My career and path into tech
A presentation at Women in Tech Evening at University of Suffolk Google Developers Student Club in in Ipswich, UK by Ruth Cheesley
My career and path into the tech industry RUTH CHEESLEY MAUTIC PROJECT LEAD @RCheesley
MAUTIC PROJECT LEAD RUTH CHEESLEY (she/her) 18+ years using and contributing to open source projects Located in Ipswich, UK Working full time for Acquia as Mautic Project Lead noti.st/rcheesley for my talks, slides, resources @RCheesley
WHO ARE ACQUIA? THE OPEN SOURCE DIGITAL EXPERIENCE COMPANY We provide the world’s most ambitious brands with technology that allows them to embrace innovation and create customer moments that matter. At Acquia, we believe in the power of community — giving our customers the freedom to build tomorrow on their terms. 94% Customer Satisfaction Rating Leveraging Drupal, the largest open source community, and Mautic, the world’s first open source marketing automation platform 3,500+ customers, including 1,800 enterprises 30+ Fortune 100 customers 1500+ Employees Global Partner Program
ABOUT MAUTIC DISRUPTING THE MARKETING WORLD ✴ Open source marketing automation platform launched in 2015 (mautic.org / github.com/mautic/mautic) - completely free to download and use. Anyone can (and does) contribute to make it better. ✴ Allows you to learn from your visitors and personalise their digital experience across email, web, SMS, browser notifications, and more, automating marketing tasks. ✴ Comparable commercial solutions from £1,000+ per month. @RCheesley
WHO USES MAUTIC? A LOT OF PEOPLE! ✴ 200,000+ organisations using the software in 65 languages worldwide. ✴ 10,500+ community members. ✴ 1,000+ community contributors. ✴ Multiple businesses sell hosted Mautic services as a ‘Software as a Service’ or SaaS model. @RCheesley
W H AT D O I D O A S P R O J E C T L E A D ? A WIDE AND VARIED ROLE COMMUNITY MANAGEMENT ✴ Setting up ways for people to help make Mautic better by volunteering or being paid to contribute to Mautic, and making sure that they are appreciated for their contributions ✴ Establishing teams and empowering people to do what they love ✴ Setting the culture and the governance of the community ✴ Providing leadership - I am the top of the ‘pyramid’ in the leadership structure @RCheesley Photo by Caleb Chen on Unsplash
W H AT D O I D O A S P R O J E C T L E A D ? A WIDE AND VARIED ROLE PRODUCT MANAGEMENT ✴ Reviewing, testing and approving new features and bug fixes ✴ Setting the roadmap and future direction of the product ✴ Establishing Strategic Initiatives and finding ways to encourage people to work on them ✴ Collaborating with companies who rely on Mautic for their business to ensure Mautic remains competitive in the market ✴ Collaborating with and learning from other open source projects @RCheesley Photo by Jo Szczepanska on Unsplash
W H AT D O I D O A S P R O J E C T L E A D ? A WIDE AND VARIED ROLE EVERYTHING ELSE! ✴ Anything we can’t find a community contributor to do, I end up doing! Everything from testing features to running a release to creating graphics and posts for social media! ✴ Organised two online world conferences last year, and our first in person conference in Belgium ✴ Speaking at events around the world about Mautic, and how we’re building our community ✴ Supporting local teams with organising community-based events, and usually speaking at them (lots of travel!) @RCheesley
What journey took you to where you are today?
HOW I GOT TO HERE NOT THE TRADITIONAL ROUTE! PHYSIOTHERAPY IT / WEB DEV COMMUNITY Started out doing Sport Science then Worked part time jobs at uni on a computer Volunteered in Open Source communities in Physiotherapy at Uni - tech was never a helpdesk, got a job as an IT Technician and many ways over the years (documentation, career suggested despite being geeky! then health data analyst, then created a user groups, writing content) resulting in digital agency doing web design leadership roles in several communities @RCheesley Photo by Toa Heftiba on Unsplash Photo by Taylor Vick on Unsplash Photo by Ekke Guembel, used with permission
PROJECTS I’VE WORKED ON JOOMLA! COMMUNITY SUPPORTING JOOMLA! USER GROUPS E S TA B L I S H I N G THE JOOMLA! MARKETING TEAM Part of the User Groups team, helping people set up local communities. Setting up and running the Joomla! Marketing Team RE-WRITING THE JOOMLA! CODE OF CONDUCT GOOGLE SUMMER OF CODE MENTOR Updating and improving the CoC and creating a Conflict Resolution Team Mentored project to implement a microdata library in Mautic
PROJECTS I’VE WORKED ON MAUTIC E S TA B L I S H I N G A GOVERNANCE MODEL C R E AT I N G A PA R T N E R S PROGRAM Establishing how the community would be run, what the leadership structure would be. A fair & equitable way to recognise/promote orgs who financially & practically support Mautic. REDUCING BACKLOG OF CONTRIBUTIONS ORGANISING MAJOR EVENTS Getting through the 600+ issues and 400+ pull requests in the backlog Organised online and inperson international conferences
BEING A WOMAN IN TECH FIND YOUR PEOPLE! ✴ Life is what you make of it ✴ Find (or build) communities of people who support you and your values ✴ If you think something needs to change, change it (ideally with friends) ✴ https://witchat.github.io (ping me for an invite)
What advice would you give people who want to get to where you are today?
G E T I N V O LV E D N O W - D O N ’ T WA I T ! ASK HOW YOU CAN HELP ✴ Find some open source tools that you use, and/or which you are interested in ✴ Find a way to contribute ✴ Help test bug fixes! ✴ Writing content ✴ Creating visual resources ✴ Managing their social media ✴ Writing / improving documentation? ✴ Organise a Meetup and invite speakers - great way to build your network! ✴ Help others - answer support questions, write blogs about things you have struggled with and the solution @RCheesley
FIND A MENTOR START NETWORKING ✴ Start networking with people working in the career area you want to work in ✴ Get yourself a professional LinkedIn profile, regardless of whether you have any job experience to date ✴ Search for people using keywords relevant to the career area ✴ Write a short, professional note to accompany the connection request. Ask them if they would be up for having a coffee (in person or virtual!) to chat about their work as you are interested in their line of work ✴ Ask everybody you meet who are the one or two other people in their network that they think you should meet, and ask them to make the introduction @RCheesley
K N O W W H AT M A K E S Y O U R H E A R T S I N G FOLLOW YOUR INTUITION ✴ Don’t just go for the salary/kudos - aim to do something you really care passionately about ✴ Follow your intuition and be honest with yourself. If you think you should be in a different career area, then change. ✴ Recognise that you will have to work hard to start and to transition careers, but it is worth it! @RCheesley
BE YOURSELF AUTHENTICITY ✴ Have the confidence to be who you are, not who you think other people expect you to be ✴ Exemplify what you want to see in the world around you ✴ Remember that everything can change - just some things take more time and energy than others!
MAUTIC PROJECT LEAD RUTH CHEESLEY (she/her) What questions can I answer? ruth.cheesley@acquia.com noti.st/rcheesley for talks and resources ruthcheesley.co.uk for my personal website @RCheesley
A short talk about my journey into the tech industry, career, experiences as a woman in tech, and why I love what I do!
