The startup sphere is revered for its innovative thought, but over the past few months, headlines have painted the culture of technology companies as being far from inclusive places to be.
But, amid accusations of harassment in the sector and staff memos out of monoliths like Google arguing against diversity, women working within tech companies have been speaking out about being unseen and underappreciated.
Cue the “#WITBragDay” hashtag, which has prompted an avalanche of tweets over the past two days from women in the sector explaining exactly what their contributions mean to technology design, in real terms.
Responses have come from those heavily embedded in the Australian startup scene, including Fishburners interim chief Annie Parker and serial entrepreneur Susan Wu, as well as heavyweights at global companies from Google to Netflix. The hashtag is also an interesting look at what developers actually do with their time, and how their codes translate into important functions consumers use each day.
Here are 10 of the most impressive brags from women in the industry.
This commercial Internet thing you’re using? I helped build it. Not enough characters to share everything I’ve built since 1986. #WITBragDay
— susan wu (@sw) August 12, 2017
In a series of tweets, serial entrepreneur Susan Wu, who splits her time between the US and Australia and is a founder of startup diversity community Project Include, discussed the several companies she has built so far.
I helped build some of the earliest commercial web projects, like ecommerce for Tower Records, collaborative filtering using Firefly, more!
— susan wu (@sw) August 12, 2017
(Taking a break for dinner and to hug my kids!)
— susan wu (@sw) August 12, 2017
Fishburners chief executive Annie Parker reflected on the reach of the several companies she has created so far.
I’ve started 5 companies in tech ecosystems, pretty sure the impact of these programs are now in the 100s of thousands globally #WITBragDay
— Annie Parker (@annie_parker) August 12, 2017
Australian tech “builder” Jessica Glenn discussed leaving corporate life to become a coder within a year.
Left my comfy banking job within 6 months and built AR & VR automation tech in ruby and C #WITBragDay
— Jessica Glenn (@JessicaCGlenn) August 12, 2017
Skilld and tamme founder Gen George reflected on creating programs from nothing.
Built a scissor, paper, rock game that the computer always won on in JavaScript #WitBragDay #babysteps
— Gen George (@MsGenGeorge) August 13, 2017
Google software engineer Julie Parent explained her first actual job was creating the code for Gmail.
Every time you write email in Gmail, you are using my code. I wrote it 10+ years ago as my first”real” job, not replaced yet. #WITBragDay
— Julie Parent (@jewree) August 12, 2017
Among London software engineer Emma-Ashley Liles many achievements, she created a code to assist retailers with broken down services like toilet problems — and tracking rodents.
My code is used by every Topshop, Superdrug, KFC and Bella Italia in the UK when they have a broken toilet or rats. ?? #WITBragDay
— Emma-Ashley Liles (@EmmaAshley) August 12, 2017
Google Cloud engineer Liz Fong-Jones explains how she went back to college after dropping out, being hired by Google and starting to contribute to cloud tech, all before her mid 20s.
Dropped out of college at 20, hired by Google. Senior SRE at 23. Went back & finished college! I make your ☁️ work! #WITBragDay https://t.co/Hm0xuKHitb
— Liz Fong-Jones (@lizthegrey) August 11, 2017
Netflix engineer Anne Aaron reflected that her coding team ensures the video streaming app actually delivers what it says it will: high quality, uninterrupted shows.
When u watch #Netflix: picture doesn’t suck, & is actually awesome, because of the team I lead (& my code) #WITBragDay
— Anne Aaron (@AnneMargotAaron) August 12, 2017
Half stack engineer at Australian marketing startup Campaign Monitor, Georgie Luhur, reflected she was well on track to delivering work in the tech space by the time she was 10.
??? I learnt to code when I was ten years old, got my first tech job when I was 18, and a full-time job by the time I was 20. #WiTBragDay
— Georgie Luhur (@georgiecel) August 13, 2017
Mobile director at meetup and former Apple lead Kathy Tafel explained it was her job to help with suggestions for the music for the new iPod ads, having been less than impressed by the tech giant’s use of ‘old people music’ when advertising the iMac.
1/ I led a team in 2000 tasked with coming up with ways to appeal to the youth market. (I may have complained to… #WITBragDay
— Kathy Tafel (@kathytafel) August 14, 2017
3/ Including the first one, where Jeff Goldblum dances to the Propellerheads’ Take California. https://t.co/GgPCbnc3V9 #WITBragDay
— Kathy Tafel (@kathytafel) August 14, 2017
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