Experiences of being a first gen-tech woman
Being a woman is not easy, especially if you try to break the barrier that you always face in society.
As a young woman who tried to break into tech in my 20s, I always thought that I was a late gamer. I spent most of my time focused studying on medical school and didn’t even think that I would end up going to the tech field.
I realized that I had a tech interest in building a game. It was before I decided to apply to medical school in my country, Indonesia. The first time I learned how to code was when there was a semester gap. I thought I to spend my break with building something cool. With only my old Acer laptop and mouse, I tried to download and install the Game Maker into it. My laptop was working so hard to load this software. However, I successfully created a simple PacMan game even though there was a bug, which was the character didn’t move around (LOL, so the characters stayed in one place, while the enemies were moving so fast than at the end, I lost the game).
Time passed by. Two until three years after getting into medical school, I transferred to the US college and I took math as my major. I was confused if I kept continuing my study in medicine, I would spend 5+ more years. I had to finance my family as soon as possible because I wasted many years already.
Taking math made me realize that tech was for me but not for coding. I took some coding classes to support my math degree requirement. But, I was bad at understanding the concept of coding and its applications. I cried every night and wondered if I should go to tech or not. If it wasn’t for me, what field would it be?
I kept researching on the internet what things math people can offer at the company. It showed me the data science role, which said that this is the hottest job in the 21st century.
I was curious and I tried to broaden my network by joining lots of conferences that related to data analysis or data science. Furthermore, I was lucky enough to get introduced to data science. One person in my LinkedIn network offered me to build the company by applying machine learning. I thought it would be a good chance for me to try something new before graduating from college. Also, I talked to one of my colleagues that used to be a former data scientist in the startup. He said the journey wouldn’t be easy. To be a data scientist, I have to have experience of being a data analyst and have a good understanding of coding (applying the frameworks and libraries) and statistics.
Adding to that, I joined multiple events or conferences related to this. However, most of them are not beginner-friendly. I am not the type of person who is fast in learning to code or understanding the logic behind that.
Is it what I want? I have been wasting so much times already. If I ended up not liking it, would it be a regret?
When I saw how great my friends worked on coding assignments, this made me realize that I was useless. I felt that this would be the end of my career journey. I didn’t know what I would like to do for my future career. Everybody told me that I have to master coding if I want to survive in all of tech-related careers.
Even though it isn’t true, but society always have perspective that tech requires heavy coding. Otherwise, you need to find something else outside tech.
I agree that exploring a career is not an easy thing to do. That’s why I gave myself a 6-months timeline to figure out exactly the career that fit me and my personality.
One day, I got invited to work on UX projects with my colleagues. At first, I didn’t know what I was supposed to do. I was still a beginner. The only thing that I could predict was that this was something that might shift my whole career. That’s why I started to join lots of courses that helped me to have an understanding of what UX is. So, I could start the project without hesitation.
Not only working on website projects but I was also involved in the game jam last year as a UX designer. It was satisfying working together with a solid team. I created the game screen which started from the beginning to the end. We didn’t win but we were glad to produce a meaningful game that inspires others to find their goal in their life.
Additionally, I offered myself to contribute to a non-profit organization in Indonesia as a remote UX designer. I would say that this project was the first UX project that I have ever done. At first, my task was only to help them redesign the website. However, the product owner wasn’t quite sure how to manage the team. That’s why we came up with the idea to have one project manager and one UX lead.
I was tasked with multiple roles, which made me headaches most of the time. Volunteer work seemed like more than a full-time job (I am against this, sorry to say). I was a designer, UX writer, and at the same time as a project manager. It was fine because I had not lots of things to do other than studying. Additionally, I was no longer working with college anymore. So, I had more free time than I used to be.
Along with that, I built connections with lots of designers on LinkedIn. I knew some of them from the design event or conferences. It was great to learn from their experiences as a young woman that got into the tech. I wasn’t feeling alone anymore. Many supports came from people around me. I was glad at the end I found my true calling.
As a woman in tech, I believe that every woman should get a chance to do what they want. We don’t have to force ourselves to like something that’s not actually for us. Everyone has their strength and weakness. Let’s embrace them and make something different.
You don’t always have to follow what society thinks. But you have to follow what you think makes sense to you and also can bring you joy. After that, money will follow.
Don’t be afraid to explore things that you like but remember to stay consistent when you have your solid choice! Stay bold.
Happy Woman’s History Month!
Related links:
- LinkedIn post about Happy Woman’s Month: Click Here
- What Game Jam Taught Me About (Medium post): Click Here
