realized that knowing how to program is a must if I want to be successful. I therefore started learning the programming language Ruby in online courses which was quite hard because I often got stuck and even though I had friends and family who helped me, it was difficult to keep up the motivation for this self-study endeavor. I then applied to a company called Simplificator for an internship and even though they didn’t have any positions available, they took me on and invested a great deal in my progress and learning. I soon started my own “pet projects” and within a few months, I was working on my first real customer project. On the side, I did a Master in Software Engineering to make sure I have the academic foundation as well.

Unconditional support

This journey was all but easy and if it weren’t for the countless people who supported me, I would never be where I am in my career today. I saw people selflessly spending their free time teaching me, cheering me on, and celebrating my achievements. Without these people, the move would not have been possible, at least not in a reasonable amount of time, and before running out of money. I felt so grateful for all the unconditional help and support I received, and I still do.

Diversity in tech

It’s no secret that there’s a significant lack of diversity in the tech industry. This situation is especially daunting since digitalization is happening exponentially, and companies want their products to be appealing for a wide range of users, including minorities. However, this is not possible if the teams consist exclusively of people with the same or similar backgrounds. Tech teams need people with different backgrounds because it means different perspectives that are valuable to build products that work for everyone.

My own experience confirms the data on diversity in the tech industry. When I was working as a software engineer, I was always the only woman in the team. Additionally, we almost never had team members from different cultures and backgrounds. Also, later in my career, when I started managing engineers, they’ve usually been male. So in addition to wanting to contribute to increasing diversity in the industry, it’s also in my personal interest to make a change. I’d love to have a future in which teams from all backgrounds, ethnicities, genders, and sexual orientations are represented.

Code Blossom

After taking my first steps in coding, I soon started mentoring other people, especially women. I truly believe that we learn things the best by actually teaching them. I was a mentor at a free weekly programming course for women and I used to organize several workshops and events for the developer community, some of which specifically for women. However, since I was still in the process of gaining traction in the tech industry, these activities were more of a free time activity.

Now that I’ve been in the tech industry for almost a decade, I felt like this was a good time to start and make a bigger impact by providing opportunities to minorities, as well as to contribute to a bit more diversity in the tech industry. With Code Blossom, we give free tech education to women in developing countries, striving for more equality and independence of our participants. It fills me with immense joy to see how our participants progress every day and how passionate they are about their learning and the Code Blossom community.

My goal is to scale the project so that we can help many more women to get their tech careers kicked off. I'm really excited about everything yet to come and I can't wait to see all these women succeed in their first development jobs.