Woman in technology

[karenpayneoregon]

My profession is software development, during the course of my career I became involved with several forums for software development and with that became Microsoft MVP (Most Valued Professional) where out of millions only three thousand are selected each year with no guarantees to be selected in the future. Happy to say this is my third consecutive year.

Each year Microsoft holds a week long event known as the summit. Last year I was interviewed as a female in technology. The interview was one hour long, about 45 minutes into the interview I informed them I had transitioned from male to female, jaws dropped with a response of "noooo". The only reason for informing them of my transition was that I had a perspective from both sides male and female. The video of the interview went live shortly afterwards and was very happy I was accepted no different than any cisgender female.

Now to present day, two weeks ago I received and email from Microsoft asking if I would speak live on the same topic and also to include diversity of transgender and non-binary people, how can they be motivated into working in the development community.

I see this as an excellent medium for promoting transgender people into the development community along with cisgender females.

One might wonder about the ratio of female to male in the development world. I worked in a team of 12 where besides myself there are only two females. In the summit last year out of 3,000 plus attending there were only 20 females. One has to wonder why and this is partly what I will be addressing in my speech.

I would urge those in the transgender community to consider this as a vocation for several reasons like, the pay is great even at entry level. The majority of software developers I have talked to have no issues with transgender people. Many companies allow their staff to work from home so if you happen to be just coming out this provides more time to be yourself rather than dive off the deep end and come out right away or interview as one gender but presenting as another gender. If you have talent then the way one presents themselves is truly secondary in the eye's of many employers.

Well I have only scratched the surface here but wanted to let those in this community know I'm advocating transgender people to those attending this years summit and that the video will reach hundreds of thousands of viewers world wide.



   

[sarah1972]

Congratulations! Not only for becoming a MVP but also for the great opportunity to speak about women in technology along with raising awareness of the transgender community.

I have also been in software development for years and I agree with your statements. Women are under-represented. In my teams, there have been only 10% women.

I also second your statement about most developers being supportive or at least not have any issues with transgender people. I have to admit that I am also enjoying the "home office" life where I can go work as Sarah. While I was considering switching jobs I am still undecided if I want to go back to an office job while still in "mixed mode".

So yes - being a developer is a great opportunity!

[sarah1972]

How did it go? Is there a link to your speech available somewhere?

[Dayta]

Wow, congratulations! Thanks for being out there and making things (hopefully) a little easier and better for the next person.  I'm very interested in hearing about your experience. 

L

[karenpayneoregon]

The event happened last night.

It was originally titled woman in technology but last week changed it to Inclusion and Diversity. There was a sign up for the event which had 300 people attending but looked more like 400 people.

The panel consisted of myself, another female MVP, a Microsoft Product Manager, several other managers and three high level woman Microsoft employees.

The manager kicked off the discussion to how this works into the community.

Next, another manager asked each of us four questions and each one of us responded in turn.

My focus was two-fold, woman and the transgender community. At one point I received a lot of clapping after finishing one question that I had focused entirely on the transgender community.

After all questions were answered, took just under one hour they opened up to questions to us. Only a few came up while the others stayed drinking wine and cheese. A handful of people came up to me, thanked me for standing up for the LGBT community and one even asked for my email address so she could contact me in regards to helping a family member who is transgender.

The entire event was video taped, once I get the location I will share it on one of my Wordpress blog post and provide a link here. My guess is about a week as they will be doing a follow up today with each of the panel members which will also be videoed.

When I came back to my hotel I had several new followers on Twitter, that says I have hit home with many people. Oh, I also gave out my Wordpress blog during the discussion, noticed several pounding away on their cell phones after giving it out. Search Karen Payne blog Wordpress to view my blog.

In closing, we all were heard and believe we made a dent in the community thanks to Microsoft/

[josie76]

That sounds like a great event. Congrats on being invited to offer your viewpoints!

I would love to get into the software industry as I have many years of experience in c++, Windows API, micro controllers, digital signal processors, and FPGA's but unfortunately being able develop and code physics equations for space weather and ionospheric activity doesn't get interview calls when you don't even have an associates.  oh well still looking.

[karenpayneoregon]

HI Josie, I understand in regards to your current skills are not in high demand, this happens often in the world of software development, today more than ever.

Briefly, I started with business solutions in DOS for years in a language called Clipper, Windows came along, used Delphi, was overshadowed by VB so I then jumped to VB.NET which became overshadowed by C# so I transitioned. Next up, to be viable in today's market place, (at least in my area) C#, JavaScript, jQuery, HTML5, CSS, REST services and Web API. This started in 1993 and is on going.

What kept me moving was knowing nothing would last in regards to platform and languages to my day of retirement.

I saw changes, studied, wrote code samples for Microsoft (which better instills knowledge), found great resources too.

My advice (which is of course one sided) is to download Microsoft Visual Studio 2015 Community edition for starters which is free, no trial period.

Invest time learning skills for HTML5, CSS, JavaScript and jQuery, learn the basics inside of Visual Studio.

Free learning web sites (some you will need to dedicate hours of time).

https://www.codecademy.com/
http://www.w3schools.com/

Once you understand the basics, download Telerik's Kendo UI Core which is an open source HTML5 Framework, completely free. My company uses the paid version and can attest this is a great framework. The difference between free and paid is, no source for free and less widgets. They even have what's called a Dojo that allows you to try and learn on their web site w/o even login.

http://www.telerik.com/kendo-ui/open-source-core

Next up, learn C#, there are many free web sites e.g.

https://www.microsoft.com/net/tutorials/csharp/getting-started
https://mva.microsoft.com/

The following are paid lesson sites that are well worth looking into
https://www.asp.net/learn

This one I've subscribed too (well work pays for it)
https://app.pluralsight.com/library/

The above is simply a starting point for anyone interested in starting out, for the majority at no cost to you other than your time invested.

When I speak of time invested, the better developers spent time each week learning new stuff, me included which allows you to perform better and if interested more marketable.

[sarah1972]

Hi Josie...
I have been hiring manager for software developers in the past few years and for most part formal education has been the last criteria on the list. What weight much bigger was industry experience and past projects / jobs. I also liked to see that a developer expanded his skill set and stayed on top of technology, so Karen's suggestion to expand your portfolio is fully in line with what I would hope to see from a developer.

Don't get me wrong - there is still a market for FPGA but also in C++ and embedded systems. You may need to try looking in the industrial control sector or potentially in audio processing. It is however niche market (something I regret these days... I am in a niche market and it is hard to escape).

While I am a Microsoft person myself (C#, SQL, etc) I do want to point out that there is also the entire world of non-Microsoft: Java, node.js, Angular.js, php and many more.  Then there is the Objective-C (being phased out now) and Swift world.

[sarah1972]

Hi Karen, did the video ever get posted? I tried finding it in the MS partner pages but had no luck....

[karenpayneoregon]

Microsoft had technical issues so I doubt there will be a video now. I did asked about any pictures and still waiting. They should have been out at least a week ago.

[Eva Marie]

I also second your statement about most developers being supportive or at least not have any issues with transgender people. I have to admit that I am also enjoying the "home office" life where I can go work as Sarah. While I was considering switching jobs I am still undecided if I want to go back to an office job while still in "mixed mode".

So yes - being a developer is a great opportunity!

I am in IT and have been for a long time. I transitioned on the job when I was 50. So far (with the exception of one bigoted guy that continues to be a thorn in my side - he is well on the way to meeting karma though) everyone has been gracious and accepting.

I recently went to a technical conference where a lot of people that i worked with previously were also attending. Few of them were aware of my transition but everyone was supportive once they found out. I have to admit that there were a couple of dropped jaws when that happened though LOL....

IT is great for transgender people because there is a degree of isolation. I sit in my office all day and listen to music and write code and really don't see or interact with very many people. In IT as a non-management person you are generally judged on what you know and what/when you can deliver it; who and what you are is not terribly important.

IT is absolutely full of queer people.

[Michelle_P]

Yeah, the tech crowd is interesting.

I'm retired from the software engineering biz, but still kept a LinkedIn profile, just in case.  When I first figured out who I am, I went through online accounts, pulling down my old pictures, and changing my first name from the old male name to the initial, M.

Day before yesterday, I put up my new avatar picture, and changed the M initial to Michelle.  Page views are up 600%.  Naturally, being introverted techies, there hasn't been a single message or comment.     Watching the "Who's Viewed Your Profile" I can see the word getting out and propagating through the cubicle warrens.   

OK, I am easily amused.  I won't turn down a nice consulting gig, though.

[josie76]

Thanks for the advice girls.

Karen, I have looked into a few other languages. C# being C related is simple enough to get a handle on. It's a bit wordier than C++ but otherwise the same. I have looked at other seemingly in demand languages like Python. I'm not certain why anyone wanting an end use product would want to use that language. Seems like way too much chance of IDE bugging up the variables. I do need to look into Java since it seems also to be the big thing right now.
In the past I have typically avoided the .NET libraries as using the API made the program's so much faster, smoother, and requires a simple executable to do massive amounts of math and end user services. I have done all my projects for my own small business but the market is very specific. I have done things that only a few multinationals and a small group of PHDs in Europe have done, but finding people who understand it is a bit harder to come by.  I do see that for many employment situations needing things like .NET and more Linux experience is very useful.

Sarah I will take your advice to heart as well.

In the last month or so I have applied for a number of jobs in my local region. Boeing so far was the only one to al least let me know they went with someone with more education. I have applied for one job that fits my skills and knowledge to a Tee down in Austin. Now if not having a Bachlors or Masters doesn't get in the way I'd be perfect for it. I'm trying not to get discouraged by the process of job hunting. I just know I cannot continue in the pysical job I have now if for no other reason than my back has become injured by it.

[Eva Marie]

Karen, I have looked into a few other languages. C# being C related is simple enough to get a handle on. It's a bit wordier than C++ but otherwise the same. I have looked at other seemingly in demand languages like Python. I'm not certain why anyone wanting an end use product would want to use that language. Seems like way too much chance of IDE bugging up the variables. I do need to look into Java since it seems also to be the big thing right now.
In the past I have typically avoided the .NET libraries as using the API made the program's so much faster, smoother, and requires a simple executable to do massive amounts of math and end user services.

I used to own a computer consulting business in Texas - the two types of people we were constantly looking for and were having trouble finding were C# people and Java people. With Java also comes a requirement that you also know whatever the latest in-style Java framework is, so that adds more to know on top of knowing Java itself.

C++ still has a loyal following out there but the jobs are getting fewer and fewer because businesses see it as a dangerous language to use - it is entirely too easy to have memory leaks and hard to find memory overwrites - with C# & Java those issues go away.

[karenpayneoregon]

I finally received photos from the event.

[Xirafel]

I'm an open source forum software developer, because I apparently seem to like doing that for some reason o.o
PHP's made me tremendously paranoid security as there are so many pitfalls you can fall into as far as security goes, particularly SQL Injections x.x

Back in like '07, so many phpBB forums went down from kids going around putting SQL in the URLs. I did try C++, but it makes me want to jump off a cliff for anything practical. It's a frustrating language to use when there are alternatives which do the same thing for less pain, albeit with a little less speed.

I'm experimenting with Golang which seems like a nice little compiled language, although I've done Python, PHP, C#, C++, Visual Basic (our school refused to teach us anything more than Word and Excel, so I started learning Visual Basic to use in the spreadsheets), etc.

[AnonyMs]

Xirafel, there should be a way to make money out of that.

[josie76]

Xirafel,
C/C++ is complicated to get a firm grasp of but it allows the most absolute control of what the machine or memory does without using straight assembly code. Higher level languages make the coding simpler but trade off in how the code is applied in the processor. Kind of like how so many younger programmers, instead of learning how to do something with 10 lines of C++, just use the Boost library. Boost is far from being operation efficient. So one line of Boost may do the job but have 20 different function calls and a massive number of memory moves all which take processor cycles to complete.

[Dena]

I seem to be the last of a dying breed. Seven years of Fortran and 30 years of assembler writing applications, drivers and hardware diagnostics. Most of the time, no operating system and when there was one, it was very small and existed so we didn't have I/O all over the code. Any higher level code seems wasteful of resources to me but it's sure easer tracking down bugs. I have dabbled a bit in C and I started with Basic in school but I am very comfortable doing stuff the very old school way.

[Xirafel]

Xirafel,
C/C++ is complicated to get a firm grasp of but it allows the most absolute control of what the machine or memory does without using straight assembly code. Higher level languages make the coding simpler but trade off in how the code is applied in the processor. Kind of like how so many younger programmers, instead of learning how to do something with 10 lines of C++, just use the Boost library. Boost is far from being operation efficient. So one line of Boost may do the job but have 20 different function calls and a massive number of memory moves all which take processor cycles to complete.

The boost library takes like an hour to compile and is a hundred megabytes large uncompressed. That's staggering for a mere library. That's more of a fundamental problem with the Boost library itself.

The idea of using a high level language is to improve productivity. You get to write the same thing ten times faster. Also, it's easier to maintain as you don't have to go through a large amount of boilerplate code.

And in Golang, you don't have a completely separate syntax for calling pointers, it's just a dot as opposed to a dot versus "->" in C++.
The reason that Boost exists and is relatively unoptimised (as it's implemented as a library, when many of the things it adds are language constructs in other languages) is due to how small C++'s standard library is.

Additionally, building something in Go takes two commands in my console.
I don't have to fiddle around with Makefiles, linking 20 libraries, etc.

Another reason people use Boost is to have a program which runs everywhere rather than writing pre-processor directives to have certain bits of code run on Linux, certain bits which run on Windows, etc.

People like to write code which *just works* everywhere.
That's one thing which makes C++ frustrating to deal with.