Panel: Ruby's Killer Feature: The Community
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00:00
Goodness of fitOrder (biology)CodeObservational studyRow (database)Remote procedure callSinc functionHand fanSubject indexingMultiplicationInclusion mapEvent horizonSelf-organizationBitProcess (computing)SoftwareLocal GroupSoftware engineeringSpacetimeContext awarenessFeedbackControl flowElectronic program guideWage labourFront and back endsPrincipal idealMereologyContent (media)Mobile WebLevel (video gaming)Computer scienceReverse engineeringSimilarity (geometry)DistanceBuildingPlastikkarteLogical constantSet (mathematics)Service (economics)Lattice (order)Right angleMultiplication signOnline helpSlide ruleConfidence intervalSocial classElectronic mailing listScripting languageJava appletRoundness (object)Forcing (mathematics)Expert systemThermal conductivityTheoryAreaConsistencyStaff (military)NewsletterWhiteboardPoint (geometry)CASE <Informatik>DebuggerPresentation of a groupShared memoryRadiusProjective planeInternet forumMeeting/Interview
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Local GroupEvent horizonProcess (computing)Dublin CoreCrash (computing)MereologyTransportation theory (mathematics)CodeDifferent (Kate Ryan album)Figurate numberType theoryRule of inferenceSelf-organizationParameter (computer programming)Uniform resource locatorVapor barrierWordArithmetic meanPhysical systemThermal conductivityProjective planeMultiplication signWhiteboardRevision controlSet (mathematics)Software developerDynamical systemData conversionSemiconductor memoryLatent heatSoftware frameworkRoutingInternet forumFormal languageBitConnected spacePoint (geometry)Data storage deviceWebsiteIntegrated development environmentNumberAreaTheoryGame theorySpacetimeExpandierender GraphGame controllerMixed realityOnline helpIncidence algebraMathematicsEqualiser (mathematics)Sinc functionGoodness of fitQuicksortImage registrationMeeting/Interview
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Event horizonAreaPattern languageConfidence intervalFigurate numberRight angleDigital mediaSource codeMultiplication signSoftwareCartesian coordinate systemSelf-organizationPressureFront and back endsSpherical capGame controllerTwitterResultantComputer configurationOnline helpSocial classComputer-assisted translationForcing (mathematics)DataflowSpring (hydrology)Commitment schemeWebsiteCuboidInterface (computing)Food energyLocal GroupMereologyConnected spaceScripting languageTheoryProcess (computing)Local ringSoftware frameworkLevel (video gaming)MetreSoftware developerPoint (geometry)Goodness of fitBitBuildingInheritance (object-oriented programming)Ruby on RailsLogical constantSimilarity (geometry)CodeDifferent (Kate Ryan album)Absolute valueElectronic program guideMeeting/Interview
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Rule of inferenceXML
Transcript: English(auto-generated)
00:00
Good morning. Hopefully, you all enjoyed the keynote and the break that we just had.
00:23
We are continuing today with our panel's track and really excited for this session on Ruby's killer feature. I'm going to introduce Chris, who's the moderator. Chris is the VP of engineering at Radius Networks, where he builds mobile proximity
00:40
tools and services. He co-founded the Arlington Ruby Group and helps organize both Ruby Retrocession and Ruby for Good events. Enjoy the panel. All right. So, I'm going to go through and we'll do a quick introductions,
01:02
and then we'll get started. Sorry, it's you. Oh, it's me. Introductions. Hi, everybody. My name is Zorin Hunter. I am a Howard University alum of computer information systems major, and I'm also the Women Who Code Ruby on Rails lead in Washington, DC,
01:21
and I am a junior software engineer at Digital Globe. Hi, everybody. My name is Latoya. I am the founder of Shenomads, an inclusive space in tech for people who want to travel while working remotely, and I'm also a principal Rails engineer at Daily Kos. Hey, I'm Sean. I'm Sean Marcia.
01:43
I made slides for everybody. Now, we go to Sean. That's me. Not the Sasquatch. Yeah, I help organize the Ruby for Good, and I work for the government. Latoya already introduced herself.
02:07
Allison introduced me. No one needs to hear any more about that. One thing is we'd like to have your questions, and I put some index cards in the front two rows up here, and if you can, I'd love it for people to come up, grab an index card,
02:23
write down a question, and then you can just come and hand it up to me if you'd like. Please feel free to do that. I'd like to be able to go through some of those. All right. So the actual panel. So before we go into the questions, let's get a little bit of context.
02:42
So can you just, probably, the elevator pitch for one of the communities, organizations that you guys organize, let's go in reverse order from before, since Sean's holding the microphone. So the pitch I like to give, I like to talk about Ruby for Good,
03:03
and you've probably heard it and seen people wearing the shirts here. It's a long weekend, long event where we get a lot of people like us together, and we help nonprofits, places that really need our skills, but would never be able to afford you and me, and we build them software for a long weekend, and it's a lot of fun.
03:23
So as I said before, Shino has this space in tech for people who want to travel while they work remotely, and I think a big part of working tech is constantly working on your skill set. So we have free coding classes, study groups, an accountability group, and we also do a remote work and wellness retreat, because I think those things are also important for us as people in tech.
03:43
All right, and Women Who Code is a global nonprofit organization who's dedicated to creating a community and a network for women in tech, or women who would love to join tech, and for what we do, depending on the chapter,
04:00
but in the DC chapter, what we do is we have weekly meetings across multiple subjects, so Python, Java, Ruby and Rails, and front-end work, and we host workshops, talks, and just basically give a support group for women who are interested and who are in the industry, and just share our knowledge. So one of the things I'd like to set is, originally when I pitched the idea for this panel,
04:26
was I find it very intriguing, folks working in helping with the community, and moving it along, starting more groups, spinning things off, encouraging people to move up.
04:40
We had a wonderful panel discussion on the first day about getting involved in the community, and how you can do that. This is a little bit more focused on the next step. You're already involved in the community, or you're participating in the community, and how can you step up and organize, or if you're organizing, how can you
05:00
evolve the groups you're in, spin out new groups, and basically build up the infrastructure that we, as Rubyists, have to rely on. So with that, the first thing I'd like to talk about is member engagement, and so my first question is just how do you get consistent members in the organizations that you
05:25
help with? For Women Who Code, the way we get consistent members is, of course, we had to start off with feedback when we first get the ladies on board, so we like to figure out what topics they're interested in, what topics specifically for our case, Ruby on Rails,
05:45
also the content. We try to put forth the best content whatsoever, so we go into really hone a lot into the beginners, as we all were once beginners, so we all think of the things that beginners would like to know or don't know, and just clarify it in our first
06:04
timer's night, and then give them footsteps, I mean steps, into what is the next thing that they can do to improve on this, and we go along the way with it. So I think having that constant engagement with them, and we use Slack, we leverage Slack to the 100% extent,
06:21
but keeping that constant engagement with them outside of our events is what helps them come back more, so it's really on the leads as well as the community members to keep that going. I just pay attention to what people want. I noticed that a lot of people were leaving other spaces because they didn't have code of conduct, so I got a code of conduct, or I noticed that,
06:43
you know, people were having problems getting jobs specifically at remote companies that would allow them to travel, which is a ton of fun, so I started a job board, and we started pulling in sponsors for companies that were hiring to work in our newsletter, so I think just listening to your community and meeting their needs is super important.
07:05
Yeah, and I'd also add that you need to make your members feel like they're part of the community, engage them, have them all speak when you have an event, like something we do at our meetup is all the people come, we have them do an iceberg at the beginning, tell them something interesting with themselves, and if they're trapped in a desert island, what would they bring?
07:24
community and the people that are there, things like that, and don't just, like, leave when the meetup's over, like, engage the people, go to coffee, go to a nearby coffee shop, and build community. So kind of spinning off of that, how do you encourage people to
07:42
actually either present at a meet-up or step up and lead a project or participate at the next more higher level. So I'm a big fan of just voluntarily telling people to do things.
08:01
She's been voluntold. Many times. So like a lot of people really want to volunteer. They want to, but I feel a lot of them are just self-conscious. And so like just sit with them and it's like, hey, how about on this day, I know you've been working on this, how about you come and give a talk in this and it's a cool nokoguri scraping thing you've been doing. And then they do.
08:22
I think for She Nomads, because our events are typically remote, it's just a really convenient way for people to contribute to the community. If someone wants to come in and teach a class or lead an AMA, they can do that. And then if there happen to be a bunch of people who are in New York one weekend or Mexico City or Lisbon, then I'm like, yes, please, organize a meet-up
08:45
and just have it under She Nomads and it works really well. So I want to make it a little more specific for Zuri. So you run a lot of workshops. How would you convince someone who feels like they might be too junior to lead or help other people out?
09:03
Encouragement, like talk to them and be like, hey, you can do this. You can do this. We can help you. We can help you put together to talk and everything. But I think the issue with that is they're not confident in their skill when actually they know their stuff, even though they labor their self as a junior and whatnot.
09:23
So what we do is we talk to them and like, of course, like talk about over the stuff that they want to cover and just like guide them on that and then hopefully push them to the next level and setting a date and promoting it for them to come through. So similar question for Sean.
09:41
So at Ruby for Good, one of the problems is finding people that can lead projects. Is there a good way to take somebody who might feel like they're under qualified and encourage them into that sort of role? Yeah, definitely. Like something we've started doing is we've, like if you're a junior or you don't think you have the skills and if you're here, you have the skills.
10:02
So come lead a project. But we'll find someone more senior in the community, like a senior developer and pair them up and say, hey, this is your senior mentor and they will guide you through the process. If you have any questions, anything at all, come to them and they'll help you out. Excellent. So I'd kind of like to change the topic a little bit.
10:24
So Latoya, you mentioned the code of conduct. So how important is it or is there any specific language or points that need to be made about a code of conduct when working with a community like this? Yeah, I think there's two things.
10:42
Number one, have one. Number two, enforce it. When people start acting up or playing games, you need to remove them from your community. I think it's really important to provide a safe space for people. And I think Ruby in general does like a great job at that. But I would love to see more communities really step up and have a code
11:03
of conduct but also enforce it. So have any of you had any specific times when you've had to actually deal with a conflict in your organization? How is that resolved? Specific names would be best.
11:26
So far since we started, we've actually had like a really great community. Everybody was respectful to each other. But we did recently have an incident and how we handled it I think was absolutely phenomenal.
11:41
But first we thought we should have something like a strike system, a three strike system. So if this is your first offense and everything, we talked to that person and it's like, hey, we would like for you to not do that. Here's the reason why. This is our code of conduct. We want to keep this as a positive, open, relaxed community because you know
12:03
that would scare people away. And if they repeat it again, you just remind them. But the third time around, we would like put them on probation and like keep them away and then like explain why. But the key thing is for us is to reach out to the individual to let them know like,
12:21
this is not okay, here's how we can like work with each other. If you're misunderstood, let's like have this conversation. But there really is like to have, I realize that it's really good to have like not just, oh, you're out the community immediately, but more of like a strike system or just give them a chance or some sort.
12:42
So one of the questions, the counterarguments I've heard sometimes is we don't need more rules, why don't we just be nice or be polite to folks. Would you have a counter to somebody making that statement? I mean, I would say people have been fighting for equality in tech for over 50 years.
13:03
So obviously, we haven't figured out how to play nice. And when they're ready to do that, then we can maybe have that discussion. But until then, I think that's the least, like not having something, not having a framework for people to reference is like the least important part of that discussion, I think.
13:21
I agree. All right, so changing to more diversity in culture. So just in general, how do you encourage diversity in the organizations?
13:41
I'm black, so I literally just show up. You know, it's really not a problem for us. I think when we first started She Nomads, we really wanted to make sure that everyone was either already a part of an underrepresented group in tech or an ally to that group. And I think because of that, we turned off a lot of people, and our growth was very small,
14:01
but it ended up serving us really well because we don't have those issues. And it's been a really great experience. We actually just had a conversation about this, like the leadership team of our Meetup. And we recognize that we're not the most diverse group. And one of the things we're going to do is we're going to add more organizers to our Meetup,
14:23
more people of different that don't look like us. So when people come into the Meetup and they see the person running it looks like them, they're more inclined to stay and take part rather than the people who just look like us. For Women Who Code, clearly it's all women, but we do come from very different
14:44
diverse backgrounds. One thing we've been really noticing or trying to keep in mind is the area of where we host our Meetups as well as certain barriers that would prevent a certain particular group of women from attending. So that would be people from different economic backgrounds who don't really have
15:04
a car and they need public transportation to get to our locations. So we try to put together events or talks and workshops that will eliminate those barriers for those people, for those women who have that type of background and hopefully continue
15:23
having that diverse background from there. So, Sean, since Ruby for Good isn't aimed specifically at a group that might be underrepresented, it's more of a general thing, are there any steps that you take to encourage the
15:45
diversity other than, you know, organizers that might not look the same? No, definitely, definitely. And, you know, before registration opens, I'm always reaching out to diverse groups. And if you do come to Ruby for Good, you'll notice that it doesn't look like a
16:01
typical technology event. We're very diverse. Like this year, I guess, not including sponsor tickets because we have no control of who those go to, but 44% of the...or I guess 56% is male and 44% is female. So that's a pretty good mix for a tech event.
16:22
So are there any specifics for anybody? Are there specific suggestions for if...so somebody here is a meet-up organizer and they'd like to become...encourage more diversity, what's a concrete example of something that you can do that would help encourage that?
16:44
I feel like if you see somebody that's, like, you know, doesn't really typically show up to your events, like, reach out and talk to them and try to bring them under your wing or on board with what you're trying to do. I like...when you, like, talk to them and it feels like they're more included,
17:01
even though they're like, oh, why are you talking to me? I just want to look around and see what you're doing. But I feel like if you reach out to them and let them know, like, hey, I see you, I would like more people like you to come to our event, that will really help encourage them and make them a little bit more comfortable and, like, change the whole dynamics of your meet-ups.
17:21
So I'm going to chime in, even though I'm a moderator and I'm not supposed to. But specifically about this panel, I wanted to find, you know, somebody that wasn't a white dude like myself. And the way we went about that was I talked to Allison, who helps with the conference.
17:42
And I knew that she had connections. And kind of like Marco was saying in the keynote, you know, I know a person that knew a person and then that was able to come through. In the end, I was super psyched and happier with how the panel turned out than what would have happened if I would have just gone out and tried to find somebody by myself.
18:01
So I think relying on those connections is a good go-to. Okay. So we talked about diversity of the people inside the meet-up. I think there's also an important thing about diversity of meet-ups or groups that you're involved in. How do you encourage your members to kind of expand out to other parts of the
18:23
community or things that you're not even necessarily involved in? We usually, like, organize meet-ups to crash other meet-ups. But that's a way of how we do it. Like, say, I think it was Arlington RV or I think there was something,
18:42
a meet-up not too long ago that we decided to, like, instead of, like, having our own little one, let's go and attend theirs. And we just show up in a group and we do the same thing for DC Tech events, too. Like, a whole bunch of ladies for Women Who Code will come to the event and attend it. And hopefully, that, like, encouraged them to feel comfortable in an environment where
19:01
they don't have to come with us. But that's our way of, like, trying to branch out outside of just the Women Who Code organization. So, like, even though we're a Ruby meet-up, like, one thing we do is we encourage other disciplines to come give talks at our meet-up, maybe talk about Elixir,
19:23
talk about one of the 600 JavaScript frameworks, or something. Because then, you know, people come, they get introduced to these different things. And a lot of times, it's, like, an organizer or a member of these other meet-ups, and then they give them the resources to then go and take part. I absolutely love linking up with other meet-up organizers and just combining
19:48
and doing events. I don't think I do it enough, actually. I try to do it quarterly. But, for example, we linked up with Chicago PyLadies, and we did an event with them called 100 Days of Commits, and we had them come in and teach a class
20:02
for us, too, on building Twitter bots, which was really cool. So, I think just joining forces is a great thing. So, I definitely, you know, there's a certain amount of overlap between
20:21
different meet-ups or maybe similar meet-ups within the same geographic area. So, a couple of us are from DC, and we have an amazing tech community there. However, I remember it was something like six years ago this month, I'm just guessing, that Arlington Ruby was started, which, you know,
20:41
there was already DC Rug, Ruby users group, and there was Nova Rug. And so, Arlington is kind of both of those. So, obviously, Sean was vindictive trying to take away from both DC and Nova and crush them and take over the whole area.
21:02
How do you feel, like, how did you feel when Reston on Rails started and decided to do the same thing to Arlington Ruby? I was happy when Reston launched their inferior meet-up. I'm joking.
21:21
No, no, it was, like, I was happy. Like, it just shows the community is growing, there's more people, and, like, I was really excited because, like, more talks, like, more chance for me to learn, and just more people coming into the community. And, like, and the reason we started Arlington Ruby was, like, DC Ruby at the time was always full, people couldn't get in,
21:41
and so we were, like, well, let's, you know, let's start our own, and we all live in Arlington, like, we didn't live in the district, and so it just made sense. So, Zuri, I know that there are some very similar groups in DC also doing things. Do you feel, like, that more options is better?
22:01
Of course, of course. There are certain topics that they will probably cover that we don't get a chance to cover, so the more options the better, so we can have, like, the ladies explore what they want to, like, be interested in. But, yeah, the more options the better. And, obviously, Latoya, you want to be the only online... I want to be the only online meet-up for people who travel ever
22:24
for anything. No, I mean, it's the same thing. For me, especially, I would love more help, actually. There's so many people that are, like, on the other side of the planet who want to do things, and I'm sleeping at that time, or vice versa. Like, I would love to be able to say,
22:41
hey, I have these, like, 10 users on your side of the world. Here you go. The reason I'm asking these hilariously worded questions is just want to impress upon the folks here that, as organizers, we're thrilled when somebody else opens up next door doing the exact same thing.
23:01
The more groups, the better, and the more we build out the community, it's going to be slightly different for different people, and they'll just click with other folks, and then they can work together. Right now, there's lots of overlap, you know, with Arlington Ruby, and Silver Spring Ruby, and the DC Rug, and Rest On Rails, and then, you know, it can all come together for local conferences
23:22
and other events, crashing meet-ups, which is fantastic. Super fun. Yeah. So, if you're, like, thinking, ah, I'd like to do this because I really don't want to drive for 20 minutes to go to a meet-up, you should start one, and highly encourage that. All right. So, I have a...let me go through a couple of questions.
23:44
So, I want to start with Latoya. So, T-Nomads is online virtual meet-up, but somehow, you ended up doing a co-located event where you brought a lot of people
24:00
to Mexico. How did that come about? So, when I first started traveling or working remotely, I didn't... I found that I couldn't find community, right? It's like, if I'm in New York or something, there's a ton of meet-ups. I can go and meet people. And I just found that a lot of people who were having the same problem, you know, it's like, you want to get out of the U.S.
24:22
and work somewhere else where it's cheap, and the food... I mean, hello, Mexican food is just amazing, right? So, you want to go and have that experience and still be able to get your work done. How do you find community? So, I kept going down to Mexico City, and then I kept trying to convince my friends who were working remotely to come with me, and they kept saying no. So, finally, I said, you know what, screw you guys.
24:41
I'm just going to, like, throw a website up and see if anyone wants to sign up. And no one showed up? And then, like, a ton of people ended up applying, which was great. And then, I ended up hiring a yoga instructor who taught us yoga, like, twice a day. And we got to explore this amazing culture and get to know each other, and we all worked as well, so...
25:00
So, did you find there was a lot of value in that actual co-located FaceTime? Absolutely. I feel like I've gotten to know them a lot better, and it just energizes the community, I think, as well. So, this is for Sean. So, originally, you organized a Ruby retro session, and somehow,
25:22
you were able to parlay that into Ruby for Good. So, first, can you kind of give a little background of what a Ruby retro session is, and then how you use that to evolve into a much more complicated thing to organize? Sure. So, retro session, it's a one-day unconference, which means we just all get together, day off, we decide what the topics are going to be,
25:43
and then we just talk about it. And it's a lot of fun, it's great for community building, and I'm not quite sure how that evolved into Ruby for Good. Like, it's something to do with my kind of, like, efficient brain and, like, hating inefficiencies because you talk to the, like, you know, work with non-profits or meet non-profits, and you hear about, like, the horrible way they're doing things.
26:01
And we, you know, as software developers, we have this amazing ability to help, and it doesn't require us to do much, like, just for how little help they need, and so that kind of, it's like, hey, we can help these people. And probably a little bit of guilt in there, too, because, you know, as software developers, we have it pretty good.
26:20
We make a lot of money, and everyone's trying to give us jobs, but not everyone's so lucky. So, Suri, I'm kind of curious what the secret sauce is in taking someone that's, like, a total beginner and helping them through all the way
26:42
to, like, getting their first job. The secret sauce is sugar, spice, and everything nice. I'm kidding. Honestly, it's really encouragement and boosting their confidence. So, really figuring out what they really want to do. Do they want to do front-end or back-end, or, you know,
27:01
do they want to do Ruby on Rails? And then, from there, just guide them, check in on them. It's slowly almost like, you know, a micro-mentorship going on. So, you know, like, 100%, like, in your face every week, but just, like, doing checkups to figure out, like, where they are, if they come across any issues, and just really guide them and push them
27:22
and encourage them, and then, like, have them come out to more meetups, have them actually become a Ruby on Rails lead. So, so far, we've, like, had people who've become leads within Women Who Code who started off, like, coming from a different industry or who started off as, like, self-taught developers.
27:40
And we watched them grow. We watched them give their talks and everything, and we encouraged them. And then, from that point on, they're able to build that confidence, and then, like, they start applying to jobs. They're finally in the industry. But I think when you bring them more involved in the community, it helps really put them to the next level within their tech career
28:02
or get into the tech industry. So, really just having that constant connection, monitoring, you know, encouragement, the network, like, really, the network really helped us out a lot to help bring them into the next level. So, that's our secret sauce. Sugar and spice and everything nice.
28:22
So, it seems like you get a fair amount of control over their beginners. You help them level up. You can kind of help them to become a lead and get more technically savvy. But that last step is really hard, going from, you know, or even just getting the interview and then, you know, starting the job.
28:44
And the terror that can sometimes go through people's minds as they feel like they're jumping into this big commitment. How do you handle that? Really, it's like the constant reminder to let them know, we are here for you. If you need to vent, if you need to talk about, like,
29:01
your first day or the interview process, we are here. Like, this is what Women Who Code was for. Like, we are here for you to communicate, to really boost up your confidence, be your cheerleaders, actually. So, that's how, like, we really, like, tackle that. And what else? Yeah, we really, like, tackle that part.
29:21
I really want, like, what else? LaToya, do you have a similar, do you ever work with that first interview? So, the interesting thing is that I think because we're so focused on people who work in tech who can travel, we get a lot of mid and senior and, like, director level people in our community.
29:42
So, when the new people come in, I don't have to do much work, to be perfectly honest. I can kind of sit back and we have a lot of people that are often willing to help them mentor on the fly. I mean, you can, you know, screen share. You can use TMUX to SSH into somebody's computer and we definitely encourage that, so.
30:02
So, Sean, I know at Arlington Ruby, we've definitely had folks walk in the door and they said, I don't know if I'm even supposed to be here. And we've watched them move all the way up. Just in watching those folks, do you think there's something specific that organizers should be doing to help or encourage those people?
30:20
Definitely. Mentorship, trying to find members, mentors, try to, like, just encourage them and just be there for them. Like, one thing I know a lot of the organizers of our meetup, we do, is we do a lot of mock interviews with the people. Like, I probably do one or two a month with different junior people before they're going out for their first interview
30:41
or their second. And so, just, like, help them any way you can. So, changing gears a little bit to talk to mentorship, which was a fantastic segue. Thanks, Sean. So, how do you go about finding people to be mentors? Sean?
31:01
So, you're just gonna talk about mentorship, so I have to... So, the first thing about mentorship is, like, it is a relationship and you have to understand that and maybe it'll work, maybe it won't, because it's two personalities. And I was talking to my mentee and she said to me, she said,
31:20
I knew you were the mentor for me because of all the great advice you've given me. And I've given great advice and then she clarified and I wrote them down because I wanted to share them at some point. And the advice I've given is, don't be nervous about speaking at RailsConf. Just get drunk first. If that 70-year-old lady at the nonprofit you work at is bugging you, just fight her.
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When interviewing, tell whoever's interviewing you that you're good luck to hire you. Tell them how every person who hasn't hired you has had a house fire afterwards. So, obviously, there's a particular sense of humor
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and we match up, but yeah, so it is a relationship and you need to find the right person. So, as far as mentorship goes, I would not be here if it weren't for mentorship. I dropped out of college twice and I was bartending until five in the morning when I started to learn how to code. And I was lost for a year
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and then I ended up getting a mentorship at a company called A-Flight and I was able to take a lot of the good things that came out of that program, I think, and kind of implement them. And I think just because of my experience, I'm just always willing to help people who want to learn. So, I think finding other people who, for some reason, want to help to learn is a big help.
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Yeah, for Women Who Code, we're still trying to figure out a nice formal process in doing this, but more so, I think it's more like people don't know that that person's actually my mentor,
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but I haven't told them yet, but I do go to them for questions. I do go to them for some advice on something. But I think for us leads, what we do is we reach out to them afterwards, after our events, and see like, hey, would you like to have one-on-one discussions
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in regards to whatever you're interested with in the field and I've done that several times, having FaceTime, not FaceTime, yeah, Skype, Google Hangout and I just talk with them and figure out like, hey, what are your goals? What do you want to do? Let's try to meet every two, three weeks on whatever subject or whatever project that you want to do
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and I can help hold you accountable for it and we can work through this and any questions that you have, I'm here for you. So really taking our extra time outside of just organizing our meetups and reaching out to our members to help monitor them and give them advice is one of our informal ways
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of doing our mentorship cycles. So one more quick question about mentorship and then I'd like to open it up to audience questions. So do you hope to always have a mentor? Of course, do I hope to always have a mentor? Yeah, absolutely, I have so many unofficial mentors.
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Jenny Hendry was one of mine, Ray Hightower, I don't think he even realizes that he's been my mentor for like five years and I'm always looking to grow and expand myself and I think the only way that you can do that is through mentorship. Definitely, definitely, I hope I always have one
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for the rest of my life. Yes, everything she said. Actually, of course, yes, I hope to have mentors. Also hope to like have mentors across different realms in industry or different topics, like not necessarily always in tech, but a career mentor or someone on like life.
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But I think for me, like what I would like to work on and I'm sure everybody would like to work on is getting mentors with different tricks and trades. So it really will give you like well-rounded advice and a well-rounded guide and navigating wherever you're going.
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Great, so we have about five minutes left. I saw one person take a card. Did you have a question? So the question is how important are the meetups to maintaining a community and keeping connected?
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Well, in this context, what is a meetup? Like are you talking about meetup.com? Actual events. Actual events. I think they're really important. I think they're the foundation. So is it kind of actual like as opposed to a conference? Oh, okay. I think the in-person stuff
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really, really, truly goes a long, long way. I think that's like really fundamental because it really, you see the person, you see the face. We can read body language a lot better as opposed to doing this through text, honestly. Body language is basically close to 90% of communication.
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So the physical location part is like super, super important and it really helps out with everything. Yeah, definitely and helps set up, you can create opportunities for mentorship, like have new people bring code samples or bring code that they're working on and that they need help. Like we always encourage our new members to like,
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hey, if you're stuck on something, bring it and someone will help you. And oftentimes, the person that's helping them, that will blossom into a mentorship situation. I just want to add to that really quick. Since everything we do, or 90% of what we do is remote, I will say that like for us, a meetup might be, there's a bunch of people online on Saturday
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asking questions about GitHub. Why don't we just do a giant GitHub review? And then there's like 10 people that are just doing it then. And I feel that that works really well for us. So don't want to go to meetups.
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What options are there for them and like how can they feel like they belong to them? Come hang out in my community. So just to repeat the question, that is how can people join a more global or remote community and be involved in that?
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Yeah. So I think when people come into the community, I try to welcome them personally. I ask them a couple of questions. We try to get people to do introductions and then I just talk to them a little bit and see like what we can do to help them feel a sense of community if they're looking for anything specific. And since everything's online, like I said before, the turnaround time is really quick.
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If they're like, I need help with my resume, okay, then like let's throw something on the calendar for next month or next week. So Ruby for Good has done remote leads. Can you say a little bit about that? Yeah, so in the past years we've, like one of the teams, we'll do one team
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where we'll get a remote lead and have a remote team and we're debating doing it this year too. So if that's something really appealing to you, come find us afterwards. I think we have time for one more question. Anybody? All right, great. Thank you so much for coming out. I appreciate it.