As a young woman in different dev teams

Hello everyone!

For those who don't know me, I'm Michelle and I'm a Technical Documentation Analyst in a Brazilian multinational company. Here I'm going to share my experiences during the 2 and a half years I've been working as a Technical Writer.

I entered this world after graduating in Journalism, in 2020. I have always loved technology (for years it was my dream to work in this field). And the opportunity to work as a technical writer in a well-known company was amazing.

I worked with different teams, some more product-related (with more direct impact on the client) and some were internal teams (with more technical and detailed content, focused on the development team). It was challenging at first, of course. I had to learn how best to communicate with different audiences. Also, the teams had expectations for my work, and I wanted to meet them.

But one thing I noticed was that there were very few women on the teams, especially women of color or from the LGBTQ+ community. Most of the women I met on those teams were in support, testing, or more product-related (like product owners). Thankfully, I have had the opportunity to meet and work with some of the female developers over the years.

As women, we see how difficult it is to get into a company and see women as analysts or managers. In the company where I work, we have some examples of women who've worked for years and years and are now in management positions. But I see how hard it is, how hard they have to fight for it. I have a perception that this happens more prevalent in small and medium-sized companies. Form my experience and search, I believe that bigger companys are trying to change this (part of them at least, we know that are exceptions). It's an important step towards equality in IT companies.

I was a little worried to be on teams that were mostly male. But I was also lucky, the teams were great and tried to help me in many ways, like explaining how databases worked or how they developed the system. I learned a lot about technology from them.

The women who worked on these products made me feel more welcome because I saw how everyone worked together. Of course, there were moments where I felt a little uncomfortable when something happen, like a joke that wasn't funny, but I was able to work through it in a good way.

This opportunity to work in different teams allowed me to gain knowledge and even become a reference in some products. I was the main contact for internal documentation on the technology used by the company.

I hope to have the same luck with the next teams I work with. And I hope that every person, regardless of gender or sexual orientation, can have a safe place to work where they are respected and have a good relationship with their colleagues.

So, after all this, I want to thank all the amazing women I met. I'm proud of every one of you guys! I'd especially like to thank my beautiful girlfriend, who I'm most proud of and love to see all the things she conquers. Who it's my inspiration in life and also in her career in technology (she's a Content Project Manager in a international company and worked as dev before). I hope to be there to cheer each new thing in your life! (Also, thank you so much for your support and, of course, for all the help with my English :D)

This is just a short post to share on this Women's Day. I hope you enjoyed it. Let me know about your experiences working in diverse teams in the comments!

See you soon!

P.S. Happy Women's Day!

Cover Image by Jannoon028 on Freepik