Go-to tips and career advice for women in IT: find your peers!

Silvia Coelho and Dani Clericuzi recently published two articles with tips and career advice for women in IT. We made a point of compiling some of them here. After all, the more space occupied by female talent, the better. For professionals, for software companies, and, of course, for users.

Ubiminds hires devs and architects across Brazil to work remotely for American companies. One of our challenges is to end the glass ceiling in IT. Unfortunately, STEM is still quite a masculine territory.

Sidenote: STEM = Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.

It is in order to change this scenario that the founder and CEO Sílvia created Elas Programam (They Code). It is a social impact business created to increase the presence of women in Technology. To get an idea, over 6000 professionals are already connected, promoting gender diversity within this sector.

Career advice: Tips to boost IT professionals

There are two posts published by them (in Portuguese) on Dev.to: Part 1 and Part 2. Summarizing:

1. Have the courage to compete! According to HP, women only send in their resumes when they meet 100% of the requirements, while men apply for the opening even with only 60% of what is necessary.
2. Create your professional experiences. There is no need for formal employment. Volunteering, projects on GitHub, and creating your own content count a lot when it comes to showing your knowledge.
3. Strengthen your digital presence. Portfolio, online resume, LinkedIn profile, blog and/or YouTube channel: everything helps.

As you can see, the path to success needs a bit of personal marketing, but also enough self-knowledge to work on the technical and behavioral skills that make you a more confident professional.

However, there are other steps that are important regardless of your area of expertise. Ask for support and invite other women you admire to mentor your career. It is surprising how much people are willing to share with less experienced professionals.

Female representation initiatives in IT

In addition to Elas Programam, there are other organizations to keep an eye on. They share career advice for women in IT, promote meetups, online courses, and many other efforts to increase the presence of women in technology.

• Code Girl – Motivational lectures focused on female representation in IT in Brazil.
• DjangoGirls – Organization of free one-day programming workshops, providing tools and resources. The idea is to introduce other women to software development in Python and Django.
• Latinas in Tech – The NGO that supports technology companies creates safe spaces for learning, mentoring and recruiting.
• MariaLab – Feminist Hacker Collective that discusses the presence of women, trans and non-binary people, as well as the role of race, social class, and gender identity in the design of technologies.
• Meninas Digitais – Program that motivates students from the final years of elementary and high school to learn about Computing, promoted by the Brazilian Computer Society (SBC).
• PyLadies – Materials, projects, and regional events for the dissemination of the Maker / Coder culture.
• Rails Girls – Events, tutorials, and mailing list for developing software using Ruby.
• Technovation Challenge – With the support of volunteer mentors, girls aged 10-18 work as a team to code mobile apps that solve real-world problems.
• Women in Product – Group that connects women in the field of product management through online platforms and live events.
• Women Techmakers – Google program to provide visibility, community and resources for women in technology.
• Women Who Code – Community for mentoring with the objective of forming leaders and references in technology.

Connect – it’s worth it!

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Mariana Alves

Mariana Alves is a tech & gaming enthusiast and data-driven marketing professional. Mari has promoted SaaS, Games, and Apps across global markets (EMEA, UK, US, Brazil), boasting 5+ years of remote work experience.