Three Seattle-area women have formed the LadyCoders initiative and are running a Kickstarter campaign to provide mentorship to women in technology who may lack guidance in breaking into or returning to solid, self-supporting programming careers. The last chance to donate to this kickstarter will be on August 14th.Senior web developers and chief software architects Liz Dahlstrom, Lorraine Sawicki, and Tarah Wheeler Van Vlack are creating a seminar to teach interview skills and to mentor skilled female software and web developers, as well as professionally filming and editing the seminar into a DVD for those who cannot attend. In addition, the LadyCoders website will broadcast a 20-video series of seminar highlights free of charge to aid women globally who cannot attend the seminar in person and who cannot afford the DVD.
Women’s representation in the computing and information technology workforce has fallen over 25% from its peak (of close to 40%) in the mid-1980s. Many women are highly qualified and skilled at software development, but were never trained or could use extra advice on how to appeal directly to the male-dominated world of software development. LadyCoder’s will help with interview training to break into a tech career and guidance in how to handle gaps in work history from family obligations.
The LadyCoders seminar will cover the interview process, provide distinguished guest speakers, teach how to deal with resume gaps from childrearing and family caretaking, how to form a startup, demonstrating leadership in open source software projects, a discussion of alternate gender identities, issues that can sometimes result in the workplace and lastly, the real secrets behind connecting with and communicating with technical hiring managers.
The Kickstarter campaign will cover many of the costs associated with the seminar, including videography, editing, producing, insurance and the legal works associated with training 40 women. This is why they need your support to make this seminar real and to accomplish its mission.
The LadyCoders Kickstarter campaign offers a variety of rewards for all supporters and ends August 14th.
For further information, see their site at ladycoders.com. Donate to their Kickstarter campaign at here.
