#hackbright

[kamalkafir-blog]

Web Development Teacher's Assistant (Full-Time)

Job title: Web Development Teacher’s Assistant (Full-Time) Company: Hackbright Academy Job description: ** This role’s start date is July 21st and has an end date of November 21st ** As a Web Development Teacher… to adapt and innovate on the fly Expertise in the latest technologies and tools related to web development, such as HTML, CSS… Expected salary: Location: USA Job date: Sat, 19 Apr 2025…

[blogdangerouswastelandstude-blog]

The beginning-2 women 1 app

My name is Anisha and right next to me is my partner in crime, Mrin. We met a few months ago at a web development bootcamp. You know that one factor you need for success, well, that is Mrin. We like to view ourselves somewhat as a power couple, nothing to do with hierarchy, but rather 2 women in tech that believe we have the power to transform the world through applications and technology development. Stay tuned for more interesting content...

[angie-chang-marketing-blog]

INFOGRAPHIC SAMPLES ➤

(1) I created this Hackbright outcomes infographic from scratch using Photoshop <here>

(2) I use design tools like Piktochart and Canva to create infographics like this one for Women 2.0 <here>

[lgbtqiahistoricalromance]

Introducing Wordsworth: an app to help historical fiction authors avoid linguistic anachronisms by comparing their writing to works from 1800-1923.

Conceived, developed, & coded by me as my @Hackbright final project via Marissa Skudlarek

(I thought this might help some of you historical fiction writers. Creator is on Twitter as @marissaskud)

[jwcodes]

Hackbright Application and Interview

The Hackbright application is a bit on the longer side. In addition to basic information, I had to answer two short essay questions. One question was why I wanted to attend Hackbright. The other question asked me to teach something. I think the main purpose of the second question was to see my interests and my ability to explain concepts to others.

After sending in my application, I completed a coding challenge. The problem wasn’t too difficult. If you’ve done the easy challenges on Coderbyte, then you’ll be all set. Plus, the challenge is not timed.

After 10 days, I got an invitation for a first round interview. The interview was done through an interviewing app, which was interesting. I didn’t talk to an actual person. Instead, I read each question, had about 30 seconds to prepare, and then spoke into the video camera for about 1 minute. The interview was mostly non-technical. I think it was mostly a way to see my personality and whether I would be a cultural fit at Hackbright. I wouldn’t worry too much about this interview. The questions aren’t too difficult, and you can’t really prepare for them. The most difficult thing was getting used to using the app. When I was answering questions, I had to look at the question, check how much time I had left, and make sure to look into the camera while answering my question. I was given some practice questions to do before the interview, so I’d definitely recommend doing those  to get used to the software.

There was supposed to be a second interview with Hackbright staff, but 10 days later, I got an acceptance email!

[thepokeduck]

Zettai Tsuyoku Narimasu: You will definitely become strong

For most of my life, I've had a pretty disfavorable relationship with productivity. As a kid I was a lazy, dismotivated, never-crastinator. I seldom completed my homework, coasting by with mostly passable grades due to good test taking. I wouldn't do my chores, racking up punishments for weeks. Despite an exhaustion that I experienced nearly every day, I couldn't get myself off the computer and into bed until the small hours of the night. My first semester in college, I got such poor grades that I was placed on academic probation.

"You're so smart; I know you're capable of doing better. " My mom told me. "Sometimes you just have to sit down and get a thing done," my dad told me.

My dad ran his own company and my mom was a math and science teacher. Being naturally driven, self-motivated, and organized people, they didn't know how to help me. I'm not sure they even believed me when I told them that I really did want to do my homework, and to go to sleep early.  But none of the advice seemed to help me improve. Nothing I did seemed to break the cycle of procrastination.  I felt like a failure.

Tsuyoku Naritai ( 強くなりたい ) means "I want to become stronger." The Tsu is pronounced like the last phoneme of the word cats. Cats. Catsu. Tsuyoku. The R in Naritai is trickier. Think of the way you pronounce a soft t (or T-flap, for you linguistics nerds) in the word water or letter. Nari. Naritai. Tsuyoku Naritai.

Like I mentioned, I desperately wanted to become stronger. But nothing I tried solved my problems. Perhaps unsurprisingly, I gravitated towards Japanese media which, as Eliezer Yudkowsky famously wrote, “Embodies the spirit of Tsuyoku Naritai more intensely than in any Western literature.”(x) One of my favorite things was the Pokémon anime. In the early episodes of the show the main character Ash oversleeps, struggles to catch Pokémon, and fails in understanding even the basic principles of a Pokémon type match up, sending in Electric type Pikachu against a fully resistant ground type in his first big match. Over the course of the series however, he catches more Pokémon, wins more battles, and finally learns how to use strategy to choose the best Pokémon for the match.

It was undoubtedly cathartic for me to see Ash Ketchum grow from a flailing disaster child to a somewhat competent Pokémon Trainer. Perhaps it gave me hope. Or maybe I just liked the cute monsters and the badly translated puns.

Fast forward a number of years. I was thinking of applying to programming bootcamp.  During a phone call with my mom, I expressed my worries: I did so poorly in school, collapsing under the workload. How would I manage in a rigorous bootcamp environment?

To my complete surprise she replied, "Honey, I should have said it more often but I'm so so proud of you. When you were facing dropping out of college, you turned things around and graduated. I was way too hard on you because of my own mindset and I really regret it."

Like a seismic tremor, my foundation of self-image was shaken, as the entire way I had framed my academic abilities seemed to flip in that moment. Could it have been true that I actually did quite well in school? Were there some beliefs about how far I ought to have progressed, or what skills I ought to have mastered that were making me miserable?

I called my dad to talk about the bootcamp idea. He too, was confident I could do it. "Most people overestimate what they can do in a day, " he said, "and underestimate what they can do in a year."

I think that was my problem. Each and every day, I saw myself undershoot my goals. I had this firmly held image of success and what that would be like, and every day that didn't fit that description was a failure.

Fueled by the newfound belief in my ability to succeed, and my plan to measure my progress over months not days,  I launched into my work. I set intermediate checkpoints along the way to keep myself on task. I gave myself permission to write code sitting sideways on a couch, and I finally taught myself how to say no to requests for my time and energy.

And as of last week, I have graduated from my full stack programming bootcamp in San Francisco, Hackbright Academy.

And so I think I can say with confidence, looking back over my entire life, that I am longer quite the flailing disaster child I used to be. (Even though I still have a ways to go ;) )

So, do not let a thought like "I'm not strong yet" or "I didn't do enough" color your perception of your journey. You may not see it, but every day that you don’t give up is the practice of tsuyoku naritai, ("I want to become strong.") And trust me, you will definitely become strong. "Zettai tsuyoku narimasu."

[sweetswesf]

40. Happy MLK Day

IWhat a glorious day it was.  I woke up later than I expected and missed the walk, but I walked the route solo and joined the ending festival.  I did it last year, but coding, fatigue and my poor planning made me late this year.  Throughout my walk dedicated to him, I kept thanking God for blessing us with a man like him. 

I make it my mission to celebrate Martin Luther King Day every year.  Many people write it off as another day...as if this man was not assassinated only 50 years ago.  My parents are older than that...There was a time not too long ago where I could not study alongside my peers.  Hackbright would have NEVER existed just 50 years ago.  This is one of the most important holidays.  Unfortunately there are many companies that do not recognize it.  If people did not get the day off, I bet they would still be arguing that we do not need this holiday.  They even make light of it.  My school’s Director of Admissions posted this last week:

I know she did not mean anything bad about it, but I wish people were more sensitive and did not take the day lightly.  This is not a president that died a hundred years ago.  This man is the reason we have many of the liberties, culture, ideas we so take for granted.

Despite the poorly placed post, we had today off from school and I just spent it studying classes after I walked in remembrance of Dr. King.  Pay your respects to him y’all.

After I walked, I headed to a personal training session.  I am glad she kept it light because I was exhausted and have not been working out that much.  I met this trainer when I got talk into doing her Booty Bootcamp.  Another trainer pulled me into the class without introducing what it was.  I am always steering clear of these, because they are typically filled with non-Black girls who look to the Black girl to teach them how to “twerk”.  I often have nightmares that I will end up in one of these classes, being asked to teach others how to twerk and exploding in anger, educating everyone on how the Black woman has been over-sexualized and abused...but the class was not so bad :).  The instructor had a MUCH smaller butt than me, but she gave me some tips to keep this thing toned.  I don’t hate her or the class :) .  I am glad to say my nightmare did not come true.  I did kinda cringe though when she said she had some “soul”.

Anyway, the 2nd session (that was NOT the Booty Bootcamp) went great with this trainer.  She is trying to convince me to eat a bit more meat, but I am trying to stick to my veggie guns!  At least mostly...

After this, I did some grocery shopping.  My bill was much lower this week, but it was still higher than I wanted it to be.  I’m eating mainly vegg but still spending ~$100/week.  But for 4 meals a day, 5 days a week, including snacks, I guess it isn’t too bad...$5/day...

I then commenced to meal prepping.  I got real creative and finally made the rice and my own version of kimbap!  I even use my rice mold from Japan!  I love onigiri and am trying to learn to make all of my favorite foods so that I can be I-N-D-E-P-E-N-D-E-N-T (Do you know what that mean MAINE!? *Webbie voice*).  I did not add any seasoning so it was as bland as one would imagine!  For all the time it took, I will be better off just getting the 50% Kimbap.  It tastes good and is only $4!

Meal prepping took FOREVER!  It was my first time doing it and I made every meal for the upcoming week and packed it away to make it easier for me to run out in the morning.  Being late last week really woke me up to make a better effort to get places on time.  It is the main thing keeping me from being great!!  Making all my meals, I said to myself, man, I’m going to be hungry next week...

[hostingnewsfeed]

Labor Board Backs Engineers Who Were Fired for Unionizing

New Post has been published on http://dubrovnikoutthere.com/labor-board-backs-engineers-who-were-fired-for-unionizing/

Labor Board Backs Engineers Who Were Fired for Unionizing

The National Labor Relations Board is joining the fight by a group of engineers who want to form a union at a small San Francisco software company. The NLRB Tuesday issued a complaint against Lanetix, alleging the company violated federal labor laws when it fired 14 engineers in January after they filed papers to unionize. The complaint seeks an injunction to reinstate the fired engineers with back pay.

The dispute marks a rare case of Silicon Valley engineers trying to organize a union, and an even rarer example of the government coming to their aid. White-collar tech workers have won attention in recent months for coordinated campaigns against their employers’ business practices, but engineers in Silicon Valley almost never unionize.

Contractors and service workers for tech companies, who often are employed by outsourcing firms, have fought for years to unionize. Shuttle-bus drivers and food-service workers have made some progress. Earlier this month, after five years of organizing, security officers for companies including Facebook, Google, and Genentech, many of whom were making between $12 and $14 an hour, ratified their first union contract. They won wage increases of up to $1.20 per hour, better healthcare, and, for the first time, paid holidays. Bug testers who worked as contractors for Microsoft filed an NLRB charge for union-busting when they were fired in 2016. But this spring, workers agreed to settle with the contracting company in exchange for dropping the charge after the case seemed to sputter out.

The tension at Lanetix began in mid-November, when the company fired a highly respected female engineer who had been advocating for better pay and leave policies on behalf of her coworkers, according to interviews with two fired engineers and a copy of the complaint obtained by WIRED. The same day, the complaint says that managers held meetings at their offices in San Francisco and Arlington, Virginia, trying to dissuade employees from discussing work conditions in an independent messaging group that employees started on Slack, a popular chat app. The complaint says that Lanetix told workers that any attempts to unionize would be futile, but a group of about 14 non-supervisory engineers persisted.

In mid-January, after most of the unit signed authorization cards to be represented by the union, Lanetix was informed and the union filed papers with the NLRB. Ten days later, the engineers were fired.

Lanetix develops cloud-based software for transportation and logistics and has raised at least $18 million in funding from Salesforce Ventures and others. Lanetix and Salesforce declined to comment.

Bjorn Westergard, one of the fired Lanetix engineers leading the charge to unionze, says that small concessions by management would have easily deflated their efforts. The tipping point came late last year, when management offered additional stock to a handful of high-level male engineers, including Westergard. Employees suspected Lanetix planned to fire lower-level female engineers, many of whom graduated from Hackbright, an all women’s coding bootcamp, as did the female engineer fired in November.

“It became increasingly clear that their strategy was divide and conquer—flatter a handful of us in the hopes that we would go along with their plans and not put up a fight when they fired half of our co-workers,” Westergard says.

The NLRB’s complaint affirms allegations that the union filed in January. Lanetix employees worked with the Washington-Baltimore News Guild because most of the engineers were in the Virginia office. Cet Parks, the guild’s executive director, says the complaint is a rare victory. “It is hard to get the NLRB to pursue a court injunction for reinstatement and recognition,” he says. Parks says Lanetix’s timing was brazen. Even if an employer wants to fire workers involved in an organizing campaign, “usually their lawyers are going to inform them that there’s a problem,” he says.

“Unions are in retreat everywhere,” says William Gould, former chairman of the NLRB who teaches law at Stanford. He says recent Supreme Court decisions have been hostile to workers and employers are fighting hard to restrict worker rights. Still, Gould says the NLRB’s request for an injunction to reinstate the Lanetix employees signals the agency’s desire to “put this case to the top of the pile.”

The tech industry has been inhospitable to labor unions since before the microchip was invented. In order to ward off efforts from labor unions in San Francisco in 1939, Eitel McCullough, which made vacuum tubes for radar and broadcast, added an on-site cafeteria and medical clinic, and launched a profit-sharing program. Tech companies used the same strategy in the 1970s, offering employees high salaries and sweet perks to make collective action less appetizing.

The Lanetix engineer who was fired in November, who requested anonymity, says she was stunned by the termination because Lanetix’s CEO had solicited her opinions on referral bonuses and paid leave, including asking her to announce the improved policy at a company all-hands. Roughly five months before she was fired, the CEO said he appreciated her candid conversation and offered her a bonus or a raise. When board members came to the office, she says the CEO would often bring them by her desk as a way of showing that Lanetix believes in women.

Labor groups hoping to make inroads in the tech industry have tried to draw attention to the Lanetix engineers. In February, Tech Workers Coalition and Tech Action Working Group, part of the New York City Democratic Socialists of America, issued a statement of solidarity with the fired engineers. In March, 30 supporters joined a protest outside Lanetix’s San Francisco office.

Will Luckman, cofounder of Tech Action, said he hoped the statement would pressure the NLRB and increase awareness of nascent attempts to unionize within the tech industry. Despite their futuristic sheen, tech companies, “actually operate like traditional industrialists and will go through old fashioned methods of suppressing workers,” he says.

More Great WIRED Stories

[lazilysillyprince]

Labor Board Backs Engineers Who Were Fired for Unionizing

New Post has been published on http://dubrovnikoutthere.com/labor-board-backs-engineers-who-were-fired-for-unionizing/

Labor Board Backs Engineers Who Were Fired for Unionizing

The National Labor Relations Board is joining the fight by a group of engineers who want to form a union at a small San Francisco software company. The NLRB Tuesday issued a complaint against Lanetix, alleging the company violated federal labor laws when it fired 14 engineers in January after they filed papers to unionize. The complaint seeks an injunction to reinstate the fired engineers with back pay.

The dispute marks a rare case of Silicon Valley engineers trying to organize a union, and an even rarer example of the government coming to their aid. White-collar tech workers have won attention in recent months for coordinated campaigns against their employers’ business practices, but engineers in Silicon Valley almost never unionize.

Contractors and service workers for tech companies, who often are employed by outsourcing firms, have fought for years to unionize. Shuttle-bus drivers and food-service workers have made some progress. Earlier this month, after five years of organizing, security officers for companies including Facebook, Google, and Genentech, many of whom were making between $12 and $14 an hour, ratified their first union contract. They won wage increases of up to $1.20 per hour, better healthcare, and, for the first time, paid holidays. Bug testers who worked as contractors for Microsoft filed an NLRB charge for union-busting when they were fired in 2016. But this spring, workers agreed to settle with the contracting company in exchange for dropping the charge after the case seemed to sputter out.

The tension at Lanetix began in mid-November, when the company fired a highly respected female engineer who had been advocating for better pay and leave policies on behalf of her coworkers, according to interviews with two fired engineers and a copy of the complaint obtained by WIRED. The same day, the complaint says that managers held meetings at their offices in San Francisco and Arlington, Virginia, trying to dissuade employees from discussing work conditions in an independent messaging group that employees started on Slack, a popular chat app. The complaint says that Lanetix told workers that any attempts to unionize would be futile, but a group of about 14 non-supervisory engineers persisted.

In mid-January, after most of the unit signed authorization cards to be represented by the union, Lanetix was informed and the union filed papers with the NLRB. Ten days later, the engineers were fired.

Lanetix develops cloud-based software for transportation and logistics and has raised at least $18 million in funding from Salesforce Ventures and others. Lanetix and Salesforce declined to comment.

Bjorn Westergard, one of the fired Lanetix engineers leading the charge to unionze, says that small concessions by management would have easily deflated their efforts. The tipping point came late last year, when management offered additional stock to a handful of high-level male engineers, including Westergard. Employees suspected Lanetix planned to fire lower-level female engineers, many of whom graduated from Hackbright, an all women’s coding bootcamp, as did the female engineer fired in November.

“It became increasingly clear that their strategy was divide and conquer—flatter a handful of us in the hopes that we would go along with their plans and not put up a fight when they fired half of our co-workers,” Westergard says.

The NLRB’s complaint affirms allegations that the union filed in January. Lanetix employees worked with the Washington-Baltimore News Guild because most of the engineers were in the Virginia office. Cet Parks, the guild’s executive director, says the complaint is a rare victory. “It is hard to get the NLRB to pursue a court injunction for reinstatement and recognition,” he says. Parks says Lanetix’s timing was brazen. Even if an employer wants to fire workers involved in an organizing campaign, “usually their lawyers are going to inform them that there’s a problem,” he says.

“Unions are in retreat everywhere,” says William Gould, former chairman of the NLRB who teaches law at Stanford. He says recent Supreme Court decisions have been hostile to workers and employers are fighting hard to restrict worker rights. Still, Gould says the NLRB’s request for an injunction to reinstate the Lanetix employees signals the agency’s desire to “put this case to the top of the pile.”

The tech industry has been inhospitable to labor unions since before the microchip was invented. In order to ward off efforts from labor unions in San Francisco in 1939, Eitel McCullough, which made vacuum tubes for radar and broadcast, added an on-site cafeteria and medical clinic, and launched a profit-sharing program. Tech companies used the same strategy in the 1970s, offering employees high salaries and sweet perks to make collective action less appetizing.

The Lanetix engineer who was fired in November, who requested anonymity, says she was stunned by the termination because Lanetix’s CEO had solicited her opinions on referral bonuses and paid leave, including asking her to announce the improved policy at a company all-hands. Roughly five months before she was fired, the CEO said he appreciated her candid conversation and offered her a bonus or a raise. When board members came to the office, she says the CEO would often bring them by her desk as a way of showing that Lanetix believes in women.

Labor groups hoping to make inroads in the tech industry have tried to draw attention to the Lanetix engineers. In February, Tech Workers Coalition and Tech Action Working Group, part of the New York City Democratic Socialists of America, issued a statement of solidarity with the fired engineers. In March, 30 supporters joined a protest outside Lanetix’s San Francisco office.

Will Luckman, cofounder of Tech Action, said he hoped the statement would pressure the NLRB and increase awareness of nascent attempts to unionize within the tech industry. Despite their futuristic sheen, tech companies, “actually operate like traditional industrialists and will go through old fashioned methods of suppressing workers,” he says.

More Great WIRED Stories

[smartwebhostingblog]

Labor Board Backs Engineers Who Were Fired for Unionizing

New Post has been published on http://dubrovnikoutthere.com/labor-board-backs-engineers-who-were-fired-for-unionizing/

Labor Board Backs Engineers Who Were Fired for Unionizing

The National Labor Relations Board is joining the fight by a group of engineers who want to form a union at a small San Francisco software company. The NLRB Tuesday issued a complaint against Lanetix, alleging the company violated federal labor laws when it fired 14 engineers in January after they filed papers to unionize. The complaint seeks an injunction to reinstate the fired engineers with back pay.

The dispute marks a rare case of Silicon Valley engineers trying to organize a union, and an even rarer example of the government coming to their aid. White-collar tech workers have won attention in recent months for coordinated campaigns against their employers’ business practices, but engineers in Silicon Valley almost never unionize.

Contractors and service workers for tech companies, who often are employed by outsourcing firms, have fought for years to unionize. Shuttle-bus drivers and food-service workers have made some progress. Earlier this month, after five years of organizing, security officers for companies including Facebook, Google, and Genentech, many of whom were making between $12 and $14 an hour, ratified their first union contract. They won wage increases of up to $1.20 per hour, better healthcare, and, for the first time, paid holidays. Bug testers who worked as contractors for Microsoft filed an NLRB charge for union-busting when they were fired in 2016. But this spring, workers agreed to settle with the contracting company in exchange for dropping the charge after the case seemed to sputter out.

The tension at Lanetix began in mid-November, when the company fired a highly respected female engineer who had been advocating for better pay and leave policies on behalf of her coworkers, according to interviews with two fired engineers and a copy of the complaint obtained by WIRED. The same day, the complaint says that managers held meetings at their offices in San Francisco and Arlington, Virginia, trying to dissuade employees from discussing work conditions in an independent messaging group that employees started on Slack, a popular chat app. The complaint says that Lanetix told workers that any attempts to unionize would be futile, but a group of about 14 non-supervisory engineers persisted.

In mid-January, after most of the unit signed authorization cards to be represented by the union, Lanetix was informed and the union filed papers with the NLRB. Ten days later, the engineers were fired.

Lanetix develops cloud-based software for transportation and logistics and has raised at least $18 million in funding from Salesforce Ventures and others. Lanetix and Salesforce declined to comment.

Bjorn Westergard, one of the fired Lanetix engineers leading the charge to unionze, says that small concessions by management would have easily deflated their efforts. The tipping point came late last year, when management offered additional stock to a handful of high-level male engineers, including Westergard. Employees suspected Lanetix planned to fire lower-level female engineers, many of whom graduated from Hackbright, an all women’s coding bootcamp, as did the female engineer fired in November.

“It became increasingly clear that their strategy was divide and conquer—flatter a handful of us in the hopes that we would go along with their plans and not put up a fight when they fired half of our co-workers,” Westergard says.

The NLRB’s complaint affirms allegations that the union filed in January. Lanetix employees worked with the Washington-Baltimore News Guild because most of the engineers were in the Virginia office. Cet Parks, the guild’s executive director, says the complaint is a rare victory. “It is hard to get the NLRB to pursue a court injunction for reinstatement and recognition,” he says. Parks says Lanetix’s timing was brazen. Even if an employer wants to fire workers involved in an organizing campaign, “usually their lawyers are going to inform them that there’s a problem,” he says.

“Unions are in retreat everywhere,” says William Gould, former chairman of the NLRB who teaches law at Stanford. He says recent Supreme Court decisions have been hostile to workers and employers are fighting hard to restrict worker rights. Still, Gould says the NLRB’s request for an injunction to reinstate the Lanetix employees signals the agency’s desire to “put this case to the top of the pile.”

The tech industry has been inhospitable to labor unions since before the microchip was invented. In order to ward off efforts from labor unions in San Francisco in 1939, Eitel McCullough, which made vacuum tubes for radar and broadcast, added an on-site cafeteria and medical clinic, and launched a profit-sharing program. Tech companies used the same strategy in the 1970s, offering employees high salaries and sweet perks to make collective action less appetizing.

The Lanetix engineer who was fired in November, who requested anonymity, says she was stunned by the termination because Lanetix’s CEO had solicited her opinions on referral bonuses and paid leave, including asking her to announce the improved policy at a company all-hands. Roughly five months before she was fired, the CEO said he appreciated her candid conversation and offered her a bonus or a raise. When board members came to the office, she says the CEO would often bring them by her desk as a way of showing that Lanetix believes in women.

Labor groups hoping to make inroads in the tech industry have tried to draw attention to the Lanetix engineers. In February, Tech Workers Coalition and Tech Action Working Group, part of the New York City Democratic Socialists of America, issued a statement of solidarity with the fired engineers. In March, 30 supporters joined a protest outside Lanetix’s San Francisco office.

Will Luckman, cofounder of Tech Action, said he hoped the statement would pressure the NLRB and increase awareness of nascent attempts to unionize within the tech industry. Despite their futuristic sheen, tech companies, “actually operate like traditional industrialists and will go through old fashioned methods of suppressing workers,” he says.

More Great WIRED Stories

[angie-chang-marketing-blog]

VIDEO SAMPLES ➤

(1) I led the Girl Geek X team to produce fun videos for our sponsored events, including a catchy sizzle reel and content from sponsored events. Our full video library is available on YouTube <here>

(2) I led the Girl Geek X team to produce our 2-minute sizzle reel for Elevate virtual conference <here> 

(3) I led the Hackbright Academy marketing team to produce inspiring videos about changing the face of engineering with interviews <here>

[awesomecolorfulcollectorwombat]

Labor Board Backs Engineers Who Were Fired for Unionizing

New Post has been published on http://dubrovnikoutthere.com/labor-board-backs-engineers-who-were-fired-for-unionizing/

Labor Board Backs Engineers Who Were Fired for Unionizing

The National Labor Relations Board is joining the fight by a group of engineers who want to form a union at a small San Francisco software company. The NLRB Tuesday issued a complaint against Lanetix, alleging the company violated federal labor laws when it fired 14 engineers in January after they filed papers to unionize. The complaint seeks an injunction to reinstate the fired engineers with back pay.

The dispute marks a rare case of Silicon Valley engineers trying to organize a union, and an even rarer example of the government coming to their aid. White-collar tech workers have won attention in recent months for coordinated campaigns against their employers’ business practices, but engineers in Silicon Valley almost never unionize.

Contractors and service workers for tech companies, who often are employed by outsourcing firms, have fought for years to unionize. Shuttle-bus drivers and food-service workers have made some progress. Earlier this month, after five years of organizing, security officers for companies including Facebook, Google, and Genentech, many of whom were making between $12 and $14 an hour, ratified their first union contract. They won wage increases of up to $1.20 per hour, better healthcare, and, for the first time, paid holidays. Bug testers who worked as contractors for Microsoft filed an NLRB charge for union-busting when they were fired in 2016. But this spring, workers agreed to settle with the contracting company in exchange for dropping the charge after the case seemed to sputter out.

The tension at Lanetix began in mid-November, when the company fired a highly respected female engineer who had been advocating for better pay and leave policies on behalf of her coworkers, according to interviews with two fired engineers and a copy of the complaint obtained by WIRED. The same day, the complaint says that managers held meetings at their offices in San Francisco and Arlington, Virginia, trying to dissuade employees from discussing work conditions in an independent messaging group that employees started on Slack, a popular chat app. The complaint says that Lanetix told workers that any attempts to unionize would be futile, but a group of about 14 non-supervisory engineers persisted.

In mid-January, after most of the unit signed authorization cards to be represented by the union, Lanetix was informed and the union filed papers with the NLRB. Ten days later, the engineers were fired.

Lanetix develops cloud-based software for transportation and logistics and has raised at least $18 million in funding from Salesforce Ventures and others. Lanetix and Salesforce declined to comment.

Bjorn Westergard, one of the fired Lanetix engineers leading the charge to unionze, says that small concessions by management would have easily deflated their efforts. The tipping point came late last year, when management offered additional stock to a handful of high-level male engineers, including Westergard. Employees suspected Lanetix planned to fire lower-level female engineers, many of whom graduated from Hackbright, an all women’s coding bootcamp, as did the female engineer fired in November.

“It became increasingly clear that their strategy was divide and conquer—flatter a handful of us in the hopes that we would go along with their plans and not put up a fight when they fired half of our co-workers,” Westergard says.

The NLRB’s complaint affirms allegations that the union filed in January. Lanetix employees worked with the Washington-Baltimore News Guild because most of the engineers were in the Virginia office. Cet Parks, the guild’s executive director, says the complaint is a rare victory. “It is hard to get the NLRB to pursue a court injunction for reinstatement and recognition,” he says. Parks says Lanetix’s timing was brazen. Even if an employer wants to fire workers involved in an organizing campaign, “usually their lawyers are going to inform them that there’s a problem,” he says.

“Unions are in retreat everywhere,” says William Gould, former chairman of the NLRB who teaches law at Stanford. He says recent Supreme Court decisions have been hostile to workers and employers are fighting hard to restrict worker rights. Still, Gould says the NLRB’s request for an injunction to reinstate the Lanetix employees signals the agency’s desire to “put this case to the top of the pile.”

The tech industry has been inhospitable to labor unions since before the microchip was invented. In order to ward off efforts from labor unions in San Francisco in 1939, Eitel McCullough, which made vacuum tubes for radar and broadcast, added an on-site cafeteria and medical clinic, and launched a profit-sharing program. Tech companies used the same strategy in the 1970s, offering employees high salaries and sweet perks to make collective action less appetizing.

The Lanetix engineer who was fired in November, who requested anonymity, says she was stunned by the termination because Lanetix’s CEO had solicited her opinions on referral bonuses and paid leave, including asking her to announce the improved policy at a company all-hands. Roughly five months before she was fired, the CEO said he appreciated her candid conversation and offered her a bonus or a raise. When board members came to the office, she says the CEO would often bring them by her desk as a way of showing that Lanetix believes in women.

Labor groups hoping to make inroads in the tech industry have tried to draw attention to the Lanetix engineers. In February, Tech Workers Coalition and Tech Action Working Group, part of the New York City Democratic Socialists of America, issued a statement of solidarity with the fired engineers. In March, 30 supporters joined a protest outside Lanetix’s San Francisco office.

Will Luckman, cofounder of Tech Action, said he hoped the statement would pressure the NLRB and increase awareness of nascent attempts to unionize within the tech industry. Despite their futuristic sheen, tech companies, “actually operate like traditional industrialists and will go through old fashioned methods of suppressing workers,” he says.

More Great WIRED Stories

[jwcodes]

Choosing Bootcamps

I chose to apply to 4 coding bootcamps:

Coding Dojo

Hackbright

Hack Reactor

Fullstack’s Grace Hopper Program

Coding Dojo

I knew a couple of people who went to this school and ended up working as developers. The school teaches 3 tech stacks, rather than just one. The tuition is also cheaper than other schools. The application curriculum seemed to be less rigorous than other schools, but I decided to apply to have a fallback school just in case.

Hackbright

Hackbright is a bootcamp for women. I was interested in going to an all-women’s school due to the low number of women in tech. The schools seemed to have a strong network with ties to a lot of companies in the Bay Area. However, it seemed the school was aimed at students with very little background in coding, and I already had some experience.

Hack Reactor

Hack Reactor has great outcomes for hiring rate and average salary. It seems that it is one of the best coding schools, and it had a lot of great reviews online. The  school requires applicants to have some knowledge of Javascript, which I liked. I had my reservations, though, because the school seems to be growing very rapidly. Currently, two cohorts of 35 students enter at one time. Cohorts attend lectures together, and the idea of listening to a lecture with 70 students reminded me too much of college lectures.

Grace Hopper

Grace Hopper and Fullstack also had a lot of great reviews online. Grace Hopper is Fullstack’s program for women, and it has deferred tuition, meaning I would pay tuition once I got a job. I got a positive vibe from the school from my research. Like Hack Reactor, the school also requires applicants to have coding experience, but unlike Hack Reactor, the class sizes are smaller. One big downside to Fullstack is that it’s located in New York, and I was more interested in moving to San Francisco.

[thepokeduck]

I finally submitted my application to bootcamp (Hackbright Academy). Wish me luck!

[2plan22]

RT @Hackbright: Via @edsurge: Women hold 57% of professional jobs, they represent only 25% of #computing workforce… https://t.co/1h5Md2EUJo 2PLAN22 http://twitter.com/2PLAN22/status/823698248359706629

Via @edsurge: Women hold 57% of professional jobs, they represent only 25% of #computing workforce https://t.co/yKdGzjng2T #ChangeTheRatio http://pic.twitter.com/LCxS2uko78

— Hackbright Academy (@Hackbright) January 24, 2017

[sweetswesf]

32. Happy Sunday

I did something bad last night...I pulled my first bootcamp all-nighter.  I thought the self-assessment would it’d be quick but it ended up taking 9 HOURS!!  I ran through a playlist of R&B songs that kept me up, but I was so tired that when the playlist replayed itself, I was too tired to change it.  I figured I would stay up and complete it because I knew there was so much to do on Sunday that I would be devastated if I did not get it done...so I got it done.  I also thought of a few topics for final projects.  No, I am not looking for your congrats, nor your shame.

After finishing, I ate for a little bit, knocked out for an hour and made it seem like I wasn’t just a complete mess an hour before when I met with my business partners.  I tried to get out of the meeting but knew I had better keep it.  I’m glad I did.  This is yet another reason I need to stop procrastinating.  It’s expensive!!!

How did I get into this predicament you ask?  I told myself Friday night to update my blog. That didn’t happen...I waited until Saturday morning and thought it’d be a quick 5 posts.  I ended up falling down a rabbit hole with blog themes.  I wasn’t happy with the free ones, so I flipped through hundreds but what felt like THOUSANDS of themes.  I settled on one, and while I’m not happy with it, I finally had to pull myself away and remind myself that I was being ridiculous...

I recollected my LIFE from the past almost year and a half and got carried away by composing over 20 posts!  What a reflection it was.  I read in my posts that I had moved 7 times and even I had to say, “damn, really?!”  What’s even worst is that I have been moving constantly every year since 17.  

Funny how today’s sermon in church was about learning to stay put.  Building relationships and roots in hard places and communities to nurture them and ourselves.  I have been transient but I thank God for growth.  I have now been in my apartment for 9 months.  The closest I have been to staying put for this long since college was when I was living on my own.  I’m grateful that I have not had ONE bad encounter with the roommates that gave me anxiety at one point.  This has been the most pleasant living experience I have had living in an apartment in the Bay.

I received that sermon at a new church today.  These past 2 Sundays I haven’t been able to make my hour commute to my home church and I have had to do some church dating.  I didn’t feel connected in last week’s church but this week’s church was such a pleasant surprise.  The church is very millennial friendly, which scared me initially.  It reminded me of a Hillsong which I am not too fond of.  To me Hillsong feels like a rock concert.  They always play a 20-minute over-productionalized video about how they’re opening churches all over the world in between acoustic, alternative- and country-sounding gospel songs that just don’t speak to me.  I need to hear that familiar gospel and pastor tone.  However, I think I have found a new church when I pull and all-nighter and deem myself “too tired” for the morning services.

I enjoyed the setting, it wasn’t too cold, and the references to the Word were relevant and interpreted in a way that allowed me to receive the message.  As I said the message was about community and breaking out of our false notions that we have to be alone to get ahead or pursue our dreams.  It made me appreciate my Hackbright community even more, the community my old job provided, the community my old job is STILL providing and me meeting for dinner with a friend with whom I recently had a disagreement with that led to us not talking for weeks.

It also made me think twice of my desire (that you all are probably tired of me talking about) to return to NYC.  It also made me reflect on my career move.  I started to guilt myself a little for it, but remembered  as soon as that negative thought popped up that this is exactly what I should be doing.

The pastor kept saying, “Stay here.  If you thought of staying for 2, stay for 4.  If you thought of staying for 4, stay for 8.”  I had only wished he continued his sermon with, “Do any of you have questions?”, to which I would have answered, “Well when do you know when it’s time to go...Eventually there’s a calling, right, that you have to answer...”  I am glad I am answering this one...

I left with a refocus for the upcoming week, a belly full of communion and relief that I had finally found another church I can enjoy.  When I can’t make my home church, my previous “backup” church was where I would go.  It is soo far, it’s always freezing inside, and it’s Catholic, a denomination I didn’t grow up in, so I always feel like a phony trying to follow the hand movements and prayers I was never taught.  I did appreciate it though.  And Hillsong.  I needed to see God when I went to those churches and although it wasn’t in the vision I hoped for, I did get to be in His house, with His people, learning about His word.

So, a few goals were checked off this weekend:

completed skills assessment

called my best friend back

grocery shopped

went to church

met with my business partners

called my Dad

Goals for next week:

review after every day of class

prepare all of my meals

#savemoney

maintain my workout schedule

stay hydrated!

pack enough to eat!

don’t fall asleep in class

get 8 hours of sleep...every night!

update my blog

Heading to bed for some MUCH needed sleep and refocus.  I’ll resume review from last week in the morning.  Good night and happy Sunday, y’all.  Kill next week!