Thanks to @Dell for making this photo available freely https://unsplash.com/photos/g2E2NQ5SWSU
Advocating for myself
Advocating for myself seems to be like a non-stop task which I learned to not give a damn about when it becomes too much. I realised that giving my time like this is taxing and non-productive for me. I am just at the beginning of my career (13+ years) and I have a long long way until retirement. Understanding this puts things in perspective. Current juniors will be the next seniors, not everyone is the same, good people will form good people, technologies will change, projects and companies will change and so on. I am sure my mom and dad's resume wouldn't fit on the 1 or 2 pages of CV if they were to describe THE MAIN THINKS that they worked on during their long career. I still giggle a bit when I hear some CV advice (well-intended even so). It's like we forget this software development domain is at it's beginning still, and we forget we have a few more decades of work until retirement.
My biggest goal
My biggest goal is the sum of a lot of small goals. Always has been and always will be if you ask me now. I want to leave doors open to change my mind, change interests and change paths in my career. This abstract is what works well for now and leaves room for a lot of improvement. I have learned and evolved in my craft so much since I started writing code and I will continue to learn and adapt as long as I can do my job. I studied and worked hard to be a Software Developer because I want to create stuff, useful stuff and as many as possible. The point is to help myself and others with technology.
My advice for allies
My advice for allies to support underrepresented folks who code is exactly what you read in memes, Twitter feeds, blog posts: believe us when we present something that is wrong. Just freaking believe us like you would your white-male colleague that you go for beers with every week. Of course, there will be people that will try to cheat this, take advantage of this, but we- as a group are not them, the exact same way you as a group are inclusive, helpful and decent humans. I had to make these analogies, but we should already see ourselves as one group, not separate.
What about you?
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