3 ms·

we were in a small city on the west coast. it was almost impossible for her to get hired as a dev most probably because she was a female and because she didn't

we were in a small city on the west coast. it was almost impossible for her to get hired as a dev most probably because she was a female and because she didn't have "coding" experience was made to feel worthless. She is not the type to open up an IDE and just start coding. She asks tough questions first. Another story: comp sci 4th year - systems course. She's assigned a team. Douche c++ whiz thinks he's the shit. constantly belittles her. comes up with some idea of "redundancy" as part of the project they are coding. His idea was to have a cache storing redundant data in case the database failed. She suggested that it wouldn't work in case of power failure. Told her to be quiet because she didn't know what she was talking about... As a guy, I have never faced this and so had no idea women faced this sort of behaviour till she decided to enter the field. Yes she didn't even know how saving a file worked till she decided to go for her comp sci degree, and so yeah she is not very confident about just opening up an ide and start coding a la "create-react-app", nor she will win any hackathons, but her concepts are rock solid. Still she is constantly underestimated. It's a tough world in software dev if you aren't the type to constantly overestimate your worth.

titanomachy 7y ago
"It's a tough world in software dev if you aren't the type to constantly overestimate your worth." Well put. I was talking to a friend recently about the difference between mediocre and very successful engineers, and that quality came to mind as the biggest predictor of success. Don't think of yourself in terms of how effective you currently are, think of how effective you _could_ be. Assume that you can figure out pretty much anything given enough time. But don't be too cocky to ask for help. Contrast that with mediocre candidates: ask them to solve something they've never done before, and they won't even try because they assume they're not good enough.

titanomachy 7y ago

"It's a tough world in software dev if you aren't the type to constantly overestimate your worth." Well put. I was talking to a friend recently about the difference between mediocre and very successful engineers, and that quality came to mind as the biggest predictor of success. Don't think of yourself in terms of how effective you currently are, think of how effective you _could_ be. Assume that you can figure out pretty much anything given enough time. But don't be too cocky to ask for help. Contrast that with mediocre candidates: ask them to solve something they've never done before, and they won't even try because they assume they're not good enough.