Coding Black Females Podcast
By Coding Black Females
Coding Black Females PodcastOct 01, 2021
Life as a Developer
Find out about Life as a Developer. We will have 3 members from Coding Black Females - Isabel Costa, Melisha Trout and Denise Dube discussing their role as a developer and how they got there! This was from an Empowerment Day put on for the Black Codher Bootcamp.
Meet A Coding Black Female - Lydia Mangeni Stewart
Meet Lydia Mangeni Stewart, she transitioned into her first role as a software engineer after completing the Kong x Coding Black Females Fellowship Programme earlier this year, and we get to hear her story! She was interviewed by the AMAZING Tanya Powell!
You can view her testimonial here: codingblackfemales.com/impact
Tanya: @heytanhey on instagram & twitter
Lydia: @warrior_queen1988 on instagram
Taking The Lead
Join us to discuss stepping into Leadership positions in tech. We will have 4 Black women from the Coding Black Females community discussing taking on Leadership roles, winning awards, taking ownership of your career, and creating changes.
Finding The Right Mentor
Join us to hear from 3 amazing speakers on how to find the right mentor. If you've been considering becoming a mentor or finding a mentor this is the perfect chance to find out what to look for!
Back To School Drive - Meet Lorraine Daley
Listen for the upcoming back-to-school drive in collaboration with Lorraine Daley.
Meet a Black Codher - Sanchia Mowett
In this podcast, listen to Sanchia's experience at the Black Coder Bootcamp and more.
Lightning Talks
As part of international women's day, we had 5 talks in the world of tech.
Teaching Computer Science
Join us with Head of Computer Science Tessy Mesindi and Computer Science Teacher Nadya French, while they talk about teaching computer science in schools.
Tech and Me: Discussing Neurodiversity, Chronic Illness, and Disability in Tech
In this event we discussed Neurodiversity*, Chronic Illness, and Disability with four Black women/NBP in the Tech space.
For this panel talk we were joined by 4 speakers in different tech roles who came together to talk about what their experiences have been like, challenges they have faced, and support they have received that has helped them flourish. This is an important topic to discuss whether it affects you currently, will do in the future, or not at all.
* Neurodiversity usually refers to range of specific learning differences including ADHD, Autism, Dyslexia, Dyspraxia, Epilepsy, and Tourettes
We've collected a range of resources mentioned in the talk here: bit.ly/TechAndMeResources
Brandwatch: Women in Product and Design
Hear from women in product & design at Brandwatch, they will tell us about how they've build their careers on their own terms, so you can keep rising while being authentically you
Technical Recruitment with Ricardo Thomas
This time around, we're joined by Ricardio Thomas to discuss current trends in Technical Recruitment.
Ricardo Thomas is a Tech Recruiter & Diversity Champion at Digital Vision Search. He helps interesting fintech, hedge fund & start-up technology companies hire software engineers & build diverse teams.
Connect with him here:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ricardo-thomas-606b5161/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Ricardo40972828
Technical Architecture & Leadership
We had 4 speakers in Technical Architecture and Leadership roles! Perfect opportunity for some technical talks from Black women in the industry. Details of speakers to follow!
Speakers
* Nana Fifield | VP of Engineering | Depop
* Akua Apeagyei | Cloud solution Architect | Microsoft
* Adiba Maduegbuna | Lead Android Engineer & Creative Technologist | Startups, ANIM Sessions
* LaBrina Loving | Senior Software Engineer | Microsoft
---- Talks ----
Akua Apeagyei: Authenticating Users On Mobile Apps With Azure B2C
Insight into Azure B2C and how it can be used to authenticate users.
Adiba Maduegbuna: Mobile First to Creative Tech : 9 years onwards
This talk is an overview of some of the most interesting projects I've worked on at different stages of my career.
It covers the technical side of building prototypes and products for mobile devices, wearables & immersive experiences.
Participants will leave with a better technical understanding of app development and augmented reality.
LaBrina Loving: Leading Technical Solutions from Behind
As a black female in tech, you are often met with bias and assumptions about your technical skills. As soon as you walk into the room, you invoke surprise followed by doubt about your abilities. This bias grows 10x when you ascend into more senior technical roles. In this talk, I will discuss some of the approaches I've learned over the years to build authentic trust and leadership among colleagues even when you start from behind.
---- Details of Speakers -----
Akua Apeagyei
Cloud Solution Architect @ Microsoft, Speaker and founder of Anomaly's Views , a platform where I share my tech journey and all of the in-betweens to encourage people to pursue their career aspirations.
Adiba Maduegbuna
Adiba is an Android Engineer and creative technologist with industry experience across various corporations and startups.
She holds a BSc in Computer Science from University College London.
In 2019 she founded ANIM Sessions, a creative studio specialising in interactive virtual experiences.
She also enjoys Djing and writing code in Kotlin.
LaBrina Loving
LaBrina Loving is a Senior Software Engineer and Cloud Architect at Microsoft with over 20 years of experience. In her role, she is focused on helping organizations migrate to Azure and modernize for cloud. She works with them to leverage the cloud for cutting edge technologies like Serverless, Containers, and DevOps. LaBrina is a speaker doing conferences and user groups all over the world and enjoys volunteering with many STEM organizations such as Black Girls Code. She has recently started a Podcast "Disrupting the Cloud" that highlights the journey of cloud newbies and professionals in cloud computing, especially women and BiPOC.
Meet A Black Codher: Charlene Grant
Meet Charlene Grant, one of the fantastic women on the Black Codher Bootcamp 2020. Between August and January, Charlene trained to be a Full Stack Developer on the Black Codher Bootcamp run by Coding Black Females and Niyo Enterprise.
We're so excited to have her on the podcast!
You can find Charlene here:
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/affirmedvisionary/
- https://twitter.com/AffirmedVision
- https://www.instagram.com/affirmedvisionary/
Coding Black Females x BCS Membership Bursary Discussion
Charlene Hunter, CEO and Founder of Coding Black Females interviews Julie Andrews and Jenna Griffin from BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT.
Coding Black Females and BCS have recently partnered to private a BCS Membership Bursary to 50 members of Coding Black Females. This bursary will be for women at all levels of their career, and paired with a programme of mentoring and events, with opportunities to contribute to news articles and policy.
To apply for the bursary, please head to http://bit.ly/CBFxBCS
#bcs #codingblackfemales #womenintech #blackwomenintech #blacktech
Tech for Good: Global Health & Human Rights with Kadye Global
Technical Crafts in Entertainment
We're joined by RaGene Nomolos-Dixon a Senior Solutions Engineer at Netflix.
Join us for a discussion of Technical Crafts in Entertainment. He'll be sharing some insights about working at Netflix, exciting projects and how you could get into the field.
Definitely worth joining to be part of the conversation.
Black Women in Gaming
The event will be hosted by Chantelle Larmond, a Project Coordinator at Sony Playstation
We have 5 speakers
Eneni Abban: Robotics & AI Engineer - The Future of Gaming
Joy Ajayi: Gameplay Programmer - Through my lens
Liz Wright: Client Side Programmer at Mediatonic
Alexis Russell: Producer at Guerilla Games on Horizon Zero Dawn
Danielle Udogaranya - Bringing Culture to the Sims
Eneni Abban - The Future of Gaming
(insta: @thetechover | twitter: @the_techover)
Eneni Abban is a robotics and artificial intelligence engineer with a strong passion in all things nerd culture - gaming, anime, books and much more. An advocate for diversity and inclusion, she has created several groups within both the engineering and the gaming/anime space for people regardless of gender, race or sexual orientation to feel safe and meet other people with similar interests.
Joy Ajayi - Through my lens
Joy Ajayi is a gameplay programmer with experience in game engines such as Unity and Unreal engine 4.
She is currently pursuing her B.Eng. in Computer Engineering at Covenant University in Nigeria. She is also a Women in Games Ambassador and advocate for women in the gaming scene in Nigeria and Africa. She also volunteers at game industry events, and helped in the organising of the recently concluded Africacomicade Gamathon.
Liz Wright
Liz Wright is a Client Side Programmer at Mediatonic. During her four years in the industry, she was the lead programmer for the acclaimed puzzle detective game Murder by Numbers, and pioneered the development of a new cross project build system (earning her the title of Build Master at Mediatonic). Her achievements in these areas earned her a spot in MCV's 30 under 30 list in 2019. Liz now works with the Central Services team, and uses scalable core tech to support weird and wonderful games.
Alexis Russell
My gaming passion started at age 5 when my dad gave me an N64, and while I’ve played my entire life, I didn’t start seriously thinking about a gaming career until university. Over my last five years in the industry, I’ve been fortunate to work on some exciting projects, such as Bioshock: The Collection, God of War, Just Cause 4, and now the upcoming Horizon Forbidden West. Outside of games, I like to do a lot of hands-on crafts - cooking, origami, weaving - but not all of them well.
Danielle Udogaranya - Bringing Culture to the Sims
(@EbonixSims)
Danielle is a Content Creator, Twitch Partner, EA Game Changer and self-taught 3D artist. Since 2015, Danielle took it upon herself to learn 3D modelling so that she could create hairs, clothes and accessories so that she could feel represented in games that she frequented, such as The Sims 4. Sharing her content with others, who also didn’t feel represented, brought her a community who shared her concerns about the lack of content available to create characters that look like them. Dani has since developed a vast follow base and become an advocate for diversity and representation in gaming and has been featured on BBC Africa, BBC World News, The Guardian, Red Bull Gaming, Polygon, Eurogamer, Quirktastic, Dazed, TwoFiveSix and more for her afrocentric content. She advocate for gaming diversity and representation, and her goal is to enable POC to see themselves represented in every game, not just The Sims.
Bridging The Gap
This episode we were joined by Janique-ka John, Co-Founder of Women In Tech Caribbean and Siobhan Baker from the Coding Black Females Leadership Team. We have a great conversation about the importance of tech communities for underrepresented groups, visibility through public speaking and bridging the gap between the Caribbean islands.
Janique-ka John is a Frontend Engineer at MEDIAGENIX, she is originally from St Vincent and is now based in Brussels. She does a lot of public speaking and is really passionate about connecting the Caribbean islands through technology, and getting more women into tech.
Siobhan Baker is a Software Engineer at 8th Light, and also a public speaker and mentor. She has been involved in community organisations for the last few years, being a person of influence, and creating a space for women in tech.
Socials
Siobhan Baker @sohbaker
Janique-ka-John @janiquekajohn
Women In Tech Caribbean @WomenCaribbean
Isabel Costa: Contributing to Open Source
Isabel is a Software Engineer from Portugal, currently based in London, UK. She is passionate about contributing to Open Source and helping people feel less intimidated by it. She was a Google Summer of Code (GSoC) student and this year she is a GSoC mentor and admin with AnitaB.org Open Source. She is also one of the Community Leaders for AnitaB.org London chapter.
LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/isabelcmdcosta
Twitter: https://twitter.com/isabelcmdcosta
Isabel shares some really useful insights about contributing to Open Source including tips on how to get started and how to get involved.
Here are some really handy resources she mentions during the talk:
Google Summer of Code: https://summerofcode.withgoogle.com/
24 Pull Requests: https://24pullrequests.com/
Hacktoberfest: https://hacktoberfest.digitalocean.com/
Outreachy: https://www.outreachy.org/
Open Food Facts organization: https://github.com/openfoodfacts
Open Data Kit organization: https://github.com/getodk
Hire me (the first project she contributed to): https://github.com/fvcproductions/hire-me
AnitaB.org Open Source on GitHub: https://github.com/anitab-org
Overcoming blockers about contributing to Open Source: https://isabelcosta.github.io/posts/overcoming-blockers-about-contributing-to-open-source/
Cybersecurity with Seidea: Security Malware Threats 101
Looking for a new job or thinking about a career change? Then give cybersecurity a serious consideration. According to Cybersecurity Ventures, there will be up to 3.5 million job openings by 2021. And as remote working is becoming the norm, companies are looking to implement tighter security controls to protect these new operating models.
In this online webinar, you will learn more malware, a software intentionally designed to cause damage to a computer, server, client, or computer network. You will learn the wide variety of types of malware that exist, such as Trojan horses, logic bombs, ransomware, spyware and many more. The workshop will also touch upon ways you can protect against malware.
Leading this event will be Stephanie Itimi, founder of Seidea. Seidea is an award-winning global movement to diversify the Cybersecurity industry that began in 2018. Seidea are on a mission to upskill 1 million Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) women for careers in cybersecurity by 2040. Visit them at www.seidea.org, @seideasi on Twitter and Instagram. You can also listen to the Seipod to find out more about cybersecurity.
Lightning Talks... Take Two!
We had a fantastic evening of Lightning Talks on 15th July.
Details of all the speakers can be found here: https://codingblackfemales.com/talks
Technology Deep Dive
* Amina Adewusi | A journey through Scala
* Danni Youziel | Auth0 and The Invalid Token
Learning in a Pandemic
* Olivia Campbell | Head in the clouds whilst getting certified
* Shaquilla Johnson | Detoxing from Dopamine
* Temi Olukoko | Completing 100 days of code in quarantine
* Yasmin Ali | Learning during a pandemic
A tech journey
* Omotola Shogunle | Against all odds: My tech story
* Sandra Edmund | From U’s at A-level to Being a Master’s Student
* Tessy Mosindi | Black unicorn - occupying spaces against the odds
* Naomi Robinson | Geography Graduate working in tech
Lightning Talks... Take One!
We had a fantastic evening of Lightning Talks on 8th July.
Details of all the speakers can be found here: https://codingblackfemales.com/talks
Health and Wellbeing
* Diane Laidlaw | Self Care Wednesdays
* Faith Ruto MBA | Personal Resilience during a pandemic and beyond
A Tech Journey
* Audrey Limery | Break Boundaries in the Tech Industry
* Talja Parkinson | Leadership In Tech
* Nkechi Adeboye | Tech, Changes, Creativity and Curiosity
* Isabel Costa | My journey to contributing to Open Source
Learning in a Pandemic
* Rhianna Stuart | Learning in a pandemic with a baby
* Ibi-ilate Braide | Might and Mind
Maya Saffron: Personal Training & Coding
Maya is an amazing Coding Black Female! She has been a women-only Personal Trainer for the past 5 years, specialising in Pre and Post Natal women. On top of this she runs the Tried It Podcast (@trieditpodcast), and runs Boss Your Body Events all whilst learning to code.
She's been featured in the Metro in the article Strong Women: Body Standards are dictated by white people, and is set on creating a safe space for women of colour to train and feel good about their bodies. Definitely get in contact with her if you're looking for a personal trainer.
We have a really interesting and insightful discussion about personal training and her learning to code to build her business! Enjoy listening.
You can find Maya on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/mayasaffronhan or http://whatsmayadoing.com
Metro: https://metro.co.uk/2020/06/24/strong-women-body-standards-white-people-12894920/
Tried It Podcast - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/trieditpodcast
Tried It Podcast: https://linktr.ee/trieditpodcast
Changing Your Path To Tech
Hear the stories of women who have successfully changed career to a tech role. We'll start with Ekua Cant, a career coach, telling us the steps to take, then from Kathryn Tingle, Elle Hallal and Nyasha Duri who have successfully changed careers will be on a panel for Q&A.
Ekua Cant
Ekua lives to make people be their own cheerleader! Ekua started her career as a personal assistant to a Director working in the UK Civil Service, working with numerous Government Departments the Cabinet Office, Home Office and left as an IT Project Manager. She formerly ran DrinksBot, an on-demand drinks delivery service enabled by a Slack Chatbot. She’s currently coaching, writing a motivational self help book, and mentoring.
Check out beyournumberonecheerleader.com
Kathryn Tingle (@KathrynLilliana)
Kathryn is a Technical Programme Manager at Sainsbury’s Tech, with a strategy consulting background. She’s a speaker and advises start ups and scale ups on their strategic roadmaps. Writer of a “Non-techies Journey to Tech” blog highlighting non-traditional career pathways.
Elle Hallal (@ElleHallal)
Elle is a Software Crafter at 8th Light, following an apprenticeship run by Black Girl Tech. She started her career change with a lot of self study and then found a structured program to jump start her career. She is also on the Leadership Team for Coding Black Females.
Nyasha Duri (@NyashaDuri)
Nyasha works in the transparency team at mySociety on the world's largest freedom of information database relied upon by millions worldwide. Before this, her career encompassed roles across education, government, peacebuilding, marketing, and research to name a few while developing skills through a mixture of self taught learning and on the job training. She is also the Founder of Your Career Site and has recently been selected for the Founders of the Future Fellowship.
Arcade Kwaku: From Healthcare To Tech
We are joined by Arcade Kwaku, a Coding Black Female. She explains changing from a career in healthcare to becoming a technical analyst. We get an insight into her experiences as a black woman in tech, and all the amazing things she’s been learning during the COVID-19 pandemic.
She recently wrote a blog on completing a Udacity Nanodegree in 30 days, you can read it here: https://medium.com/codingblackfemales/i-completed-udacitys-nanodegree-in-30-days-here-s-how-it-went-d0059992a94f
Dr Andrea Burris: What Is A User Researcher?
Andrea Burris is a Senior User Researcher, with a background in Psychology and Human Factors. She has 7 years experience working across academia, government and tech industry, working with a variety of organisations from large retailers to small tech start ups. Her main focus within her career has been to ensure the business focus is led by user insights and to continually bring the voice of the end user into the design process at every stage.
She gives us an insight into her role and her journey so far. She also tells us what a day in the life of a User Researcher is like, and how she’s balancing work and play in the current lockdown.
You can find Andrea on Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn
Twitter: https://twitter.com/andr3aburris
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrea-burris-ux-researcher
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/here_4_now
To find out more about Coding Black Females, follow us:
Website: codingblackfemales.com
Facebook: facebook.com/codingblackfemales
Instagram: instagram.com/codingblackfemales
Twitter: twitter.com/codingblackfems
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/codingblackfemales
Meetup: meetup.com/Coding-Black-Females
Tech X Motherhood
Are you a mother? parent? carer? first-born sibling? Are you hoping to be in the future? Or can your colleague or friends answer yes to those questions?
Join us as we discuss what it is like managing caring responsibilities whilst pursuing a career in a fast-paced, male-dominated, and ever-changing industry.
For this episode we have 4 speakers at different stages in their tech journeys come together to talk about what their experiences have been like, challenges they have faced, and support they have received that has helped them flourish.
Adanna Achonu
Adanna Achonu is a QA Analyst who is employed at FlexTrade Systems, a global leader that develops financial trading software. Last year she started Mama Code It after being made redundant to commit to learning new skills and to find other mamas doing the same. She has a 2 year old son and is currently pregnant with her second child due in July.
Eithel Anderson
Eithel Anderson is a mum of two who recently transitioned into tech. She previously worked for TFL in the dial-a-ride department and then went on to complete Makers Academy bootcamp. She is now working as a Junior Fullstack Software engineer for Clearscore who are a credit report company.
Angela Maugey
Angela Maugey is a mid-level full stack software engineer who is employed at OnCare, a company building SAAS tools for the domiciliary care industry. She has a 6 month old baby and is currently on maternity leave. Before she was a software engineer, she was a pastry chef and re-skilled to join the tech industry 3 years ago.
Talja Parkinson
Talja is Data Professional, Diversity Champion and most importantly, Mum to 3 boys aged 16, 12 and 3. She has spent the best part of the last 20 years leading technical teams in fields of Data Analytics & Business Intelligence, across a number of organisations including, Sky, Capita and Serco.
Talja has recently stepped out of her Corporate 9 to 5 role to start up her own Consultancy & Coaching business, where she is using her valuable experience to coach Leaders, especially in the Technology Sector, on the benefits and importance of creating and nurturing dynamic, engaged and diverse teams.
Olivia Campbell: A Coding Black Female
Olivia Campbell has been in tech for 3 years, and is on the Coding Black Females Leadership Team. We hear about how she changed career into tech after completing the Le Wagon bootcamp. She also gives us an insight into the hobbies she's picked up during the COVID-19 lockdown.
You can find Olivia on Twitter and LinkedIn
Twitter: https://twitter.com/oecampbell
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/oecampbell/
To find out more about Coding Black Females, follow us:
Website: codingblackfemales.com
Facebook: facebook.com/codingblackfemales
Instagram: instagram.com/codingblackfemales
Twitter: twitter.com/codingblackfems
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/codingblackfemales
Meetup: meetup.com/Coding-Black-Females
A Spotlight On... Roles In Tech
This episode showcases other exciting areas in technology that are not traditional software development. We'll be joined by a Product Manager, UX/UI Designer, Data Scientist and DevOps Engineer.
You'll be able to hear more about the work that they do, the skills each role requires, how each of our speakers got to where they are, and ask any questions that you have!
Introductions
Yasmin Taylor, Platform Data Engineer - Covers DevOps
https://www.instagram.com/taila_sky/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/yasmin-taylor-997769b9/
Jayde-Olivia Sandy, User Interface Designer - Covers UX/UI Design
https://www.instagram.com/jayde_olivia/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaydeolivia/
Jean Jimbo, Product Manager - Covers Product Management
https://twitter.com/jeanjimbo
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeanjimbo/
Eva Muiruri, Data Science Consultant - Covers Data Science
https://twitter.com/Eva_WM
Q&A
Coding Black Females Presents: Black Female Founders
This episode we are joined by 4 Black Females Founders/Entrepreneurs having a discussion about their experiences founding their organisations.
We were joined by:
- Ekua Akumanyi from Furnishful,
- Dominique Lescott from Hairpopp,
- Melissa Wills from Women Like Me,
- Marcia Brock from Smart Kid/Smart World