Programmatically Blonde
“You don’t need to wear a hoodie to be successful in tech.”
Once upon a time, I wasn’t an engineer. In fact, I was an actress… by night, and an office manager/EA/recruiter/customer support rep/account manager by day (you can read more about that here in my Breaking into Startups episode 👩💻).
I had worked in start-ups for many years in practically everything but engineering. Why? Well, I had never been exposed to computer science or programming. I had grown up in an artistic family (director/playwright father & costume designer mother), and while I spent a lot of time on computers, my mental picture of a “software engineer” was men in lab-coats with hammers putting a computer together👨🔬🔨. Computer science classes were not offered at my high school (although, Modern Dance Level 1-3 was), and I had absolutely no exposure to software engineering as a career path.
So, naturally, I ended up getting a degree in theatre performance. So, when I booked my very first leading role right after graduating, and my contract said I would receive a stipend of~$500… well, let’s say it was a wake-up call that I’d need to have a day-job until I “made it big” on Broadway.
Fast forward 5 years later: I was an office manager by day actress by night, living with an odd Clark Kent-like complex. By night I was performing onstage to thunderous applause- by day, I was loading La Croix in the office fridge. I was unhappy with my day job, and was starting to feel burn-out with my “theatre career” (which, let’s be honest, was a hobby).
I wanted to be challenged, I wanted something new to learn. So, when my partner Ty Smith encouraged me to start learning how to code, I was immediately hooked. It was something new, something I enjoyed, and something I could make a new career out of. After months of self-study, I made the decision to apply to bootcamps, quit my job, and change my career.
I know this is going to sound strange, but stay with me here…
Elle Woods from “Legally Blonde” became my inspiration 🎀
Yes, I understand this is controversial. I know what you’re thinking… a romcom as inspo? A musical as inspo…? A movie musical as inspo?! 😱
To be honest- the show was always a guilty pleasure for me. To give some context, Elle Woods in “Legally Blonde the Musical” had always been a dream role of mine. The songs, the dogs, the pink outfits; it’s a blonde musical theatre girl’s dream. Since I was taking an indefinite break from theatre, and I had never gotten the chance to play Miss Woods on stage, I decided to channel my inner-Elle Woods in real life.
“YOU got into Harvard Law?” 😳
Of course, my journey was a tad bit different than Elle’s. Instead of this journey’s catalyst being an awful boyfriend, I had a wonderful and supportive one who cheered me along the whole way.
However, there were plenty of people in my life who had their doubts when it came to this major career transition.
“You’ll come back [to theatre]- see you in a month”
“Are you sure you can really get a job from a bootcamp?”
“I never pictured you as the nerdy type”
“I didn’t even know you liked computers…?”
These were among some of the wonderful(ly unhelpful) comments I got along the way. I didn’t “look” like an engineer or fit the stereotype, but their doubts fueled me even more.
A quality of Elle Woods that I love is that she owns her unique quirkiness. She didn’t fall into the stereotypical East coast Harvard Law School candidate category — she wore pink, used a pink feather pen to take notes — but that didn’t change the fact that she was smart as hell. With a 175 on the LSAT, and Chihuahua in hand, she strutted into Harvard like she owned the place.
I was recently on a diversity panel at The Linux Foundation’s Open Source Summit and said the following:
I can’t stress this enough: you don’t have to fit a certain mold to be successful in tech.
You don’t need to like sci-fi, you don’t need to have taken a computer science class in high school, and you certainly don’t need to hide your quirky feminine personality to succeed in this industry.
I won’t lie — being a woman in this industry is difficult at times, as evidenced by some of the lovely comments I’ve gotten on my “What It’s Like to Be a Woman at a Tech Conference” article (which I’ve had to hide/block). But I hope to help #changetheratio of women in tech, and help change people’s perspectives on what an engineer looks like.
What’s my Harvard?
Graduating from Hackbright Academy was my version of graduating from Harvard Law. It was intense, fast, and a fire-hose of information in a short 12-weeks. My imposter syndrome was out of control, I often doubted I would ever find a job, and I was scared to enter an industry where very few people looked like me.
But guess what? The tech industry is full of Elle Woods-like humans (both male and female). From US History majors turned engineers, stage managers turned PMs, and former stay at home moms turned DevOps professionals, we’ve all channeled our inner-Elle in one way or another.
In conclusion, I encourage you to embrace what makes you special in this industry, and share your story with others. Blog about it, tweet about it, or mentor other people. Let’s celebrate the Elle Woods in our lives, and make this industry open to more quirky individuals that give a unique perspective and insight to the world of tech.
(This blog post was written in Boston, right outside Harvard Law from a coffeeshop — no dogs were present, but I was wearing pink 🎀).
Women 2.0 is a global brand for women in technology and entrepreneurship. Check out Lane, our job platform for women technologists — developers, data scientists, product managers…. and everything in between.
