Much like seeking a community when moving afar or when traveling, community should also be sought, nurtured, and maintained in the technology industry. Community reminds us of home because it can create a safe space for people to feel open, candid, and seek joy with others.

As humans, we crave to be around others and research has shown a higher likelihood of people functioning better when experiencing togetherness. The camaraderie leveraged from communities allows us to become better people by adopting positive habits and broadening our perspective of the world. Community is pivotal to personal growth, as well as professional growth. Akin to seeking community when we may be far from home, it can also be achieved the same in the technology industry, regardless of where you are in your career.

The Oxford dictionary roughly defines community as “the feeling of sharing things and belonging to a group”. Knowledge transfer within tech communities allows technologists of varying backgrounds and expertise to continuously learn in order to expand their growth and develop their careers. Communities within the technology industry have an assortment of educational material to supplement learning, such as blog posts, videos, and tutorials. It shows that, no matter how long you have been in the industry, there can be useful knowledge to impart to others. For instance, early-career professionals can share reflections on how to secure a position in the industry with those who are searching for a Junior or Entry-Level role and with students or graduates seeking work experience. In addition, mid-career professionals can share knowledge on how to navigate the first few years in the career for progression to the early-careers community and the same from seniors to the mid-careers community.

As such, resource sharing is a constant for communities to continue to thrive and deliver value to their members. Resources do not always need to be in the form of educational materials produced by the author themselves, but sharing material that has worked for them, credible articles with tangible actions, or advice to the enquirer if they themselves had experienced something similar. Sharing resources allows one another within the community to grow, nurture connections, and derive value from the educational material produced by the original poster. Sharing resources may also help reduce “gatekeep” culture and allow people to feel less alone in their experiences.

People are one of the most valuable and important resources as their experiences can help cultivate a more positive journey in our career. People are also one of the most vital foundations of any community. Mentoring gives people the opportunity to give back to the community as a mentor through knowledge sharing and impartial advice, as well as giving mentees the opportunity to be guided through their career development and lean on an experienced industry professional. For something more targeted, some communities also provide coaching services. This allows members to have a more structured approach to navigating a single goal they wish to achieve within a set period of time. It can be an immersive experience that allows the member to be introspective through the help of their coach or mentor and identify the gaps to address, along with SMART goals in order to fill these gaps.

In addition, people within communities open an opportunity to network. The feeling of sharing things and belonging to a group can form the foundations to form meaningful connections with one another. Networking, especially for those who are new to the industry or new to networking in its entirety, may feel intimidated in approaching this as it can be an activity not done before. Networking can often be wrongly perceived as a formal activity, whereas it is simply connecting with people whose work you admire and who are also interested in your work. Communities can break down the barrier and the fear of networking by already providing a shared interest and common goal between two people.

Furthermore, communities allow people to be open and inquisitive. Whether it is navigating a new career, helping with learning a new programming language, or advice on preparing for certifications, the list goes on. The members can help provide motivation and keep you accountable in your learning path by giving their astute advice on areas that should be key to your focus. Communities within the technology industry can also be a safe space for those who are experiencing challenges and need solace by bringing people from different locations together in a centralised space. This can make people feel less isolated and more represented in their experiences. It can also reduce taboo in discussions that may feel most concerning to them, such as women’s health.

Communities, at the heart of it, help people to discover their passion and continuously remind them of the reason why they wanted to pursue a future in technology. A forum of people who consistently recognise your achievements, impart their knowledge, and give you a platform to speak up can help you to stay continuous on your journey. It can also give you the motivation to pay it forward and do the same for newer individuals in technology by helping them discover and ignite their passion. This, in turn, can produce a positive cycle of passionate technologists who are community-driven and wish to make a positive impact through their work and engagements.

Some of my favourite communities in technology:

• Women who Code
• Ladies in DevOps
• Ada’s List
• Code First Girls
• Like-Minded Females
• Free Code Camp

Article written by Ahsana Nabilah Choudhury, Associate at JPMorgan Chase & Co.

The post The Importance of Community appeared first on DevOps Online North America.

Indeed, a report by CodeinGame and CoderPad showed that many women are being overlooked when applying to tech roles. Although the IT industry is working to become more inclusive for women, less than a fifth of tech workers are female.

Hence, it is vital that recruiters work to remove bias when hiring and instead, focus more on candidate experience and talent. It was reported that more than four in ten recruiters are already using or planning to use skills-based assessments to improve diversity.

Hence, they are also proactively sourcing diverse candidates, by increasing awareness of unconscious bias, writing inclusive job descriptions, and creating diverse interview panels.

The post Tech recruiters to improve diversity when hiring appeared first on DevOps Online North America.

Indeed, the programs will be funded by Mastercard and will focus on cybersecurity training for women, new Canadians, displaced workers, and BIPOC professionals. The first one, the Mastercard Emerging Leaders in Cyber Initiative (ELCI), will support the development of female-identifying executive leaders in the cybersecurity industry; while the second – the  Mastercard Cyber Range Capstone Program will provide more hands-on cybersecurity training.

By doing so, Canada is hoping to gain more skilled workers in the cybersecurity sector, as well as women and people of color. It also aims to increase the understanding revolving around technical and non-technical jobs within cybersecurity all the while having more opportunities for people from diverse backgrounds.

The post Mastercard to lanch inlcusion and diversity programs in cybersecurity sector appeared first on DevOps Online North America.

Samskriti King has been an asset to Veracode over the course of 11 years, through different job roles, which eventually led to her delivering solutions to customers and working with analysts through corporate strategies.

Tech in general has been her fortey since a young age. “My interest in tech came about at boarding school in India. The only room that had air conditioning was the computer room. But once I took that class, I became hooked on technology. It was always about applications and tech with business for me,” she added.

Her most memorable moment working for Veracode was starting in stealth mode, to Gartner’s Magic Quadrant then classifying the company as a leader. After that, she knew they had “landed”.

But as a woman in the tech scene, has it always been easy for her?

King revealed: “I’m lucky. Veracode has a lot of diversity as a company. It consists of more than 50% woman, so we strive in that area. But if you look into the tech sector, it most certainly does lack in diversity.”

Recent studies estimate that almost 50% of women who go into technology leave the field (more than double of men), and women make up only a quarter of employees and 11% of executives in the tech industry, according to axios.

“I want people graduating with any degree to see tech as a career. It doesn’t sell itself and is full of an array of different functions. I want it to be an industry segment, and see more women, and people of colour.”

According to the United States Department of Commerce report, Women in STEM: 2017 Update, women make up around 24% of the national STEM workforce, with more women working in physical and life sciences, rather than in engineering, computer science and math.

In terms of what else technology firms lack, King believes people that do business with enterprises make stories too jargony and technical, instead of simply explaining outcomes and achievements. “More simpler stories need to be told, to attract more people without getting caught up,” she added.

King also noted that she knows a company leader who didn’t use LinkedIn, so he couldn’t act on being unconcious bias when employing.

Written by Leah Alger

The post Veracode discusses gender imbalance in the tech industry appeared first on DevOps Online North America.

Suarez highlights how working sufficiently in a dynamic workplace is crucial to Booking.com, since it is easier to build products for large diverse audiences from all over the world when you have a diverse team.

“Diversity and embracing diversity are much more profound. First and foremost, it is important for each person to be accepted. In a workplace where diversity is recognised and highly regarded there is less emphasis on conforming to a supposedly standard model of behaviour,” wrote Saurez in the recent blog post.

“We spend a large part of our lives at work. Why should work be, at all, about interacting with rows of faceless clones, all alike? Why wouldn’t you choose colleagues that will teach you, challenge you, enrich you and make you better instead? Why wouldn’t we encourage you to contribute in the same ways?”

‘Diversity gives us strength’

It is easy to create a disrespectful work environment with lack of empathy. Active steps towards positive communication and promoting diversity are key for colleagues, ensuring the workplace is a safe, friendly environment.

“By definition, any work environment is a small, closed group from which it’s difficult to walk away. Inside such a group, everyone should have an equal opportunity to be part of the group conversation with nobody feeling diminished or a less worthy contributor. Freedom of expression, often used as a justification to say anything, even offensive, can also though be the cover for a fraction of the group dominating all expression, even unintentionally,” Saurez observed.

“Be humble, open and friendly and remember that our diversity gives us strength. After all, this is one of our cornerstone values at Booking.com.”

The post The value of diversity at Booking.com appeared first on DevOps Online North America.