Talent Showcase of Geekgirls in the UK

" The future belongs to those who can create networks" - Bookboon

This post is a week over due as I have been a little busy with work. I couldn't post about the recent event at Geekgirl and ThoughtWorks...

...For those that have kids; are you doing enough to show your kids that they can do anything in life without fear or judgement? Or are you raising them to believe that certain jobs should only be fulfilled by a certain gender. I ask this because to a large extent our believes are influenced by parents. This is not a discussion about nurture vs nature, for that read this; 'Who Shaped Our Behavior? Peers or Parents?' 

Moving on...You may not be in IT, but I think opening your mind and therefore that of your kids to the endless possibilities of the thousands of jobs out there within the industry changes and shapes the world we live in. This "influencing"shouldn't just be left to career advisers or teachers but should also be discussed at home.

I recently attended the very first GeekGirl UK meetup at the Google campus in the city(London). It was showcasing the talents of women within the IT industry, who gave talks from Test Driven Development, Privacy in within Social Networking to Start-ups and benefits of mentoring. It was a delight to see so many women showcasing their passion for technology as well as sharing knowledge through current and past projects they have been a part of. This was held on Sunday, April 29th. 

I then attended another event held in St Pauls by ThoughtWorks who gave a talk on Continuous Design and Delivery; centered around the Agile methodology. This was the second women's only event in a space of two weeks. "Why is it only women allowed?" "Why are men not allowed", were just some of the questions I got from some of my male friends. With some the reaction I got was more of an eye-glistening stare, which gave me the impression that some envisioned a bunch of red swim-suit-clad-females pouncing around alla Baywatch. With one jokingly asking if I was training to be a lesbian.  Now, before you start hyperventilating furiously while clutching baseball bats ready to rip my friend a new one; he was joking!

The Continuous Designs and Delivery presentation surprisingly had some male attendees, so I was gutted because one of my friends wanted to come but I got the impression that it was a female only event. There is nothing wrong with events like this. I see them more as a celebration of the increase in females joining the industry. That's not to say that men shouldn't be allowed at these events because I don't think we would appreciate men having that restriction at other events. If we are celebrating the increase of women in the IT industry we can certainly do this without excluding the other gender. Its the same as men celebrating the increase of males within the nursing industry or increased presence in any other female dominated industry. They can celebrate that without excluding females....Ok enough of the lecture! The pictures and snippets from the GeekGirl event are below.

GeekGirl

Introduction by the organisers Heidi Harman and geeky crew:

Ellen Sundh gave an interesting talk on incorporating 3D sound into your applications. Also showcasing her project on the Sound of Football as well as the endless possibilities of bettering apps by taking advantage of this technology.

Susan Mar gave a talk on interactive design and the use of artificial intelligence in interactive installations. One the installations she talked about is currently in John Lewis on the second floor(Ladies wear). If I venture out that way I will be sure to update this post with more details.

Paula Graham debated what freedom/privacy really means when the govements can freely access our emails as well as other data which we think is personal and private.(Thanks to the terrorism laws and such)

Becky Stewart talked about the arts of programming and IDEs on the openframework communities.

Trisha Gee took on a passionate talk on mentoring and just how important it is to get involved in mentoring graduates. If you want quality graduates then take part and show graduates an insight of the industry you work in to prepare them for roles they could be fulfilling in future. There is also a shortage of women taking part so contact Trisha if you are interested in getting involved(as well as men of course). No, you don't need to spend hours and hours with graduates you could also provide help or advice via email.

Jamie Tolentino enthused on how empowering learning how to code can be for your application development careers.

Maria Gomez demoed the tools and tricks around Test Driven Development in JavaScript

Jill Irving works in user experience(UX), talked about responsive design on mobile and tablet applications.

There were many young and talented women at the event who will no doubt pave the way for more women in the IT industry for time to come. There were more sessions that I wished I had attended but they clashed with other sessions I was also eager to not miss out on.

There are more pictures here with links to the different project the ladies talked about.

ThoughtWorks:   Continous Design/ Continous Delivery


An introduction from Luke Barrett, ThoughtWorks' MD for Europe followed by Renee Hawkins, Patrick Downey and Jill Irving. They went through what goes into the software development process, idea-to-market, UX - understanding the users(empathy maps, user characters...) by using creative idea storming methods.  The talks also covered tips on continuous delivery on large system implementations that involve lots of 'moving' parts.

Also taking on questions from the audience with regards to how ThoughtWorks measured success on projects.; making sure that both the project sponsors and actual users are happy. Another important aspect of automation for certain tasks that in the long run save time and money. Especially when you have frequently repeated tasks.

In addition to a great presentation I was impressed by some of the Pro Bono work on their social impact program. This includes custom mobile apps that are beneficial to those in the developing world.

It was also great to see some familiar faces at the presentation. I managed to catch up with some of the ladies I met at the Geekgirl meetup. As well as the presentation, Thoughworks is also in the market for talented ladies(Yes! Men as well before you bite my head off). I had the pleasure of chatting to Mr Massey, one of Thoughworks' recruitment coordinators. Who is also an actor!  (Yes your read it right the first time.) No wonder their table was labeled the 'Talent Team' with an  impressive acting CV so I guess the label was well suited. So many questions...Well if you are a talented "geek" and in the market for a position(of the IT kind...) then check out Thoughtworks and their talent spotting team.

If there is anything mentioned here that you would like more information on, then tweet me or email me and I will do my best to help.


Over and out.

Bee.

Is the economic crisis breeding self doubters?

How often do you doubt yourself? Has your self doubt increased as the economy attempts to sink deeper than the Titanic?

Having recently engaged in conversations with various people regarding job security, even those that do have jobs seem to feel as if they are living on the edge. Long gone are the days when companies seemed loyal to long serving employees. It seems redundancy packages are a thing of the past when companies are looking to cut costs in addition to costs saved from lay-offs.

Not long into his post, the newly appointed CEO at Sony announced that they would be cutting 10,000 jobs globally. Mothercare is also slashing jobs as well as shutting down many stores around the world. This is scary considering that I was just starting(if you ignore the situation in Greece and Spain for a second) to think things were looking up. Its more so made real when your friends are affected by this. Its no longer just a story in the papers that you are reading about. Your friends are being made redundant. People are still losing jobs! I remember when all the madness really came to light when Lehman Brothers went bust. One of my friends was only a couple of months into his internship when that was cut short as Lehman Brothers went into administration. He was of course gutted, but I can only imagine those that had been with the company for years to go into work one morning to find that they no longer had a job anymore. No redundancy packet either. I cant even begin to comprehend how that must have felt.

"When our lives are disrupted, when we are forced to take action or make a tough decision, we have two choices. The most natural is to shake with fear, to run and hide, and to hope that the paralysis passes. The other is to realise that in this world there is no such thing as disruption without opportunity. It's no coincidence that many of the biggest companies of the past 50 years were started in the depths of real economic hardship: FedEx, IBM, Procter and Gamble. The people who founded them saw it as a moment of opportunity. They salivated while everyone else was hiding". Alas! There is light at the end of the tunnel. You only have to open your eyes to to it. I am sure there is someone out there making a killing at the expense of the Greek and Spanish down turn.

A friend of mine has been toying with the idea of quitting his job. You can only imagine the side eye I gave him. Who in there right mind would want to quit their job in the current climate?! Him!!! That's who. I guess he is just one of those brave(or plain crazy) enough to take a risk and he can see an opportunity amidst the turbulent economy. As much as he is eager to start his own business there is still a level of doubt. I will bet those that founded IBM and FedEx got the same reaction when they said they want to start a business while many were falling like dominoes. Its only natural that anyone would have doubts about embarking on such a a venture but he is still very much excited about it. So I and a few others have sort of encouraged going part time while he gets the ball rolling.

It appears that self doubt is a good thing. Galileo called self-doubt "the father of all invention". Self-doubt that doesn't lead to decision or action is ultimately self-defeating, and creates a numbing negativity - whereas self-doubt that leads to resolution of the doubts can be a remarkable source of energy and creativity.

It also appears that some people are naturally better at embracing uncertainty and disruption. The good news is that this can be learned. You can practice habits that over time allow you to better deal with uncertain circumstances, by realising that "its not a particular circumstance that controls the way your experience it, rather, its your mindset that makes you anxious about the situation".  So if you do ask yourself the question 'what if I fail?' do get stuck there. Follow it up with 'How will I recover?' then, 'What if I did nothing?' then finally; 'what if I succeed?'. Jonathan Fields(below) the author of 'Uncertainty: Turning Fear And Doubt Into Fuel For Brilliance' says that for each of these questions try to paint a vivid scene to enable mobility instead of paralysis.

So for those that have lost jobs or thinking of quitting; may be you could just be the next founder of a mega bucks company like the likes of IBM and such. May be you can see light where others fail to see it? Maybe its not even business, maybe now is the time to do that travelling that you have been wanting to do for years but never had the time to do. Or if you would like to get into a habit of nurturing those ideas you have been sitting on then to get started check out a blog post by Paige titled 'Simple Steps to Creating Productivity Habits'.

This economic crisis will polarise companies/people into winners and losers. So how have our attitude(s) to whats happening changed the way you live? 

How has the situation affected those around you. Has it made you work harder to keep the job that you have?

Please feel free to share any pro-active initiative that you have taken to either look for work or keep your job or business. 

Over and Out!

Bee.

The journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step...

This post has come about because I have a colleague currently going through some pretty tough personal changes. As much as we all try not to have our personal issues not affect our work lives you can certainly tell when someone has a lot on their head and they are facing difficulty in dealing with the commitment to attend to both work and personal life . So this post is really for him and anyone out there going through some changes. I wanted to share some tools that help me.

I am the kind of person that does not ponder too long on things that I have no control over. That, to me is wasted energy. Too many people fret over things that are beyond our control. In turn, stress unnecessarily. A stressful commute can ruin your day if you are powerless to change your time or route of travel. So once you accept that you are powerless to a certain situation you can control your attitude towards it,  and control your stress! Feeling as though you have an element of control is important, so look at ways to manage your situation, rather than worrying about it.

It takes a while to train your brain to think a certain way but below are a few techniques that I have found helpful and hope they can help you or someone you know.

1. Focus on the solution and not the problem. If you focus the majority of your time on the problem what do you think is going to happen? You are most likely to sink into it! How, When, What are you going to do about it? Once you direct your energy on the solution you will be much more proactive and more positive about resolving it.

2. Be creative. We often think the solution will be something more difficult that we dismiss the easy/brave or fun thing to do about the resolving the issue. Get out of your comfort zone, be a little braver.

3.Change your attitude. Don't limit your options by thinking there is only one right answer. This often leads to 'paralysis of analysis'. Solutions are often elements within the existing situation.

Those are my main go-to step process when I have something bothering me. These can be used with almost anything whether its a business problem or personal situation.

Lastly, regret is also a waste of time. I strongly believe that we learn far more from our mistakes than we do our successes. So don't spend or waste time worrying or stressing about your 'shoulda coulda woulda', acknowledge it, learn from it and move on. It comes back to the 3 points above. Once you train your thought, change your attitude and focus on the solution with a little creativity, you will hopefully have a little more peace of mind. I am not guaranteeing a 'happy ever after' here, but adopting a positive approach or attitude can certainly help break mental barriers.

Over and out!

Bee

Climbing on the cliff edges of sunny Portland

As I watched my bare feet take turns hitting the sand and edging closer and closer to the water, not long before my eyes closed as I relaxed and took a deep breath while small waves of icy cold water made my feet disappear into the pebbly beaches of Portland. This just about made up for the long drive from London to Dorset on a Friday night the night before.

Arriving just a few minutes past mid-night in Portland in search of the old MOD building that has now been converted in a bunkhouse name the Fathom and Blues. Hidden at the top of the hills in an unnamed road near the lighthouse on Portland Bill road. Thinking that it would be easy to find an MOD building, it was a shock to the system arriving in Portland and finding that the MOD building was shut with gates locked! Where is the mobile reception when you need it?! I couldn't call my friends to ask for directions and no one at the MOD building. It was pitch black almost in the middle of nowhere. Having taken the train from Peterborough to London then collecting my car in London and setting off to drive to Portland, if I wasn't too tired when I arrived in Portland I may have thrown a tantrum or two but pity there was no one to hear it. I finally gave up and circled back to the top of the road and tried again. What do you know?! The Fathom and Blues was on the other side of lighthouse. There are two MOD buildings, separated by a little pub in the middle of the empty field.

Saturday: Lead Climbing

Sunday: Cheynne Wears

Saturday morning I was woken up by the sounds of a bunkhouse full of hungry climbers refueling with breakfast ahead of a day of climbing on the many routes spread across the cliff edges of Portland. It was a beautiful start. The sun was shinning, it must have been at least 30 degrees. We set off to the first sport climbing spot which I have stupidly forgot the name of the crag considering I led a climb as well as top roped a 20 meter route. Climbing for a few hours was topped off with a walk to the beach to give much needed relief to my feet that were tacked away in tight and gripping climbing shoes. It was then time to head back to the bunkhouse for a group barbecue with the climbers and compare scratches and bruises.

A view to thrill: Taken after getting to the top of a lead climb

Having had an amazing time on Saturday we thought we would repeat success on Sunday and head to a few different crags. First stop was Cheynne Wears, a beautiful spot but too busy with people to actually find a sport to climb on. So we then headed for Blacknor beaches which certainly had routes that were tricky to get to. It turned out the paths to the routes where harder than the climbing routes themselves as we soon realized. Finishing the climbing and heading off to the car park we soon found out that hiking up to the top of the cliff was going to be more challenging than we had imagined. The cliffs on Blacknor beach are very steep to the point where looking down at the rocks below we knew (I and 3 other climbing companions) that if we missed a step it would very much be our very last step! Having gone a distance to get close to the path that leads to a long route to the top of the cliff then realising that one of our climbers had just forgotten a bag(phone, gear, food...) in the bushes that left you scratched and bruised from the thorns that you where handling without hesitation  in fighting gravity from pulling you to the rocks that were a few 100 meters below you was a scary thought.

We managed to retrieve the bag and keep moving but it was still another 20 minutes of walking along paths that were not more than the width of your shoes on the very edges of the cliff to get off the Blacknor cliff climbing routes. This walk would certainly render a grown up to utter the words "I want my mummy" but that would have taken up the much needed energy that was required to get off this crazy and dangerous cliff edge. As someone who often seeks a little adventure this was by far one of the craziest things I have done but what surprised me is how exhilarating the whole experience was and just how much more I wanted. If only my family knew what I was getting up to. They would certainly have my ever growing climbing kit hidden or buried somewhere so I cant find it.

Having got to the top and feeling like we just survived the Titanic it was time to walk back to the car and go collect the rest of the passengers I was driving back to London with me as well as say bye to my fellow climbers. Arrived back in London Sunday evening long enough to get home, pack my little suitcase in preparation for my trip back to work in Peterborough on Monday morning. As I write this from the Marriott Hotel room that is fastly becoming my semi-permanent address I am contemplating a climbing weekend this weekend. This time indoors at the Reach, with routes that will no doubt seem like a walk in the park compared to those in sunny Portland. Pictures below and more on Facebook. 

Scrambling down to the beaches in search of climbing routes

Blacknor Beach

Woman on the edge; Dont push me!

Climbing Trio 

As always, email me if you have any questions.

Over and Out!

Bee

400 Miles in 6 days! London - Peterborough - Peak District - London

Another busy week, with a little climbing activity thrown in. After a few late nights at work and the fact that I do treasure my weekends, especially now, that I am working in a different city to the one that I reside in.

With the weather improving I am eager to get outdoors and enjoy nature as God intended. I hope that line doesn’t conjure up some interesting visuals but that could just be my “creative” imagination. In my last post I mentioned that I cancelled a lead climbing course which was meant to be during the week but because I am now working in Peterborough I couldn’t get into London in time to do it. So I re-scheduled it for the weekend course which was held in the Peak District last Saturday. So I decided to drive from London to Peterborough for work and Friday evening leave Peterborough for the Peak District. That’s about 400miles in 6 days!

With only The Script for company, I drive a little over three hours before arriving in heart of Hartington, Derbyshire. Funny, how a lone drive in the unlit wooded area conjures up some rather weird thoughts like those horror movies where people go missing of Blair Witch Project type of scenario. No lighting whatsoever apart from my car beams and right over Danny O'Donoghue’ singing, in the background I could hear “in 600 yards turn right and tell the first exit at the roundabout”. I was thinking to myself ‘I hope this chick(SatNav) knows where she is going because I have been driving for miles and haven’t seen a soul on this road’. She better not be sending me to Scotland! Not that there is anything wrong with Scotland but that’s not where I needed to be for this trip.

Anyway I arrived in Hartington having booked one night into the YHA, a youth hostel. I have never stayed in a youth hostel before. Just the word ‘hostel’ summoned up some prison like visuals in my head but I was delightfully surprised when I arrived at this 17^th century built manor house in this little Derbyshire village. Shared facilities in dormitory settings with one shower between 8 people. What helped was the fact that the room I was in would normally occupy 8 sleepers but there was only 3 of us and its single sex rooms too! I also noticed that I didn’t have mobile reception when I arrived. After a mini panic I was thankful because many of us battle with distraction in the form of social networking I.e Facebook, Twitter, Angry Birds…Here, I could just enjoy the unpolluted fresh and breezy air with a view of little winding roads in the country side.

YHA Hostel: Front

YHA Hostel: Back

  

I was really impressed that it was clean and with plenty of facilities; games room, restaurant, self-catering quarters and beautiful setting outside. In the morning I met the other 3 people on the climbing course and the instructor to embark on the drive to the crag which was about 20 minutes to the crag. Before this I sneaked in a little wonder to explore the area just before we were set to leave.  It was great that I had already met and climbed with the other3 other people on the course at the Reach Climbing Wall in London. I guess it’s the whole of that trust issue especially when you will be hanging off a rope and just being mentally comfortable with the person you are climbing with.

The Course

 

A man and his tools! -  New Frontiers Climbing Instructor

 

Arrived at the crag and parked just overlooking the routes we were set to be climbing. We trekked up at the bottom of the crag and sat down to a little intro on what the course was about, what was going to be covered, the tools we were going to use as well as what we were all hoping to get out of the course. The first task was to place gear in the rock; with 1 or 2 good ones, a middle rating and one that you wouldn’t dare to hang off let alone climb on. The highest rating being a 10, in the group we had a few 9s and a couple of 6s. You have to look at where you have place the gear in terms of the quality of the rock; because if you find a good crack and you can fit or place a nut or cam in it, but, if the rock is flaky or thin or sounds hollow there is the possibility that it could crack and give way for gear to fall out. This was a lesson on what to look for when placing gear so you know what is good and bad gear placement. Also taking into account how easy it is to get your gear out. The last thing you want is to leave that shiny piece of kit behind because it’s stuck in the rock.

 

After getting placements rated it was time to climb! Paired in twos I belayed to start while my climbing partner went up and placed gear as he went up. When finished I climbed up and removed gear as I was climbing. We then swapped routes with the other pair of climbers. I climbed and placed gear and when my partner went up he rated and removed the gear I placed.

We scrambled to the top or another route, it was then time for setting up anchors and making sure you angle it correctly to even out the weight distribution.  This also meant belaying from the top rather than from the bottom. There are times when a climbing route is below sea level so you have to set up from the top then abseil down to climb the route. Also  we went through climbing calls to signal to your partner that you are ready for them to start climbing and calls to listen out for to tell you they have started, when they are safe to take off the rope, calls before throwing rope or items to the bottom.

Rik: Anchor set up and belaying instruction.

It was a fantastic day out albeit bloody well cold! That’s England for you. It was a great course with so much laughter as the people I was climbing with were just a ball of laughs. With a really patient instructor to explain all the nitty gritty climbing stuff that you kind of want to get sorted before having someone’s weight in the balance. Details of the course are below.

• ·         Introduction to trad gear, carrying and care for it.
• ·         Making sense of climbing grades and guidebooks.
• ·         A short movement session to help you get used to the lack of footholds and abundance of friction.
• ·         Climbing calls and communication.
• ·         The placing and removal of trad protection.
• ·         Abseiling with a backup.
• ·         How belay anchor systems are built.

Instructions Course Contacts

I am off to Weymouth, Dorset next week for sport climbing weekend. So this course was more of a refresher for me as I did it last year in Wales but nevertheless great to do it again because safety should really come first when doing anything as crazy as hanging off rocks like climbers do. If you are climbing outdoors I would definitely recommend you get some sort of instructed course because accidents to happen and prevention is better than cure. Not that a course will prevent accidents but being properly equipped with the knowledge is surely better than going in there with the “how hard can it be” mentality. Check out the New Frontiers Facebook page run by Lisa and Rik’s for more details or contacts if you want to get on any of the climbing courses which do run all over the UK.

Checking out the holds on the rock

Starting is the scariest part (still fun though).

MADE IT TO THE TOP!!!

If you have any questions as always you are more than welcome to email me or leave a comment and I will try my best to answer.

Over and Out!

Bee