the power of community

So you are thinking of getting 'into tech' or learning to code. One of my biggest pieces of advice is you do not need to do this alone. Build a network and immerse yourself in communities - it sounds scary and sometimes it is - but it is amazing. I love people, I love their stories, their experiences. And when the going gets tough - which it will, it is great to have people to reach out too. Or when you are knee deep in broken code - or grappling with yet another new piece of tech then going to a meet up, or sending a community a slack and getting a response can be super comforting. The tech community are full of incredibly talented people willing to work through coding solutions with you. 

Below I have listed all sorts of ways I have tried to immerse myself into the tech community.

Code First Girls is full of the most incredible, intelligent women. When you sign up to a course - which can be a short course you'll get added to a slack group. This group can be a lifeline. Follow them on all their socials too - instagram, linked in. They help you stay current, and make you feel less alone.  

https://www.meetup.com/pyladieslondon/

In brief Pyladies is a global community of women who code in python. Pyladies London is the local one for me. I know the organiser Anna she is amazing, she even encouraged me to host my own Pyladies event last year. Terrifying but also amazing. They host evening events, free pizza, free beer, a tech talk and a chance to chat to loads of awesome coding women - who are not intimidating. Very inclusive - I invited my mum, and also there have been people there with babies. 

Download the meet up app. https://www.meetup.com/

On this app you can find like minded people. Search for communities. Via this app I found RLadies. Back when I was coding in R. I went to a couple of events, one at Deliveroo - on data analysis in R. It was epic!

 

Rladies

https://www.meetup.com/rladies-london/ I haven't been to an R ladies event in a while - but I did go to some back in 2018 and they were great. I met some people and added them to my linked in and we have messaged on and off over the years. So a great bunch. 

https://womenindata.co.uk/

This community has a yearly conference - I went to it last week - you have to register in a ballot but it is free. This is sensational! This year 3,000 women in data in one room. They also have a recruitment arm - called Datatech analytics - worth having a chat to them about a beginner and what transferable skills you have.

They also do weekly chats where they introduce tech/data ideas. Check out their website. Their founder Roisin is probably one of the best women you'll ever meet! 

I only joined this community very recently - they advertised a book club on 'the pragmatic programmer' one of my favourite coding books. It was great - very interesting to spend time with women who have had long tech careers.  

This group champions diversity!

Their founder Maxine is incredible. Check out their website. https://www.onehealthtech.com/

I found this and joined this. But I didn't complete it. The timing was wrong.

I guess the concept of putting this here is that if you are interested in cloud computing there are tonnes of women lead courses online again that add you to a slack group. You can do a course for free and get vouchers for the exam. You do not have to do it alone. Once you get added to the slack group of these types of things - you realise how 'not alone' you are. As it pings day and night with women asking 'is this cloud service used for x y or z'.