Suggestions
Andrew Hedges
Co-Founder / COO at Assistiv Labs
Andrew Hedges is an experienced engineering leader, mobile web developer, and educator dedicated to promoting equity, diversity, and inclusion in the tech industry. As the founder of The Collab Lab, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, he provides training on software team collaboration practices to early-career developers from underrepresented groups. With a track record of delivering acclaimed marketing sites on www.apple.com, Andrew is focused on developing systems to improve workplace productivity. His specialties include engineering management, mentorship, mobile web development, and front-end development. Andrew has a strong educational background, with a MEd in College Student Personnel from the University of Maryland College Park and a BA in French Language from Washington State University.
Highlights
This post by Charity Majors is the best articulation I’ve seen of why it’s important—arguably more important than ever—to hire early-career developers.
https://lnkd.in/gwrj_CUr
I used to run The Collab Lab, a nonprofit dedicated to helping early-career devs break into tech. I also started (with Scott Williams) a program at Zapier for hiring and integrating early-career folks, so I’ve made these arguments myself 100s of times. It never doesn’t feel like swimming upstream.
It seemed to get better there for a while. Turns out that was an illusion caused by a scarcity of engineers. As soon as budgets got tight, the old prejudices resurfaced and “juniors” were the first to go. Today, from every discussion I’ve had lately, landing your first software job seems harder than ever.
In her article, Charity asked “Where would you be, if you hadn’t gotten into tech when you did?” I certainly would not have spent 25 years doing web development. Maybe I’d have eventually been lucky enough to do product or design? Maybe I’d still be doing desktop publishing? 😅
I wish I knew how to overcome the biases in this industry. In a field with so many strongly-held misconceptions, this one is right there at the top as one of the misconceptionyist. Sometimes it feels like hazing. It’s always borne of fear.
Global Accessibility Awareness Day (#GAAD) is tomorrow. We at Assistiv Labs are giving away a handful of free forever accounts to recognize the day. Sign up* at the link at the end of this post!
Thank you for everything you do to make the web more inclusive! 💙
*We promise not to use your email address for anything other than contacting you if you win!
