It’s 2023 and this is your year! Are you thinking about breaking into tech? Listen to the women that have been there and found success in their dream jobs! Don’t wait another year to pursue your own dreams - you deserve to do what you love and your future is here!
It’s 2023 and this is your year! Are you thinking about breaking into tech? Listen to the women that have been there and found success in their dream jobs! Don’t wait another year to pursue your own dreams - you deserve to do what you love and your future is here!
You are listening to episode 154.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the You Are Techie podcast, where it's all about growing in your tech so you can find the tech job of your dreams. And now your host technology learning coach Ellen Tomi,
Speaker 1:Welcome to the podcast. We are doing something super fun today. It's all about you and breaking into tech that goal, I know you want for yourself, but Kim, seem overwhelming and confusing when you're on one side of the fence. Don't worry, we've got you covered. We're sharing with you advice from the trenches, from some of our favorite success stories from women who have been there before, from not working in tech, from staying at home, from doing jobs, completely unrelated to crossing that chasm into technology and exactly the advice they have for you. When I host my podcast guest, I ask this one simple but powerful question, what advice would you have to a woman, specifically a mom who's considering diving into UX or diving into development? They wanna break into tech. What advice do you have for them? And we have some gems for you,<laugh>. That's right. The women of hard podcasts are powerful and I know it's just what you need to jumpstart your new year. Take a listen, Alex cords,
Speaker 3:Just start doing it. You know, start going for it. If you even have an inkling that what you're doing now isn't exactly what you want to do, when you think, okay, like tech might be the next step, like I would just start taking those next steps. It's okay to have, you know, some of those, what I'll refer to as like more limiting beliefs, you can still keep taking steps and not be sure if it's the right thing. Because at the end of the day, to me, the important thing is that you're exploring what lights your fire. Yeah. What fits in your life. And not necessarily like, yes, tech is still, could still be the end goal, but it's better to have explored that and say like, oh, actually, like tech wasn't exactly what I thought than to have never tried it at all. I think it will help you grow as a person in general. But I will also say that tech is such a big industry that there's a lot to explore. So even if you go in thinking I wanna be a UX designer and you end up more in product management, like that is perfectly fine as well. And honestly, that's a little bit of, of what's happened with me. Yes, I still do design stuff, but I do a lot more, I guess, product management type work than I initially thought I would and I'm enjoying it.
Speaker 4:Alexander Thomas, you always have to remain as hopeful as possible because there's times when I was down at the dubs being like, I'm a stay-at-home mom again. I, again, I, that it's a, that's such a priceless position to be in, which is great, but you're like, I wanna do something for myself. And you're like, how in the world I'm gonna do this when I'm juggling the kids? And you know, you're, you're super tired and if once you sit down at your computer to start working on something, they're knocking on the door, be like, Hey, what are you doing? And you're like, ah, you know, so I can be really tiring. But you, you have to be a little selfish. Stay as hopeful as possible and, um, surround yourself by people that will encourage you and keep driving, moving you forward. Like my husband, he has seen, again, the up and downs of me trying to figure out what I'm passionate about. And if you're really interested in tech, I'm like more the merrier. Like please, please jump on my computer, take those free courses or whatever paid courses, like just explore, just do it. Set some time that I ended up doing a timer thing that I would set timer for like 52 minutes, then the timer goes off and I take a break. And then I do that several times that my son got adapted to it. And as soon as the timer goes off, he's like, okay, mommy, go back to work. Oh, that's awesome. And um, and again, it takes a lot of planning and organizing and discipline mm-hmm.<affirmative>. But as long as you set that time, even if it's just little baby steps mm-hmm.<affirmative>, that motivation will keep growing and that hope will just keep burning brighter in you because it's going to be scary. I still have a lot of fears. You just don't wanna let those spears stifle and stop that progress because it's gonna be worthwhile. And even if, if you're at the position that you are still waiting for that job, just keep building things, keep doing things, keep talking to people and build those sincere relationships because those will bring, those would be blessings and those will also bring avenues that will lead to awesome opportunities.
Speaker 5:Erin Ziva. No, I love this question. And first of all, I wish I could give her a hug because I understand how she
Speaker 4:Feels.<laugh>. Me too.
Speaker 5:But second of all, I would say if you are thinking about a career in tech, any tech or UX or development or whatever, you are so much farther along down the path than you realize that you might as well just take that leap. Because most people think of it and go, I would never wanna do that<laugh>. So if you're considering me do that, you do wanna do it. So go for it. Just do it. It is going to be hard because you will not know the answer right away, no matter what you're doing. Ux, software development, all of it. You are not going to know the answer right away. You're not gonna know if you chose the right path right away mm-hmm.<affirmative>. But you get far enough down the path. You either love what you're doing or you found an alternate path in tech that you do love and you go that way. But you have to start. And so starting is the key. And the other quote that I have hanging up that I always look at, that I go to all the time is never give up on a dream because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway by Earl Nightingale. You have to go for it. This is a dream, but it will take time and it's worth it. And you will grow, your family will grow, it's gonna be awesome. And the last thing would be get a mentor or three and don't listen to everyone because people do not understand what you're doing and they cannot see your goal the way you see it. So choose a few people like Ellen says, who you're listening to and tune out everybody else. And that's all I have.
Speaker 6:Caitlin Meyer, can I say get over it? If you don't know. I, I always say one of the things I need to learn is, uh, grace<laugh>. And boy, I, one of my weaknesses is I need to learn how to, uh, not be so direct<laugh>. I love it. Okay. So get over it. And, and what's the No, I take a chance. Mm-hmm.<affirmative>, I mean, just try. I never said no to any opportunity that came across my plate. And even though in the back of my mind I was like, oh, you guys are nuts. Like, why are you having me do this<laugh>? I never let myself say no. And either you learn that it's not something you're interested in. Mm-hmm.<affirmative> or you learn that you love it or you learn that it's going to help you get to the next spot of your career. So take chances. Don't say no to new opportunities or new people that come across your path. Mm-hmm.<affirmative>, I could have easily looked at you when you said, Hey, do you wanna try some ux? And then like, no, that's not what I was hired for.<laugh>. But in, I didn't, I looked at you and I said, sure, why not? Mm-hmm.<affirmative>. And now look where we are. Right. So always allow yourself to say yes to new opportunities. If you might learn that the path you wanted to go down isn't the right path for you mm-hmm.<affirmative>, but at least you took that chance. You tried it and now you're like, oh, I thought I was gonna really like Scrum, but I actually really like UA more<laugh>. So so try it and build up. I mean the the thing that it's gonna give you is skills. Yeah. It's gonna let you know yourself better. It's gonna give you more skills, it's gonna help you figure out what you want. And then once you figure that out, it's gonna help you how to get there. So try it, do it. Don't let your own brain get in the way. It's so easy for people to talk themselves outta things. I mean, there's plenty of times that I could have talked myself outta things and been like, you're nuts,<laugh>. But I think the last piece of advice I would get there is really surround yourself then with people who are gonna support you. Mm-hmm.<affirmative>. And not try and talk you out of it and say you're crazy. Like really? And you know what? It might not be like Zach has no idea what I do on a daily basis.<laugh>, I can't explain it to him.<laugh>, but he's a mechanic and so he can't explain his job to me<laugh>. And so there's certain areas that he's just, he can't support me in cuz he doesn't understand what that is. And so I need to find my support in different areas. Mm-hmm.<affirmative>, you know, so Zach doesn't understand tech mm-hmm.<affirmative>, but I know a lot of people who do and a lot of people who can give me that support, and I'm looking right at you<laugh>, but find those people, ask for advice, ask them to help build you up and support you. And it could be your mom, your grandma sister, a boyfriend, a high school teacher, I don't know. But find those people and really hold on to them and use them. Don't just pretend they don't exist. Like really talk to them and tell'em what you want and people are gonna help you.
Speaker 3:Brittany, Kate, I would say that if it's something that you're interested in and you want to figure it out, like just go for it. Like jump in and do it because that's where you learn is in the doing. And the one thing that I really appreciated with Ellen's program is that she's like, you can change your mind.<laugh> like just get started mm-hmm.<affirmative> and follow through with the, you know, the project. And if along the way you've figure out, wait, this isn't quite it, you know, that's fine, that's great. Like, it's this mentality, like this growth mindset mentality, right? Of being, being okay with failing or, or, you know, whatever that, that is in your mind. Right? Cause it's not a, a failure to change your mind, but you might feel like, oh, but I'm not like finishing this program or whatever. But that's not what the point is. Right? The point is, like we've discussed earlier, figuring out who you are and what you want for your life and, and what you, your desires are. And in the process you're like able to recognize these capabilities that you have that maybe you didn't realize until you actually jumped in and went for it and did that. Yeah. And did the
Speaker 1:Work. Well what did you think? Is that exactly what you needed to jumpstart your new year? What did I tell you? Those are some amazing women, aren't they? I hope their advice inspires you, inspires you to take action and to believe in yourself and to understand that it is such a journey. There's not one thing that's gonna get you over that line. It's a massive amount of focused effort on your goal. And I hope you have that supportive, amazing community around you to get you over that line. I can't wait to see you next time. Thanks.
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