Codess Stockholm

I was in Stockholm last week for a whirlwind 24-hours, to speak at Codess Engineering Forum for Women.

Not a hardship, since I'm kind of in love with Stockholm - it reminds me of Canada in a lot of ways. Friendly people with a casual, outdoorsy vibe. The city is surrounded by water. You don't have to put the word "ice" in front of "hockey" for people to know what you're talking about. 

But the Swedes have much better taste in fashion, interior design and sweet pastries than Canadians do. And I get to eat Kalles fish eggs on my eggs for breakfast whenever I'm in Stockholm - what is not to love?

The event was a huge success (check the video!) and I met some fascinating ladies in a room full of almost 100 female engineers. But I had a lot of trouble preparing my talk. It doesn't help that public speaking is like a small form of torture for me, and on top of that I was asked to speak about myself.

After much wringing of hands, I decided to go with a very personal talk about my career so far, and end it with 3 pieces of advice to share with women starting careers in tech.

Lesson 1: You're Probably Better Than You Think

More than just an excuse to use a quote from Winnie the Pooh, it's objectively true that women and minorities in the tech sector suffer from a myriad of cognitive biases. We are susceptible to everything from Imposter Syndrome to Stereotype Threat, and we're convinced that boys start out with a major advantage in maths and science.

That said, the Unlocking the Clubhouse research on Carnegie Mellon CS students indicates that despite these biases and feelings of inferiority, women tend to perform at the same level if not better than their male peers. It's mostly in our heads.

Lesson 2: Use Your Unique Perspective

I love the technique of gender swapping to reveal stereotypes. Anita Sarkeesian's "Tropes v. Women" video on the Woman in the Refrigerator trope calls out Wreck It Ralph's Sgt. Calhoun vowing revenge for her boyfriend's murder at the altar by a giant Cyberbug as a reversal so rare as to be comically absurd.  

Being a minority in a male-dominated industry affords women a unique outsider perspective. It's often tempting to try to be one of the boys. But by being ourselves, we can sometimes turn assumptions on their head and show things for what they really are.

It's also a common theme in the research that women have broader interests and a wider range of reasons for entering Computer Science than most men. That's not to say that women can't be hacker bros who love code for the sake of code, or that men can't be well-rounded. 

But the tendency of many women in Comp Sci NOT to be pure hacker bros presents an amazing opportunity - not just to integrate engineering with disparate fields like fashion, medicine and biochemistry, but also to explore different paths within engineering such as Product Management, Quality Engineering and User Experience.

Lesson 3: Help Your Friends

People tend to be friends with people who are similar to themselves - and they tend to want to work with people like them too. This is how Old Boys clubs are formed in the first place. It's also how I became so close with fellow female game devs Laura and Cici that we ended up together in Mexico on Laura's wedding day.

I think helping your friends is especially important when you (and likely your friends) are minorities within an industry/culture. This means making introductions, referring your friends for jobs, mentoring younger women and just generally being willing to give your time and knowledge to others.

I guess it also means standing up in front of a room of women to give a speech, even though you'd rather jump into the Baltic sea.

I strongly believe the more I can help out the people I know, the stronger the women in tech community will become and the better the industry will be for everyone, male and female alike.