WWCode Conversations #57: Growing Together: The Impact of Community on Career
Madona Wambua, Android Engineer, Android Google Developer Expert, and Women Who Code Lead moderates the discussion, “Growing Together: The Impact of Community on Career.” The panelists include: Sumayyah Ahmed, Android Developer, conference speaker, and mentor, Devanshi Modha, iOS Developer and member of the Diversity in Swift workgroup, Mikaela Caron, iOS developer, content creator, and organizer of iOS Dev Happy Hour, and Dinorah Tovar, Head of Mobile Android, Google Developer Expert and blogger. They discuss the different levels of community involvement, the impact that it can have on your career, and other ways that being involved can be beneficial.
Can you all say that the community has had a positive impact on your career?
MC: I found my job through Clubhouse. When Clubhouse was popular, they were doing a mobile Clubhouse corner speaking about iOS development. I ended up following them on Twitter and then a couple months later they posted that they had a job opening. I was looking into the job posting itself and that's how I ended up finding the job that I have right now.
DT: Community has impacted the life of many people at Android, iOS. It has been the most incredible experience that I did not expect. The community has given me friends, space to share my ideas, to share all the talks I give, and my blog. I believe that community has given me the position I have now, knowledge, and a place to be heard. I believe that community has been incredible.
SA: Community has helped expand my job from being a job into a career. At work, you work with the same people, on one product. You're dealing with a certain set of business objectives over and over again. By branching out into online communities like Women Who Code, you start to feel that the world is bigger. You get involved in other communities like local mentoring or conferences like Droidcon and your world gets even bigger. You're exposed to more people and more ideas. It gives you outlets for doing and enjoying different things.
DM: Community allows me to add something extra to my team. I get to know a new perspective. It makes a lot of impact.
What motivates you to be involved in the community? What advice do you have to avoid burnout?
DT: I got really burnt out. I thought I was going to stop doing code and start doing some management. I even thought that I was going to become a product owner. Community saved me in so many ways. I quit my job in that process and the community pretty much took me under their wing. They told me, this happens to all of us. Community showed me that you can still do things that you love. The things that you love are the most powerful things. Sharing with the community is not a job, it's something I do as a motivation, a personal win, a personal goal. They saved me from that burnout by being very kind, very direct with me, saying that everything was going to be fine.
SA: When I was doing a lot of conference speaking, I added up all the hours that went into it. It was around 50-60 hours of unpaid work, even though you get so much back from these communities. I learned to figure out where my energies are going. Instead of trying to do 100% everywhere, a 100% with my mentees, a 100% with all my personal relationships, or a 100% in conferences and my job. I started to strategically prioritize. I quit my job this year. This was the year that I started to do what I was in love with and to explore all the stuff that made me curious. It really helped reset my energy.
DM: I feel the work motivates us. Community creates a ripple effect that comes with either knowledge and education or along with the motivation itself. The effect it creates helps everyone, even if we are not contributing.
How do you decide where to spend your time and energy?
MC: When the pandemic had first started in 2020 was when iOS Dev Happy Hour began. At that point I wasn't part of the admin team just yet. I would go once per month and then eventually became an organizer. The benefit that people get out of that single event is astronomical. Having one thing that I consistently go towards is the first step of really deciding how I want to spend my time. If you start saying yes to everything, then you're going to get nothing done.
DT: I have a special method. I usually go for a set of serials in my blog posts. I end up doing a couple of articles that are addressing things I'm working on in my daily job. I try to demystify some doubts or some problems that I face as a developer. I pick a specific topic and then I go over a couple of serials. I usually end up doing a conference talk. For me that's the best method. I know some people are doing content on TikTok and YouTube and things like that. That's not for me.
SA: We all have something that we're really strong at. That's a great place to focus. I hate writing and that saps my energy, whereas speaking to people I love. Conference speaking was a natural jump for me. There are so many ways to be involved, even something as simple as having coffee with somebody who is asking for advice, or who's just exploring a career option or has questions. That's community involvement. It’s a very small step and requires very little energy, but has a huge impact. The great thing is there's so many different ways to contribute. It doesn't have to be as big as getting up on stage at a conference.
DM: That is how I started. I'm more comfortable by focusing on connecting offline and mentoring offline. I help them to navigate as far as I can and then point them towards the better resources I know online. That is where I excel.
What do you all think about the people who've never joined communities before? What would you tell them? What advice would you give them?
DM: Start by interacting with someone who's around you and is involved in the community. Work with them initially to see how everything works and to know the possible options to be involved and contribute further.
MC: One of the first things I did within iOS development was listen to a podcast. I think it's no longer available. It was a podcast and he would always have a “meet an iOS Dev” chat. It was about how they got their start. I would follow everybody who was on that podcast. From there you got suggestions and everybody who said iOS developer in their bio, I would follow. I would just begin chatting with a bunch of other people virtually.
DT: Communities at Twitter are huge for iOS and Android development. I believe a lot of us know each other over that platform. Now we are trying to reach more people. You can always ask a question to any Android developer or IOS developer over Twitter and they probably are going to answer you. There is a lot of community that is happening fully online, for example Android Worldwide or any other type of conference. These conferences are about the community and solving the problems we have within the community globally.
MC: At the moment iOS Dev Happy Hour is in a monthly online meetup. We previously had our first in-person event. It's primarily always going to be online, but I would never say never about being in-person.
What are some of your hidden gems resources of Android/iOS that should be shared with the community?
DT: My hidden gems are probably two blogs. One of them is the blog of Joe Birch. He is one of the most incredible engineers of Android mobile. He's amazing. He's also a Google developer expert and his blog posts are probably one of the most incredible blog posts you can ever see. They are very straightforward to the point. Even when you are really new, he explains well. There are a lot of blogs in code labs of Google, Android, and Coupling. They are pretty straightforward and very simple.
MC: On the iOS side, a hidden gem is the Twitter community itself. My Twitter is purely for programming and iOS development. The community is so welcoming. Other than that, 100 days of Swift is a really good resource. If you want to get into iOS development and you've never programmed before, it's just a 100 day series by Paul Hudson. He goes through all sorts of stuff related to iOS development.
SA: I'm going to say that the Women Who Code community has been really great in supporting people who are curious about Android, who are open to Android, iOS, and mobile development. It's been a great place to be, to be curious and to connect with people. My second hidden resource is actually my old coworkers. We used to connect over work stuff all the time. Now we connect over career stuff and many years of working on Android and seeing the trends that have come and gone. Even the people that we work with every single day are great resources to connect to personally and professionally.
DT: We grow together as a community when we share our knowledge and we learn from each other. So keep sharing and keep learning.