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Jerome Hardaway is a writer at Stack Overflow, an Instructor for Front End Masters, a Developer Advocate at QuickenLoans, and the founder and Executive Director of Vets Who Code.As a writer and instructor, he focuses on those learning how to code and who are looking to get their first job as a Web Developer. As a Developer Advocate, he focuses on externally championing the company's tools while internally focusing on improving the culture. As an Executive Director of #VetsWhoCode, he focuses on training and gathering the resources so that veterans can become employed javascript developers, with a focus on Javascript and APIs.After an injury, Jerome medically retired from the military. Throughout his time in the service, he was told that his skills would be highly valued. But the government happened to be on a hiring freeze when he got out and thus those skills felt worthless. The transition process felt broken and not designed to support him afterward.He was determined to figure out his next steps but didn’t know where to begin or look. One day, he was on Facebook and noticed a commercial about coding. He happened to be at a bookstore and opened up a book on databases. A few months later, he landed his first role doing database analysis!He says that it was the tech skills that he had taught himself that had landed him that first job as opposed to his years in the service. He then went on to work as a Digital Marketing Assistant and was asked to maintain the company’s website and to learn Ruby and some PHP to do just that.After diving into the code and learning how to build within that tech stack, he realized the opportunity to teach veterans to code. He attended a coding program in New York and went on to found Vets Who Code, a 501(c)(3) Veteran Operated Non-Profit dedicated to training military veterans & giving them the skills they need to transition into tech careers.Resources:Vets Who Code:  a 501(c)(3) #Veteran Operated Non-Profit dedicated to training military veterans & giving them the skills they need transition into #tech careersFollow Jerome on Twitter: @JeromeHardawayFollow VetsWhoCode on Twitter: @VetsWhoCodePractical  Dev @ dev.to CSS Tricks - ServerlessHumane By Design Laws of UX by Jon YablonskiAds:Jennifer Brazer’s book From Cubicle to Cloud: How to Start and Scale a Virtual Professional Service Business  Shape and Foster lifestyle development app We Belong Here Podcast: Follow Lauren on Twitter @LoLoCoding WeBelongPodcast.com websiteSubscribe on Apple Podcasts Subscribe on Spotify

On today’s episode, Lauren chats with Caitlyn Greffly, who made a bold career move in 2019 from selling beer to being a software engineer. She loves the work and is passionate about writing about it, talking about it, and encouraging others to make their own bold career changes. Caitlyn studied Psychology in college, but after graduating, she found a job working at a beer bar, which led her to spend 7 years within the beer industry doing mostly sales. She became pretty fascinated by beer itself but wasn’t passionate about selling it. She jokes that ‘All of her big decisions in life were accidents’ - but in a good way! She became curious about data analytics and began to explore new opportunities and coding bootcamps.  She is a person who takes big leaps and decided to go all-in on learning to code and the rest is history. She landed her first role out of her bootcamp pretty quickly and now is a software engineer at Zapproved. She quickly discovered how important it is to find a company with a safe learning environment and a good work-life balance. She now spends a lot of her time dedicated to helping career transitioners and supporting junior developers by sharing her experience. She encourages companies to look outside their traditional hiring pools to search for diverse candidates and is passionate about providing tools and resources for teams about how to support those new teammates. Caitlyn shares advice and wisdom for those curious to do as she did and take the leap of faith into the tech industry! Give a listen.Resources:Find Caitlyn on Twitter @thecaitcodeCaitlyn’s website Jennifer Brazer’s book From Cubicle to Cloud: How to Start and Scale a Virtual Professional Service Business  (11:05) Dan Moore’s book Letters To A New Developer: What I Wish I Had Known When Starting My Development Career  (28:10)Coupon code: WeBelongHere for 20% off on Apress.com We Belong Here Podcast: Follow Lauren on Twitter @LoLoCoding WeBelongPodcast.com websiteSubscribe on Apple Podcasts Subscribe on Spotify LoLoCoding.com 

Today Lauren chats with Jonan Scheffler, who had over 40 jobs before entering the tech industry. He loved tech growing up but wasn't wildly intrigued or inspired by his CS classes and thus wasn’t interested in pursuing it as a career. He dabbled in various roles such as factory work, car sales, but eventually became a poker dealer on the Oregon coast. When he began searching for roles in tech, he googled who was being paid the most and decided he wanted to become a Ruby developer. He then took the massive leap of faith, moved his family across the country, and attended a coding program called Hungry Academy. He fell in love with Ruby as a language then and has stayed passionate about the community to this day. Jonan had faced some burn out in the realm of DevRel but has since returned and today is the Director of Developer Relations at New Relic. Lauren and Jonan chat about the world of Developer Relations and the disingenuine sales-pitches that can sometimes occur when someone doesn’t prioritize their developer communities. Throughout the conversation, it is evident how passionate Jonan is about creating authentic relationships and how excited he is to launch a new Dev Rel team at New Relic. They discuss how the other roles Jonan has had helps him today in his role in tech. Being a career changer informs his perspective. He shares advice, wisdom, and calls out to those looking to transition into tech directly, and encourages them to do it and take the leap into the unknown and pursue tech as a career. This episode is packed with resources, recommendations, and tips; it is not one to miss! --------------------------------------------------------------"Humans are different in complementary and beautiful ways. And to the extent that we are able to get more people with more interesting backgrounds in technology, we make technology better for everyone.We need you here.We want to support you.It's hard to remember that when you're out there sending resume after resume into the void.But hang in there; the world needs you.We need you in Tech.I'm really glad you're here.Please, keep it up."-- Jonan Scheffler --------------------------------------------------------------Resources:Follow Jonan on Twitter @thejonanshowJonan’s GitHubLearn to Program by Chris Pine Free Code Camp Bit ProjectSandi Metz’s Practical Object-Oriented Design We Belong Here Podcast: Follow Lauren on Twitter @LoLoCoding WeBelongPodcast.com websiteSubscribe on Apple Podcasts Subscribe on Spotify LoLoCoding.com 

Today Lauren chats with Reyhaneh Blackman, who emigrated from Iran to the US when she was 12 years old. She didn’t know English and had to teach herself the language and culture at an incredibly formative time in her life. She studied English in college and her first career was in journalism. After that, she went on to get a Master's in international finance and economics and became an investment banker. And today, she’s gone on to found a tech company, Media Scout, a video analytics platform, and has since taught herself to code! She attributes the ability to be flexible, code switch, and wear many hats to learning to adapt to new situations and environments as a kid. We talk about her journey and Reyhaneh shares how all of the lessons she learned along the way have helped to get her where she is today.  Resources:Find Reyhaneh online @rey_blackman ProductPair.co  We Belong Here Podcast: Follow Lauren on Twitter @LoLoCoding WeBelongPodcast.com websiteSubscribe on Apple Podcasts Subscribe on Spotify LoLoCoding.com 

On today’s episode of We Belong Here, Lauren interviews PeterJohn Hunt. Who tells the story of how he went from convincing his first job to take a risk on someone who had literally zero formal education to becoming the Chief Technology Officer at Useful Group in Chicago. About PeterJohn Hunt: PeterJohn Lives in the suburbs of Chicago with his wife and children. He’s a self-proclaimed web developer and problem solver. He likes to bring the nitty-gritty of the technical world to people in an intuitive, analytical, and efficient way. Using his IT, networking, and programming background, he builds beautiful websites for people and businesses – from startups and local restaurants to large corporations and Fortune 500 companies. He believes every problem has a solution and loves the thrill of learning or building something new!PeterJohn Hunt is 1 of 9 children and was homeschooled throughout his educational career. He was interested in tech but didn’t have access to the traditional educational tools to learn it. He didn’t love the traditional parts of academia and thus was not ever curious about pursuing a college degree. After high school, coding wasn’t of interest to him as the stereotype of being a coder looked unappealing and tedious. So instead, he found a glorified internship skimming log files. Ultimately he became curious about automating that process, which ultimately was his introduction to coding in that he experimented with writing Python scripts to make his job go faster. Once he was able to see the value and application of learning technical skills, he became passionate about teaching himself and helping others solve real-world problems with code. It was then that he started knocking on doors, trying to convince employers to hire him as a software developer. He was looking for someone to take a risk on him and believe in his problem-solving abilities, even though he did not have a formal education in the subject, nor did he have much experience in coding. He promised a small agency that it would only take 4 weeks of online learning, and he would perform for them. And it worked! They took the leap of faith and hired him.Today, as someone in charge of hiring for Useful Group, he looks for those who have that same fire inside of them. He searches for candidates who can demonstrate self-owned learning and are curious to approach problems in an out-of-the-box manner.  Resources: Useful Group in Chicago Follow PeterJohn on Twitter @PeterJohnHunt PeterJohn’s websiteWe Belong Here Podcast: Follow Lauren on Twitter @LoLoCoding WeBelongPodcast.com websiteSubscribe on Apple Podcasts Subscribe on Spotify LoLoCoding.com 

In this episode of We Belong Here, Lauren interviews Gant Laborde. They talk about how Gant was, in fact, “really bad” at computers when he was a kid. His light bulb moment was when his neighbor showed him how to make his computer *talk back* to him and say, “Hey Gant,” instead of “Hello World.” Books and learning resources were not available to him. So instead, he had to learn by breaking things. Gant had many limitations working against him: he always had the oldest computer and was pretty bad at math. But he refused to give up on his goals and dreams. Eventually, he did enroll in a Computer Science program but found it damaging in that it was painfully uninteresting or inspiring. However, he stuck with it and discovered the value in pursuing roles that challenged him to think beyond the basic execution of a problem and actively welcomed his unique perspective to the job.  Lauren and Gant chat about burnout and how the industry can sometimes beat the passion out of you in the industry. Open Source was the thing to reignite his love for the community and the tech industry itself. Today, as the Chief Innovation Officer at Infinite Red, he gets to go out into the wild and research cool things and bring that learning back to the company and essentially functions as a mad scientist for them! He shares loads of wisdom and advice for the listener who might be curious to break into tech. This is not an episode to miss! Resources: Follow Gant’s adventures at GantLaborde.comGant on Twitter: @GantLaborde Two Minute Papers  Infinite Red 

Kelly Mahoney is both a Digital Artist and Product Manager who got into design through hackathons - of which, she’s attended over 60 so far! She has her Bachelor of Arts Degree in Religious Studies, in which she focused on cultural appropriation and East Asian religions. And she’s currently a graduate student at Florida International University pursuing an MBA in International Business. In today’s conversation Kelly and I dive into her background in nursing and how it has helped her in her role in Product today. We discuss gatekeepers, the power of community, and Kelly shares advice on taking risks and pursuing your dreams. She’s the creator of SoSplush, a kawaii-themed tech brand, that sells stickers and other swag. She believes that tech is for everyone and that it can be cute and pink. She’s currently accepting commissions and is available for design consulting work. Be sure to check out her Etsy shop today!Resources:SoSpulsh Etsy Store Follow Kelly on Twitter @SoSplush 

Today’s guest on We Belong Here, Jayson J. Phillips, got his start in tech only after he dropped majoring in Computer Science and Math. In school, Jayson found the coursework boring, uninteresting, and truly hated Cal 3! But when he was working at Scratch DJ Academy, he began managing their website only to discover that the real-world applications of tech can in fact be super creative and compelling. He went on to do agency work and continued to learn on the job. He candidly likes to say that he went to the “University of Barnes and Noble” in that he would always dedicate some of his paychecks to new books on the technical topics he was most curious about learning. Today, he is the Director of Engineering for Bootcamp Academic Platforms at 2U Inc. Our conversation today explores the importance of teaching, giving back, and encouraging others as they embark on their journey of learning to code. We acknowledge how many coding boot camps there are out there. And so Jayson's advice for those considering a boot camp is to know both: what you want to dowhat environment you learn best in And then after knowing those two things, to dive into the research and to ask all of the possible questions to hopefully find the best fit. When researching boot camps, Jayson suggests that you evaluate:their instructorshow they treat their alumni and teacher assistantsthe structure of their payment plans the prework plan that is provided to prepare for their applicationAnd to use LinkedIn as a resource to connect with alumni and instructors. Jayson goes on to give loads of advice for those curious about entering the tech industry. This episode is packed with thoughtful and encouraging words of motivation - it is NOT one to miss! Resources:Jayson’s website Twitter: @_jjphillips Twitch channel: its_jay_phillz #pullupandcodeInstagram: jay.phillz2U Inc Media Developer Experts @ Cloudinary Code2040 

Today’s guest on We Belong Here, Jayson J. Phillips, got his start in tech only after he dropped majoring in Computer Science and Math. In school, Jayson found the coursework boring, uninteresting, and truly hated Cal 3! But when he was working at Scratch DJ Academy, he began managing their website only to discover that the real-world applications of tech can in fact be super creative and compelling. He went on to do agency work and continued to learn on the job. He candidly likes to say that he went to the “University of Barnes and Noble” in that he would always dedicate some of his paychecks to new books on the technical topics he was most curious about learning. Today, he is the Director of Engineering for Bootcamp Academic Platforms at 2U Inc. Our conversation today explores the importance of teaching, giving back, and encouraging others as they embark on their journey of learning to code. We acknowledge how many coding boot camps there are out there. And so Jayson's advice for those considering a boot camp is to know both: what you want to dowhat environment you learn best in And then after knowing those two things, to dive into the research and to ask all of the possible questions to hopefully find the best fit. When researching boot camps, Jayson suggests that you evaluate:their instructorshow they treat their alumni and teacher assistantsthe structure of their payment plans the prework plan that is provided to prepare for their applicationAnd to use LinkedIn as a resource to connect with alumni and instructors. Jayson goes on to give loads of advice for those curious about entering the tech industry. This episode is packed with thoughtful and encouraging words of motivation - it is NOT one to miss! Resources:Jayson’s website Twitter: @_jjphillips Twitch channel: its_jay_phillz #pullupandcodeInstagram: jay.phillz2U Inc Media Developer Experts @ Cloudinary Code2040 

Today Lauren chats with Tim Benniks, who is the Director of Web Development at a global digital agency, Valtech. Growing up, Tim’s passion was music. And he pursued it until deciding to train to become a nurse. Tim is personable and empathetic and felt that nursing was the right fit but eventually dropped out of his nursing program when the healthcare system in The Netherlands dramatically changed. He discovered then that he wanted to be able to do creative things and began tinkering and building websites on the side. Eventually, he decided to join an ad agency, which led him to Paris, where he worked with L’Oreal and helped guide their e-commerce and online brand presence. In today’s episode, Tim shares his philosophy on the importance of having patience in the workplace and encourages listeners to know what motivates them before seeking their next promotion. Resources: Join us LIVE on Twitch for the next #WeBelongHere interview twitch.tv/LoLoCoding Valtech’s Tech Girl Event Tim’s Website Tim’s YouTube Channel The Culture Map by Erin Myer

Today, Bryan shares with Lauren his journey from studying philosophy and working in journalism to becoming a designer, developer, educator, and community advocate. In college, he fell in love with philosophy, deep thinking, aesthetics, and the nature of beauty and art. He’s passionate about discourse and dialogue and contemplates their intersectionality within tech today. After college, Bryan worked for a local newspaper as a copy editor. He was deeply ahead of his time with visions of taking the news and engaging with readers online. He began to teach himself some basic CSS, HTML, and Javascript while working with the Newspaper’s online content. He soon became proficient as a developer and went on to run and manage the development team at a web agency in Memphis, TN. Today, Bryan runs his startup, Code Contemporary, where he advocates for the technologies he’s most passionate about. He loves education and learning and loves to help people who are new to tech and are curious to learn more.  In this episode, Bryan shares advice for those curious to break into the tech industry. He encourages beginners to build what you’re curious about or need in your life. To deepen your understanding of those new concepts, Bryan suggests you teach others how to do so! When it comes to the web, he believes that we should be producers as well as consumers. We spend time discussing Linguistic Relativism and how we must stop associating tech only with business as there is a great benefit to perceiving tech as a hobby and curious DIY pursuit.  And thus, he encourages every listener to tinker and play with HTML and CSS and to explore web development as hobbyists without the pressure of becoming professional software engineers. Bryan believes that through teaching we learn and so he encourages everyone who is learning to code to teach their friends how to do so as well! Resources: Bryan’s Practical CSS Course with 50% discount code “WEBELONGHERE” Find Bryan: Twitter: @brobYoutube: Bryan Robinson Twitch: @bryanlrobinson Blog: bryanlrobinson.comRussian Blues: First study: https://www.pnas.org/content/104/19/7780 Second study: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0956797618782181 Article about both studies: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/our-language-affects-what-we-see/

On today’s episode of #WeBelongHere Lauren interviews Sia Karamalegos. Sia went from studying chemical engineering to being a semiconductor process engineer. She then went on to get her MBA at Harvard and worked in corporate strategy/consulting. She shares how quickly she burnt out from that role and wanted to get involved in public education reform in New Orleans. And only then, after tinkering and learning on the side, Sia won a Start-Up Weekend competition and a discounted coding boot camp tuition as a prize. That was when she decided to take her side hobby seriously and learn to code!Sia worked as a software engineer, taught at and created curriculum for a coding boot camp, and ultimately recognized the inner #girlboss hustler that she is and went on to become the founder and CEO of Clio + Calliope.  Sia shares lots of advice throughout the episode for those curious to take the leap and learn to code. Be sure to tweet at @LoLoCoding to join the conversation and enter a chance to win the $100 Amazon gift card giveaway! (Thank you to Cloudinary for sponsoring this giveaway) Resources: MDN Web Docs GDG New OrleansCloudinary Media Developer ExpertsGoogle Developer ExpertsWomen Techmakers Sia’s website: sia.codesFind Sia on Twitter @TheGreenGreek 

On this episode of #WeBelongHere, Lauren interviews sisters Dana and Angela Chou. They host a podcast called, Work in Progress.  They believe that our careers should grow and change as we do: whether it is to find a career that suits us or a field that aligns with our philosophy, or simply to provide more for the family. They want to encourage those seeking change and those feeling stuck to make the transitions they want for themselves. Angela spent about 10 years working in biotech companies but in Operations roles. She got an MBA to transition to Product Management but shortly after being in Product decided to learn to code in order to transition to Tech!Today we discuss Angela’s career trajectory from Operations to Product as well as her coding journey along the way. As a Product Manager, she was asking her engineering team to build things and suddenly realized that she didn’t understand how the code work, which was when she decided to learn to code. She understood how important it was for her to understand what was going on within the code that she was asking her team to build. So started by teaching herself online with free resources and eventually attended a coding boot camp.  Dana tells us about the inspiration behind their blog and podcast, Work in Progress. In this episode, Angela shares advice for those curious to break into tech as she did. It is not one to miss! Resources:Work in Progress Podcast and Blog 

Alexandra Leisse and Lauren today discuss her journey from pursuing music professionally to becoming VP of Product at VIBBIO. Alexandra has her master’s degree in opera and stage performance from the University for Dance and Music in Cologne, Germany. After finishing school, she worked as a soprano at theatres and concert halls all over Germany while also starting up her own little web development agency.Since then, she’s moved to Norway and has gone on to find roles in user experience design and has spent over a decade in product related roles. Today, she’s the VP of Product at VIBBIO where she rebuilt the engineering team from the ground up, redesigned the application UI, and took full ownership of VIBBIO’s product strategy, in addition to her contributions to building the company itself. She’s the founder of Rails Girls Oslo and self-identifies as a ‘web rebel’. Today Lauren and Alexandra discuss the highlights of Alexandra’s musical career. She goes back in time to tell us about building her first website in 1995. Alexandra shares about the opportunity she saw in combining community building in the Linux world with social media. And soon landed a role as a community manager and has been in product ever since!She wears many hats at VIBBIO today, a startup, where the leadership is made up of all women!Alexandra shares incredible advice for folks curious to enter tech and how to discover your passion and find your strengths within the industry. “Don't listen too much to what others think you can do and what others think that you're capable of. Because you don't really know that you're not capable of doing it until you've tried doing it...”Resources:Rails Girls Summer of CodeConnect with Alexandra on Twitter: @troubalex 

Paula Muldoon is a multi-talented violinist, software engineer, and composer based in Cambridge, UK. Currently, she is the concertmaster of the Cambridge Philharmonic Orchestra. Paula recently started DeskNotes, a YouTube channel with short videos full of tips for orchestral string playing. And soon she will be recording a CD of her own solo violin compositions! In 2017 she retrained at Makers Academy as a computer programmer and now combines violin performance with her career as a software engineer at Cambridge Cognition, where she writes code that is used for worldwide clinical trials. In this episode, Paula and I discuss her transition from a professional musician to software development and her experiences in both worlds. Resources:DeskNotes Paula’s websiteTwitter @FiddlersCodeFacebook Fiddlers Code

PJ Hagerty is the founder of Devrelate.io and a board member of Open Sourcing Mental Illness. He’s a developer, writer, speaker, conference organizer, musician, and Community Advocate. He’s known to travel the world speaking about programming and the way people think and interact while wearing many hats 🎩.As someone who was a part of the industry from the beginning, PJ defines DevRel for us to kick off our conversation. PJ worked at a deaf school and as a musician for many years before transitioning full time to tech. The lessons he learned prior to that transition have proven to be pivotal in his DevRel career in comparison to what his formal CS degree provided. He worked as a software engineer for many years and says he was “tricked into doing DevRel” when he gave a spontaneous lightning talk that ultimately turned into many many more talks! He went on to form a community team, continued to travel the world giving talks, and helped define and shape the DevRel space itself. Eventually, PJ started his own company, DevRelate, which offers Developer and Community Relations as a service. PJ is passionate about destigmatizing mental health in the tech industry and offers to collaborate and brainstorm ways to do so with listeners! This episode is packed full of advice and wisdom, especially for those interested in breaking into the DevRel space- be sure to give a listen!Resources: Open Sourcing Mental Illness Devrelate.io DevOps Days Buffalo CodeDazeElixirDazePJ's podcast: @Community_PulseFollow PJ on Twitter: @aspleenic 

Elyse Segebart is an artist by nature but took the plunge into tech at 27. She's a mobile application developer finishing her degree at Capella University where she is studying software development, is graduating September of 2020. She aspires to work fully remote in the future. She lives in the heartland with her boyfriend and is a role model for his 8-year-old daughter. Content WarningElyse advocates for women in traumatic and abusive situations having overcome these situations herself. Our conversation today covers topics on addiction, domestic abuse, and issues of mental health. She brings her whole self to our conversation and shares both encouragement and advice to those facing abuse and trauma. She speaks of how she overcame the obstacles that stood in her way and encourages those who similarly hope to follow their dreams of succeeding in the tech industry. She wants to help other women who have been in similar situations to know that there is a way out. She is your cheerleader and champion and this episode is genuinely not one to miss! Resources:  Mom’s in Tech Slack groupCodeNewbie podcast Getting Apps Done podcastFollow Elyse on Twitter @elyseis12

Becca is a Front End Developer at Assemble Inc. who fell in love with the tech industry while working as the Marketing Manager for a JavaScript consultancy. She believes that user-centric development, collaboration, and strong communication help make better software. Since making the transition to software development, she has worked primarily in the JavaScript ecosystem and is particularly fond of React and CSS. Becca also helps organize the Seattle chapter of Write/Speak/Code and enjoys speaking at meetups and conferences, most recently participating as a panelist at Chain React 2019.Today Becca and I chat about our experiences in our first engineering roles after attending coding boot camps and how we somehow managed to survive. Becca tells the story of how she powered through the recovery process of the norovirus to complete her portfolio and application to land her current role.  Becca explains how helpful the lessons she learned while working with people and in marketing before transitioning to coding are and how grateful she is to have that prior experience to tap into each day now as a front end developer. She is able to tackle problems differently from others on her team and is forever aware of and concerned for the end user and their experience, which is an invaluable skill for any web development team.  Becca is brilliant and fun- this episode is not one to miss!Resources: Code Fellows Write/Speak/Code 

Kristen Spencer likes to say that she was a professional career sampler. She has worked in many random industries and has been able to successfully incorporate the plethora of lessons she learned into her role today as a Senior Developer at a digital consultancy agency, TWG in Toronto. After having her first baby, Kristen started a Cool Mom blog on WordPress when she ultimately discovered her interest in design and code. She then took a few day-long workshops on how to make small changes in the browser only to discover a 9-week long boot camp called Canada Learning Code- the first of its kind in Canada. She went on to teach at HackerYou and credits working as an educator to finding the role she has today as a Senior-level developer. Today, Kristen and I dive deep into topics such as imposter syndrome, the importance of negotiation, and the art of framing your narrative. This episode is packed with tips and advice for those entering the tech space via an unconventional route. It is not one to miss! Resources:Ladies Get PaidCanada Learning CodeFollow on Twitter @_KristenSpencer

Aisha Blake arrived in Detroit in 2013 to serve as a Jesuit Volunteer. She then began working at Grand Circus and has taught web development to people of all ages in bootcamps, workshops, and online courses. She helped create their bootcamp program and craft their JavaScript curriculum. She eventually decided to pursue a full-time engineering role and today is an Application Developer for Detroit Labs. Aisha has a deep love for the tech community in Detroit. She’s passionate about community organizing and helps organize self.conference and <title of conf>. She has traveled all across the US to speak on web accessibility, diversity & inclusion in tech, and how to give feedback fearlessly. This episode of #WeBelongHere is packed full of thoughtful dialogue spanning topics from race and gender to self-advocacy and the power of song and community. Aisha shares advice on how to teach yourself the skills to survive and thrive in the tech industry. Resources: Aisha’s Blog Aisha.CodesTwitter @AishaBlake <title of conf>  self.conference