Blacklight: Women In Tech

I sat down with Pariss Chandler, or better known in Tech Twitter as Pariss Athena , for over an hour to have a conversation about her journey into web development, the moment #BlackTechTwitter went viral, whether she's team Captain America or Team Iron Man and a lot more! Let's get into it!

Hi Pariss! Thank you so much for taking the time to sit down with me. Getting started, can you introduce yourself, give a little bit of background  background about how you got started in tech, what you were doing before, if it wasn't anything related to the tech field. Yeah, sure! So,  I went to school in New York to study film and screen studies to be a writer and director for movies and during that year in New York I realized I actually wanted to be an actress, so I ended up moving to LA after my first year of school. So I moved to LA. I pursued acting. It didn't work out clearly cause I'm not famous or anything *laughs*. I ended up moving back to Boston and I became a wax specialist. I was a wax specialist for three years and during that time Obama wast president and he kept saying S.T.E.M and S.T.E.A.M and how kids needed to get involved in this technology industry. And I didn't really understand it that well. But I was very curious.

At that time, my brother was 11 years old and he was learning to code. So I went to a function at his school and I ran into his principal and I asked, why are kids learning to code? I don't even know what it is, can you explain and give me some background? And he told me, you know, if you don't have some type of technological background, you're gonna be left behind because we're in a technology driven world. And what he said resonated with me, because it's true. As a wax specialist, I was losing clients held to laser hair removal. So I'm losing my job to a machine and that scared me a little bit. But it gave me a push and I ended up getting into a program called resilient coders in Boston, which is a coding bootcamp.

They take people from underrepresented backgrounds, and pay them to learn to code. So when I got into that program, I quit my job and I focused solely on learning to code. After their apprenticeship, I got into a summer internship with a really big advertising agency in Boston and I was on their technology team. After the internship ended, I got my first job as a software engineer at a startup. I was on their development team for nearly a year. About a month and a half later I got a job at a digital agency in Boston as a front end developer.

What was the timeline from starting the bootcamp to then working at the Boston digital agency? So the bootcamp started January, 2017 and I got my first job December, 2017. Then after nearly a year there, I think around September, 2018 I lost my job. And in November of 2018 I got the new job at the digital agency.

You had left school when you were studying to be an actress, right? When I moved to LA, I wasn't in school. I  just went out there to pursue acting.I got my associate's degree in Communications when I came back to Boston.I enrolled in an online program and got my associate's degree at the same time I was a wax specialist.

What are your other interests outside of tech? Yes. I love writing. I love writing poetry. I love writing screen plays. I making youtube videos. So whether as a tutorial or, um, like a comedy type of short film, I would, I would play different actors as myself and then I would edit the videos, um, and just kind of bring it all together to make one video and publish it. So that was my hobby. I love doing that a lot.

That's really cool!  What do you think is one thing some people would be surprised to know about you? When I tell people I'm a mom, they're really shocked.I'm going to be 28 this year and I'm a mom to a six year old boy named Sevee. It rhymes with Chevy. *laughs*

I just want to get into a little bit about Pretty Little Coder, which is what I'm doing this interview on behalf of. I'm a newbie developer myself. As I was doing my research and  trying to get into this space, I found that there weren't too many spaces specifically for black women to talk about their experience from beginning to now how they got into development. I'm finding more now that I've gotten further into tech community. However, it was very much women who code and not just black women. It makes a difference because like you said in your tweet earlier today, representation matters.

The purpose of Pretty Little Coder is to provide a community for that. One way I wanted to do that is by highlighting people like you who are in this community doing the things that I want to be doing a year from now, two years from now. So again, thank you for being willing to sit down and do this interview. That's great. Yeah, I love it. I love learning about all of the other communities that are out here trying to bring black people to the forefront because well, like white people, they don't know that we're here, that we're in this industry, we’re talented and qualified, they don't know that we exist. I love learning about all the communities, you know, putting in effort to bring exposure to us.

Definitely. So we already talked a  little bit about your journey and apprenticeship. But the job after that with a digital marketing agency, how did you get it and what was your experience with them? I was referred to that agency by my boyfriend's friend, because they were looking for a junior engineer, but they also were having  issues hiring diverse talent. And I'm pretty sure I was their only diverse candidate who came in for an interview. Being there, I was the only person of color in the entire company. While I felt like people, the, the energy was a little different. At my job at the startup, it was very cold and people were not warm to me and I didn't like it at all. But at the digital agency it was a little different. People were more welcoming. It was sort of a younger crowd. Still as a person of color, they still didn't get it, you know? There were still conversations had around me that were uncomfortable and people of color just weren't thought about. So it was tolerable, but at the same time not enough.

Which segues into my next question. What would you say has been the most difficult part of your journey, especially as a black woman in this space? It’s definitely the cultural barrier. Just being that black woman, the only black woman in,  you know, a white environment. It’s not comfortable. There's times I've wanted to say something and I just didn't, it's very toxic. Even when people aren't doing it purposely, it's just they don't know any better. You feel like that different person. You just feel different, you know? And I don't want to feel different. I know I am different. I don't want to feel that way and that's why I want people who look like me surrounding me.

Dealing with that, did you then encourage more of your friends to get into the space to have more people like you or did you think maybe I should go elsewhere because this isn’t okay. Right. I referred my own friends to come and work at the companies I was at. They would. Some got interviewed, some didn't. But they never got hired. So I was, still the only person of color. I think what's helping, what's helped me now is getting on Twitter. That's so weird to say, but getting on Twitter has seriously helped me. I've found my community of people who look like me in my industry. So I know that we're here. I know that we exist and I know that I'm not alone. I may be physically alone in this environment. But my family (Twitter family) is a click away, you know, and I'm on different Slack channels and Discords on Twitter or Facebook, they're right there. So it feels very close to me and it makes me feel a lot better.

That's amazing. You found a community and community definitely makes a difference.That makes total sense. What has been the high point of your journey then, since you've kind of talked about the down parts, what's been the thing that's kept you going and pushing through it despite some of those frustrating parts? Knowing that I don't see people who look like me in my environment, that doesn't make me happy, that makes me angry. But at the same time that motivates me. I'm like, all right, you know, maybe I'm not here to make friends but I'm here to pave a way. So I want to expand that message to everyone who looks like me in technology and any fields, since we're usually one of the very few people of color in any environment. This is what I'm here for, this is my purpose and that's what's keeping me here. That's what keeps me focused and that's what makes me want to work harder and move up because then I can get into a position where I can bring my own people on board.

I'm really excited to talk about this next part. Black Tech Twitter and #BlackTechPipeline. Where did this movement come from? Once I lost my first job as an engineer and I got on Twitter to just talk about my journey, finding a new job, that's where I discovered there's a lot of black people in technology. That’s when I had put out a tweet,what does black Twitter in tech look like?That tweet ended up circulating and blowing up.That was very unintentional, but I'm really happy it happened.

Talking about what does black in tech look like, how did it feel seeing the response? I remember seeing that tweet myself and being like, wow, this is a lot of people it was really cool for me to see. So how does it feel for you especially since it wasn't intentional necessarily for it to go viral. Yeah. At first, every time someone would respond to the thread, I would retweet their picture and their role in technology. Then I started getting comments on the thread and people were saying, Hey, I think you did something. This is a big deal. I started thinking about, is it  a big deal? I didn't think anything of it at first because I was just busy retweeting it. Then after a while, it felt amazing just to come back to hundreds of notifications and see it was all black people in technology. Not only that, people from different industries and different backgrounds, they were responding. I didn't know there was that many, black people in technology. This is huge because you know the technology industry is a thriving, booming industry that everyone needs to be a part of, especially black people. So it felt really good. That was good.

How did that evolve  into the Black Tech Pipeline? My goal is to bring black people together. So right now I'm kind of using tech as my leverage, but I want black people in, you know, marketing, medicine, farming, real estate, every and any industry that you're black and you're a part of, I want to bring us all together and into one ecosystem because I want to help evolve the black dollar so that whatever money we're spending or investing it, it's all circulating within our community and it's staying in our community. So Black Tech Pipeline is, they say there's a pipeline problem, that's why they can't find black candidates. So we're creating  our pipeline. This is not for you. This is for us. And if you need a black person, if you're looking for us, this is where you can find us. But our mission is to build up our community, create our own foundations and with our own beliefs and practices, instead of being a part of something that was not built for us.

Is this a solo project or is this a group endeavor? This will be a group endeavor. I'm doing most of the work right now, but eventually I'm going to bring more people on. I want this to be a community effort because like I said, I want us to invest in one another. And you can't just do that by yourself. You know, everyone needs to eat, everyone needs to contribute.

What do you hope people gain from participating in the pipeline? And what exactly does that look like? I know right now it's majorly on Twitter and you're coming out with a newsletter. What are the next steps? So I do want to establish Black Tech Pipeline as an organization.But my goal right now I want people, and they have been, getting interviews, jobs, especially black junior developers. From an internship to a job, people have been getting jobs by being part of Black Tech Twitter.  I want to really solidify that. I want to gain a more relationships with sponsors, different founders, employers, companies. When there are open roles or opportunities open, I would love to be the first to know about it so that I can tell my community, hey, this is happening, make sure you're ready when it opens up.

My goal is to really give people opportunity and I want us to collab with one another. Which is part of the newsletter. There’s going to be an interview series featuring candidates that are looking for jobs. There'll be employers who are willing to speak about open positions they have in their hiring.  There's a lot happening. We're planning a hackathon in the summertime and starting a Twitter chat, which where I'm going to get some sponsors for and hopefully be able to send people to different conferences and get them free courses and possibly laptops and things like that. There's a lot going on.

How long has it been since  you started this movement? Because it’s still pretty new, right? It's very new. I started the thread in December. It took me a while to figure out what to do with black tech Twitter because again, it wasn't intentional. I was working on my own personal mobile app that I felt was going to be my golden egg to freedom from a 9-5 life. But people kept asking me, what's next? What's going on, what's going to happen? And so I was being pressured. But I'm really happy that happened because, like I said, I wouldn't have it any other way. I'm very happy to be doing this.

What kind of opportunities have you personally found since starting this pipeline? Have people reached out to you saying, hey, we'd love for you to speak out at this conference? I saw you mentioned one is, I don't think it's Geneva, but it's somewhere. *laughs* Poland, it’s Poland. I have had so many opportunities. Yeah, the speaking at conferences and on panels. Speaking at different companies about Black Tech Twitter and diversity and inclusion. In Poland, I’m going to be an MC. I've done multiple interviews. I've been on Hacker Noon. They asked me to come on. A lot of different opportunities.

How do you balance it all? Like we've been talking about, it's still very new. How do you decide what to say yes to or say no to as I'm sure all of these things are happening at once. They are. I quit my job  because it started to become overwhelming. I didn't have time to talk to the people that were trying to reach out to me. So I quit my job because of that. Now I have  a pretty open schedule but it’s getting booked up with meetings and things like that. Once I start working again it will probably get harder. But for right now, things are a lot better. I have open room to speak to everyone and take advantage of these opportunities.

What's the immediate next step for the pipeline? Either the store will come out for the merchandise or it's going to be the newsletter. I'm waiting on two things at the same time. So whatever comes first, I'll be able to launch first. But I can tell you it’ll  definitely be the merchandise and newsletter.

This next part is just rapid fire questions. So first thing that comes to your head. Marvel or DC?Marvel. Absolutely.

Are you seeing Endgame when it first comes out? Quick Story. I went to go buy the tickets. Like the day they got released and AMC site was down for the whole day when it finally went back up and I went to purchase them. They were sold out.  I'm so sad. I'm not going to be able to see it for a week or two until after it released.

Pancakes or waffles? Waffles.

Makeup or No makeup? Makeup.

Football or Basketball? Football.

Who's your team? I should say Patriots. Honestly, I don't even like sports, but I feel like I should stick to my city *laughs*

Twitter or Instagram? Twitter, definitely.

Winter or Summer? Summer.

Final question is team Captain America or  team Iron Man? Iron Man.I love Iron Man. His whole attitude, his swag. We would be friends. Iron man, whatever he does I’m with it.

What was your favorite Marvel movie? Captain Marvel.  Captain Marvel was good. I was impressed. Honestly. Didn't think I was going to like that movie and I really loved that movie, Miles Morales, Into the Spider-verse, another amazing movie. It's between those two.

Wrapping up, what is next for you personally? For example, the next couple of months? I know you talked about the new job and speaking, but what else? I feel like everyday something new is presented. I really want the website because right now I'm looking at designs and stuff, but I want the website to start being built. So that's what I'm hoping for in the next few months. And hopefully before the end of the year, the website can be up and running. I really want that up. That's really important for me.

What is your major piece of advice for black female developers? Black female developers have so much advice. Black women, you are valuable, you're skilled, you're qualified, you are dope. You're the shit. You are the most resilient species ever. We are queens. You can do whatever the hell you want. There's a lot I can say to that.

Make sure that your goal, because you can do it, is to start your own foundation. It’s fine if you're working for someone right now, but make sure you are investing into your own foundation.

Number three is whether you want a seat at the table or you want to build the table, just make sure you're always keeping in mind that you  have plenty of other little black girls and black women right behind you who are trying to get on the same path as you.

What does the utopian black community look like to you with the Black Tech Pipeline and all these different pipelines and the black dollar, what does that look like to you? Or what do you hope it looks like? A community of people who aren't looked at as second best, like, and it doesn't even matter. It's a community of people who look at each other and know that we're number one and we’re priority and we don't look at each other how society portrays us. We look at each other knowing that we are valuable. I can count on this person that looks just like me. Building each other up, being positive and uplifting one another and supporting one another.

What would Pariss of today say to Pariss at age 16? And do you think she'd be proud of you? I would tell myself at 16 to just keep doing what I was doing because I feel like if I, if I didn't take the route that led me here, I wouldn't even be here. Even having had my son before I was near my twenties, after my 21st birthday. If the whole road that led up to that, me having my son, if none of that happened, I would have never gotten into technology. I just want to be here. This wouldn't be a thing. So I would just tell myself to keep doing what you're doing. And  know, you're going to be fine.

Do you think she’d be proud of you? Definitely. Yes.

Where can people find you? I have my Twitter handle Pariss Athena, same on Instagram. You can find me on Medium where I publish a few articles. And Black Tech Pipeline on Twitter.

Be sure to follow Pariss on Twitter and Instagram, follow the Black Tech Pipeline and subscribe to the newsletter. We’re so excited to see how Black Tech Pipeline evolves and will continue to support.

Until next time!