This is a part of the non-profit series where I highlight great members of the tech community who play a significant role in running a non-profit.
Valerie is a self-taught developer who is now an engineering manager and the founder of Tech by Choice, a non-profit that helps underrepresented groups enter, stay and thrive in tech.
Valerie talks about her experience as a manager and her work with Tech by Choice. She discusses her biggest challenges as a manager, her goals for the future, and her advice for others who are interested in entering the tech industry.
As the founder of Tech By Choice, Valerie shares her personal stories that inspired the creation of Tech By Choice, the challenges of running a non-profit, the impact she's seeing in the community, and exciting projects that will be launching soon.
https://www.techbychoice.org/donate
https://mailchi.mp/081b79193143/understand-your-taxes-end-of-year-tax-strategies
Valerie's previous interview. https://www.levelupfinancialplanning.com/the-wealth-of-being-in-tech-with-valerie/
This is a part of the non-profit series where I highlight great members of the tech community who play a significant role in running a non-profit.
Valerie is a self-taught developer who is now an engineering manager and the founder of Tech by Choice, a non-profit that helps underrepresented groups enter, stay and thrive in tech.
Valerie talks about her experience as a manager and her work with Tech by Choice. She discusses her biggest challenges as a manager, her goals for the future, and her advice for others who are interested in entering the tech industry.
As the founder of Tech By Choice, Valerie shares her personal stories that inspired the creation of Tech By Choice, the challenges of running a non-profit, the impact she's seeing in the community, and exciting projects that will be launching soon.
https://www.techbychoice.org/donate
https://mailchi.mp/081b79193143/understand-your-taxes-end-of-year-tax-strategies
Valerie's previous interview. https://www.levelupfinancialplanning.com/the-wealth-of-being-in-tech-with-valerie/
That's how it started. It started because, like, I skipped paying myself when billed to go take a JavaScript class and I'm like no one should have to do that. No one should build a need to do that. So let's create a program and an organization around that.
Speaker 2:This is Techie Personal Finance Bootcamp, where I help tech professionals in their 20s and 30s balance a great life today without sacrificing their future possibilities. I'm your host, Lucas Casaris, Certified Financial Planner and founder of Level Up Financial Planning, where I help educate, coach and build strategies with my clients to help them take their financial competence to the next level.
Speaker 3:Duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh.
Speaker 2:disclaimer alert this information's for education, so don't just go use it. First consult with your financial advisor, because that's way more legit. That's it. That was Orlando Gomez, and you can catch him in season three, episode four, on how he Broke and Attack by Brandon O'Jingle. Hello, before I start this, episode off.
Speaker 3:I just have a quick announcement. I haven't done this in a few years and I'm actually launching a registration for an end of year tax planning workshop series to help you control and reduce your taxes prior to the end of the year. This will be three workshops starting in November and we'll be tackling understanding your taxes, learn about retirement accounts and the secret backdoor ROS that a lot of my tech clients are able to use. Sometimes they can do mega backdoor ROS inside your 4-on-K. Also, if you have been Pluristock, we'll cover tech strategies on how to sell and what the impacts of receiving those are, especially if you're not familiar with them. These will be super helpful as you navigate your career. And finally, we will be tackling charitable contribution strategies, which is super relevant.
Speaker 3:I'm gonna have a handful of nonprofit guests on from the Collab Lab, underdog Devs, tech by Choice and the Kapoor Center. So I'm excited for all of those interviews and kind of all the insights you'll see behind the scenes as far as what it takes to be a part of a nonprofit, how you can help out and contribute, and you'll be surprised. It's not all just about money. You can give back in other ways, and so I hope you enjoy these next few episodes and if you're interested in signing up, definitely register before prices go up. Right now it's $30 for all three workshops and all the proceeds go to nonprofits. So I'm not trying to make money on this, but it's a cool opportunity for me to educate folks and make sure that you're more informed as far as how Texas works. I know that sometimes it's like a mystery as far as how Texas come out when you file your taxes, and so I'll actually walk you through all that. The link will be in the show notes. You can find out more information and reserve your spot before prices increase on October 6th. Hope you can join us.
Speaker 3:Hello, thank you for joining Techie Personal Finance Bootcamp. I'm super excited to have Valerie back today. She is a self-taught developer who focuses on securing accessible, user-centered digital experiences. As an engineering manager, valerie founded Tech by Choice, a nonprofit with a mission to increase diversity in tech by helping underserved adults enter, stay and thrive in tech. It's part of her mission to help spread the financial wealth the tech industry offers. If you wanna catch the first appearance of Valerie's on Techie Personal Finance Bootcamp, you can catch that in season two, episode eight, the Walt of being in Tech, and Valerie, thanks for coming back on the show today.
Speaker 1:I'm excited to be here.
Speaker 3:So you are my first ever repeat guest and I was just telling you like I couldn't think of anyone else I'd rather have on as my first repeat guest. It's been super fun getting to know you, probably over the last three and a half years or so, because I think we met shortly before you first became a guest on the show that was back in 2020, I believe, and during that time, pandemic it was just rolling out it was your birthday, I think, when I interviewed you, which is a crazy coincidence, and so what have you been up to since 2020?
Speaker 1:Oh, I feel like there's so much that has happened. Just continued working on building out Tech by choice and making sure that that space is something that is, a growing, active community. I've had a lot of growth in my own personal career. I went from being a senior developer to moving into management and then learning all the ups and downs of becoming a manager and just figuring out how to live in the middle of a pandemic through all of those things. So it's been a wild ride.
Speaker 3:So, as a manager, what has been the thing that surprised you the most so far?
Speaker 1:I think there are a lot of the skills that I had like transitioned over to management, but the one skill that I didn't realize is that I would just mostly be repeating myself multiple places to multiple people Usually just say like, have you talked to this person yet? I didn't expect that that was something, that was a surprise. That's typically the answer to most of the problems that I'm solving at work is like did she talk to Sonso? And the answer she usually know that is been a big surprise.
Speaker 3:But yeah, that's super interesting and yeah, communications are a big part of any project or getting anything done with a team is like, hey, we've got to be able to communicate effectively, and so it sounds like you were the one getting things unstuck, and I'm sure a lot of that just has to do with privatization. Right, people didn't know that. Maybe they should be working on something over the other. What's been the biggest challenge so far other than having to constantly remind people?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think the biggest challenge has been more so around understanding how to document my own growth. I think I got really good about how do I manage myself if I don't have a solid manager as a developer, and I got really good at, even when I had a manager how do I track my growth and create my own career path. That made sense for me, but when I moved into management, it was just like what does growth look like as a manager versus a developer? It's completely different. And so understanding that and navigating that and figuring out what's important to talk about in your review versus like what is just fluff- it's been an interesting thing to navigate and I think that was the biggest thing for me to get over.
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, I can imagine that being challenging too, because a lot of your pairs probably are not in management and so the typical people you'd go to as far as like, hey, I need some guy to like you need a separate group and you actually have an event that you're doing tomorrow. That is kind of on leadership Is that kind of where that developed on. It was like, hey, you're navigating this, you've been navigating it. How long have you been a manager in a manager role so far?
Speaker 1:I think honestly, probably like right after our last interview so about years since I've been a manager this time around and I think it's been pretty cool. I guess it's straight going on four years now, but it's been pretty cool. And, yeah, I think the reason why I started that like leadership study group it's actually I was just I wanted to invent about some of the negative parts of being a manager and like how it's just difficult, and I realized that there was no way for me to vent across with my peers at my current job without it getting like sticky and it just felt like gossip. And so I realized like, oh, I could go to the community, just put together an event for like leadership, we could vent, we can like workshop different things that we want to do, how to do it, how to be better managers and things like that. And it's just been a really cool event to be able to run for the last couple of months.
Speaker 3:Yeah, awesome. And so you said plot in the course, for how do you level up as a manager? What have you kind of set your track on right now with the research and kind of work that you have been doing on there?
Speaker 1:Yeah. So I think for the next couple of years my goal is to become a director at a company, and so to do that is just getting really good at understanding what the business goals are how do you keep teams on track, what, how do you highlight a risk involved so just getting really good at technical planning and then again focus on communication and being able to share that outwards. And then I think another part of it is being a good coach and mentor to your director for it, so being able to really focus in and create growth plans for other people, which is honestly my favorite thing. Yeah, yeah, I'm doing it for tech by device all the time and I get to do it for work. So the combination of all those things and just continuously becoming more senior at it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, I have the inside scoop on you. As a manager, I've been talking to quite a few people that have worked under you and nothing but reviews, so I think that's a perfect endpoint to put on the focus on you right now. And obviously, tech by choice as we move into that conversation, a lot of that is still about you, but that may be the reason why I wanted you back on again for a repeat of talking with you is because you're just been doing amazing work. We've already just kind of tucked in some of the things that you've been doing and working on and tell us what tech by choice is.
Speaker 1:So tech by choice is a nonprofit that's focused on helping underrepresented groups understand, thrive in tech. Like our main goal is to be a community that you don't need a code switch in in order to learn what you need to thrive in tech, and so we do workshops for skilled building. We talk about financial literacy. Thanks to you, we also talk about mental health and what to do if you run into discrimination in the workplace.
Speaker 3:Yeah, community is awesome. I've been a part of the cycle of pride for three years no, probably even a little bit longer in that, because I'm sure we're communicating even before you were a guest. But lots of good insights and things I'm not going to spoil. One of the questions I'm going to ask you right now actually is what's your favorite story so far? That has come from senior impact with tech by choice in the world.
Speaker 1:I think there's been a lot of moments like, oh wow, this actually is doing the things I thought it could do. I think one of the first events that we did where we did a partnership with RedSuite Code I think that this is back in 2018.
Speaker 1:We were able to give out scholarships to people in our community. It was also the first time I spoke at a TED conference, so it's like a really big event for the org. We went to the events, I gave my speech about my non-traditional path and I ended up talking to one of the women who was at the event that got the scholarship. She told me hey, because I went to that event, I actually figured out what path I want to take in tech. She told me that my background of being adopted and all this other stuff really matched hers. She didn't think that going to one event, she can find connection by finding someone that had a similar family background, as well as being able to connect with that person and be able to find their path in tech.
Speaker 1:I think a few months after that she ended up landing a job. It was just like being able to see those touch points and seeing the growth that can happen just by someone being able to see that, oh, this is a path I can take. It's something that I go back to often because I'm just like, okay, when I'm tired of writing all these docs and going over workshops, I remember that I'm like, okay, we can do this at scale. That's always a great point.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's one of the awesome things is, with this community, it's not just one person that you're impacting, you're able to impact others.
Speaker 3:You have other people coming into the community wanting to help too.
Speaker 3:My favorite thing that I've seen from my perspective is the cool team ups that has happened because big source for referring people within the community for the next role. Sometimes that's the same employer as a member, so you see members teaming up for employees and we've been seeing some startups kind of partnering up and people teaming up to launch new cool ideas and things like that, and it's kind of like an incubator of hey, people can come in here. And it's also fun just to see people over the years, like some people came in like first trying to figure out how the heck they're getting a tech or how to feel like they belong in tech, and now, a couple years later, they're helping the other people that are entering now trying to figure their way, and so it's cool to see all those aspects of the community from my outside view, not directly being in tech, but knowing enough to know that it's an amazing community. How long has tech by choice been around? At this point, you mentioned 2018, how far back does tech by choice go?
Speaker 1:I think we were four years old. Now We'll be five in December, so we're getting, I think they said, like five year. Most businesses fell in the first five years. So once we get past this we'll be in the clear.
Speaker 3:I know I was celebrating that for my business last fall, so I'm coming up at the end of year six here, but it definitely feels a lot nicer. I can't imagine a nonprofit journey being easy. What's been the hardest part of your journey so far?
Speaker 1:I think we had lots of goals. A 2018 was our first like official year and then it was a 2019. I think it was 2019 was our first official year and then, right after that, we understood what we wanted to do. We had, like our five and take 10 year plan and we started to make all of these connections with these bigger companies, to get sponsorship deals, to get grant money. And then the pandemic hit and all of that disappeared, and so our idea of fundraising has constantly evolved and changed as well as like how we wanted to show it for community. In the earlier parts of the pandemic, I think we were doing online events like once a week, just because that's what the community wanted. People just wanted that distraction, they wanted that online community. And then we realized people are getting burnt out.
Speaker 1:We need to focus on mental health and so we did a big push for mental health and I think those understanding like how to have still have that five, 10 year plan for a business but still be flexible enough to realize that this is a very human centered community that we're focused on like what the individuals want and we're not focused on growth just for the sake of growth, which is completely different from like the tech stuff in the world. Yep has been one of the hardest things to balance and keep up with, but also it's made me really good at being able to pivot. I think I've made like seven different pivots in like the last like three months just to keep up with the layoffs and stuff happening in tech too. So it's just just a lot of pivots.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and the flexibility is awesome. I see it directly happen because someone posts something in the community and then all of a sudden we create a whole resource around that question, that big question If someone's asking it, they're not the only one having that problem and I know that's a big reason how tech by choice launch. I know we cover tech by choice and why it launched in the first episode, but I think it's worth revisiting now. Like what's what was kind of the the original like thing to push you like no, I got to, I have to do this. I don't care how hard the works and be how treacherous the trails is going to be, I just need to launch this thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think it was across a lot of different things. I think I just landed a really good job in tech and I'm telling my friends like, oh, you have to learn this stuff, come to these workshops, come to these classes with me, we're going to learn this together, where you can all make this money in tech. Then I realized when I was going through that journey, when I was still in college, I didn't have the money to even drive, to cover gas and drive to these events. I was skipping out on. Oh, I'll skip paying my phone bill or my light bill, or I'll do this or I'll take out some really bad loan, not cover a apprenticeship program that I was a part of. I was able to make those choices, even if they didn't make the most sense at the time, because it was all kind of on a dream that didn't really make sense to anyone that was in my circle.
Speaker 1:But, my other friends were in a position to make that choice. I kept telling different communities like, hey, we could do things different, we can make it easier so people who have my experience or different experiences can have an easier time just navigating, trying to figure out what this is. No one really felt like they were listening and it felt like I was going backwards and I kept trying to make it work in other organizations. I'm just like wait, why am I trying to make this work here when, if I know what we need to do, if I have an idea of what it could look like, why can't we just do this on our own? So that's how it started. It started because I skipped paying my cell phone bill to go take a JavaScript class and I'm like no one should have to do that. No one should feel the need to do that. So let's create a program and an organization around that.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So what's the things that? I know there's a lot of stuff coming up. Right before we hit the record button, you were telling me like, yeah, lots of big milestones and actual things you can show off instead of just doing all the behind the scenes stuff. What's the things that you're most excited about over the next couple months here?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so one of the biggest programs that I'm focusing on for the end of the year is our talent choice program and so, like you said, there's been a lot of really good synergy. That happens naturally in our community, where people generally want to see each other. When they will jump on Zoom calls, they will review resumes all for free, just to make sure that people are ready to learn and jobs, and they also offer like referral links and say, like I will talk to you about what it's really like to work in this company. And so we took that aspect of our community and put a program behind it, because we really wanted to see that. We always say we're community driven, but if we're community driven, like where's the money going to the community? Like that's always what I'm asking myself. And so we finally developed a program that allows the community to like get paid for being in community.
Speaker 1:So what we've done is we have community based recruiters, so we're going to train people in the community to be recruiters.
Speaker 1:It really helps out people who are either in between jobs or just like want to pick up some extra cash and they want to do good by helping other people land jobs. So they'll help them through the interview process just be their height person, review the resumes, go through the mock interviews and help them land the job. That some of our admins will help with the connecting with the companies to have that partnership to filter people in. And so that is a program where we're focused on, like those referral links and making sure that people can land jobs from our community, and so it's a win-win. So the person who's looking for work they get that new tech salary which is hopefully more than what they were making before, and then we treat all of our community recruiters as recruiters so they get paid a part of that commission that is paid out by the company. So we're creating a sustainable organization that is take people to be in community with each other.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's amazing. I saw kind of is it in beta right now or is it kind of officially launched and there's still just kind of versions of it that will be coming out here?
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're in beta right now and so we watch one person land their first job and it worked really well and so, yeah, yeah, so it's going well for it to be in beta. And so now we're going through and our second cohort, we're getting ready to go through the training again with them and get them ready for the interviews and match them with a couple of jobs. So I'm guessing probably by early next year we'll be able to open it up and start training, more community recruiters and really just have the program go on itself.
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, I just got goosebumps.
Speaker 3:That's like an amazing thing and I think you can like some of the stuff you can find online, right, but there's just so much. There's so many people saying do this with your resume, do that with your resume, don't ask this question. Like there's so much noise, it's hard to know, like what to do, and I could see that causing people to just try to split the difference and just make a horrible attempt because they don't have a clear, concise direction and so a recruiter it sounds like it's going to help with that. I know you do those resume reviews and things like that. So I think it's pretty crazy all the different levels, even just from what I've seen and what hasn't even necessarily been fully launched yet. But knowing that the impact is going to make on the community and, like I said, if those people tend to come back and help the next generation, they basically kind of come up behind them. So lifting as they climb is, I think, a popular saying for people that are in these kind of non-profit communities trying to help each other out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I'm excited for it. I just want to see people win and make money. I think we were talking about that last time, so still pretty much the same person. Thanks.
Speaker 3:Well, and that's how you're probably able to work through this. So because the creepiest question you said, one of the hardest, craziest things that you had to deal with it was during the pandemic, all the stuff you worked so hard to kind of get lined up super excited about all fellow and felt your fingers and kind of disappeared in the wind and like if you weren't passionate about helping people get their money and kind of making the path easier and more fun too. Right, because I know that's a big part of it. Is like being a minority and going places where there's not that many of us around it. You don't necessarily fit in. It doesn't always feel like you're welcomed and maybe you are, it just doesn't feel like it sometimes.
Speaker 3:And so this is a great way of helping being in community, feeling safe, feeling heard, and so it's definitely all points back to you just being committed to what's important to you, which is helping people make that money. So that's awesome. So I know nonprofits by nature usually operate on the generosity of others. Right, it's not like this thing with a money printing machine that you have going, although it is going to be paying out in some of those recruiters here, which is nice. Side hustles are super helpful, especially during the layoffs and things like that too, so can't think of a better time to have this roll out, if anyone is listening and wants to contribute. What are ways that folks that want to support Tech by Choice? How can they do that?
Speaker 1:Oh, definitely any donations you go to techbychoiceorg slash donate You'll get all the details on how you can get to the organization. Things as little as like $5 really help us go, and I think it's like if you donate $20, that covers one person to go to one of our events for free. So those smaller donations may not seem like it's enough, but it's more than enough, so that's always a way to help. The other way that you can get involved in help Tech by Choice is to volunteer. We are always looking for mentors and we're looking for people to help out with some of our resume review events, and just supporting the community by even joining and answering questions in our Slack is always really helpful. And then you have any connections for us to get those sponsorship deals and to connect with larger companies and get out there and the Tech streets. I'm always open to that as well. So there's a lot of different ways to help, but reaching out and heading over to the Tech butchers website would probably be the best way to start.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, but then yeah, if you want to be a part of an awesome community and sign up for membership, maybe you're not sure, because you work hard to earn your money right and so giving it out to different charities sometimes is tricky.
Speaker 3:I think that was always my biggest problem when I finally did have money to be able to contribute. I heard some shady stuff about some nonprofits and charities. So the thing that's made it easy to get back to Tech by Choice and other tech communities and nonprofits that I believe in is because I've been in there and I kind of see the work actually getting done. So I know that it's good people run by. Good people sacrifice a lot of time and energy. So if that's you, if you're like I'd love to donate, but I don't know where to donate to you, if you want to kind of just you can even just what's it called stocking, like sign up and join, join in there. You can stock the different feeds and the different channels and kind of see what's going on and seeing all the cool things that Valerie and your team are working on, and then I think that will be proof enough that they're doing something and cool things are happening. Any other things that you'd like people to know about Tech by Choice, or about you.
Speaker 1:I think there's one other program that I wanted to just like shut out there that Tech by Traces, is running. We do have our paid source, which is our open source initiative, so that people who are looking to just like build out their portfolio or get some additional skills that they need that they can't get at work for that next promotion. We do have that program going. Just gave us our free account, so we're really excited to get that going. So we will be building out community based apps and software to just help either people within our community or within our local communities just have a better experience with tech. So if anyone's interested in that, definitely again drive the Tech by Traces community. You can learn more about this program and we can get you started in your open source journey as well.
Speaker 3:Yeah, open source seems to be like trending lately, like probably within the last year, year and a half, or the super valuables developing those skills and understanding, like how that all works. I know there's a lot of people that have just been in tech forever and they're like I still don't know what the open source means. So can you briefly describe what open source is?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so a lot of the software that we use today you have to pay for it. I know that I have like I don't know how many subscriptions that are charging me like $5 a month to use this one thing, and that's kind of been the norm for how technology is built. But sometimes people want to build something that other people can use and they they're not looking for money for it. Sometimes it is, but most of the time they're not, and so that's what we call open source. That is, programs or software that you can pull down on your own computer, start to tinker with that, make your own version of it and use it as you, as you need, and that's the idea of open source. It's something that that no one can really sell. It has to do with, like, the licensing of it so that you can use it to build your own products or just to make your life a lot easier, and so there's a really big push for people to use that their skills of being developers and designers and product people to build software.
Speaker 1:That is maybe not about VCs making lots of money and getting returns and so that's why you see this big community around people just building things that either developers need or the community needs, and it's just another way to do it and to get more people involved. So it's not behind a paywall. You can see and work on it if you have free time and if you want to. So it's just a really cool environment to get into. It is a little difficult and confusing, but it's something that I think it's really cool and it's something that took my choice, has done before and I think it's fun.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, it ends If you're like me and I only understand it from the concepts and exactly what Valerie just shared like there's beginner guides to kind of ease into it, because it might feel overwhelming even if you've been in tech, even if you've been code over a while. So, yeah, there's definitely been a beginner guide to check out and, from what I've seen, it's always good communities. No one's going to tear you in your one if you accidentally ask the wrong thing or say the wrong thing when you're trying to learn it and contribute.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, so I'm excited about it. It's a lot of fun to see people get excited about what they're building. Sometimes it's the first time people are using GitHub or the first time that they're building a project with other people, so it's just like lots of newness for everyone involved and that's always great to see. It helped me not become jaded in the tech industry. Yeah.
Speaker 3:Well in the newness is growth right. So whenever you're doing the new things, there's excitement, there's growth, there's a little bit of fear. Hopefully, the excitement and the growth opportunities and the fun people you get to work with it it makes it a more enjoyable experience. Valerie, thanks so much for coming back on the show being my first repeat guest. It's been awesome. You're one of my favorite people I've ever met like online ever, and so it's really cool to be able to have this opportunity to share what you're doing with tech by choice, and then hearing all the cool stuff you've been doing as a manager over the last two years and I was. We've been connected and kind of having conversations throughout the years, so it's really nice knowing you and then great having you on and sharing your wisdom with everyone.
Speaker 1:Well, yeah, no, I really love that. Thank you, and it's been really great getting to know you and thank you for all the support you've given the community. I know that people have like reached down and asked questions and you've gone the extra mile and giving like really detailed responses, so you definitely have helped a lot of people and I've heard people say really great things about working with you. So I'm glad we connected. I'm glad we're helping other people figure out how to use these big tech checks, so it's all good.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm sure if I could be known for anything, it's probably the detailed explanations, because I know a lot of people are busy so I always have these detailed emails, detailed Slack messages, all these things. But yeah, it's definitely a privilege of mine to be able to help such amazing people and see and be a part of the community. It's been a lot of fun.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for listening to Techie Personal Finance Bootcamp. You can find show notes by visiting and level up financialplanningcom and finding the podcast page. You'll also be able to find strategy guides, videos and cheat sheets to help you take your financial confidence to the next level. If you feel this episode has added a ton of value for you, please rate and share this with friends and colleagues. Catch you next time on Techie Personal Finance Bootcamp.