There's a perception that everyone in tech is a white dude with an Ivy League education. It's false, but sometimes, it can be hard to see it. San Francisco-based photographer Helena Price sought to change that through her latest project, Techies. Techies, launching today, is an art project composed of 100 interviews and portraits of people from underrepresented backgrounds in the tech industry: people of color, women, LGBT individuals, and disabled individuals, among others. Price, who describes it as a "giant oral history of the tech industry in 2016," spent three months working on this project.
"I want to show the outside world a more comprehensive picture of people who work in tech," she explains via email. "It’s not just a bunch of 22-year-old white boys from Stanford — there are a ton of people in tech who come from a huge variety of backgrounds, many not privileged, who worked their ass off to be here, have good motivations, and stay because they are insanely talented and passionate about the work."
Price acknowledges that 100 interviews is a lot to get through, so the site lets you choose your own path. You can filter the interviews to find people who have similar experience or a similar background to yourself, or learn about people who come from a completely different walk of life than your own.
Beyond hoping to connect people from all kinds of backgrounds going through similar struggles, Price also wants to send a message to the industry at large.
"Diversity is definitely a hot topic right now, but companies are still celebrating quantitative data (posting numbers, stating goals, then patting themselves on the back and calling it a day) without doing much else in terms of qualitative research or decision making," she says. "So, I thought I’d make a giant pile of (very unscientific) qualitative data that can, at the very least, serve as a catalyst for conversations and new ways of problem-solving around hiring and retention."
You should definitely visit Techies for yourself, but if you want a peek at what's in store, read on.
"I want to build the online space that I want to have for myself. A place where voices are not suppressed and that people feel safe," February Keeney says in her interview.
"People just assuming that because I am a Black woman — the worst one is people who assume that I only got hired because of affirmative action or whatever. It’s like, ‘No. I came in and I destroyed the interviews, and that’s how I got hired. I’m really fucking smart,'" Erica Baker says.
Traditional networking made me very uncomfortable in lots of ways, like feeling very insincere. And I think a lot of that didn’t seem my type, or my type of small talk even. But there are people out there —there are companies out there that are going to value your full personality. There’s enough jobs in tech that you can find one that is right for you, that accepts you, that is excited by you," Rachel Miller says in her interview.
"I found that it was so much easier for someone to see me as one of the guys versus someone to see me as a queer person, especially a queer woman. That was always a struggle for me and that’s why I left a previous company," Dominique DeGuzman says.
"It sucks when you’re giving a presentation to 18 dudes, 16 of whom are white, wondering why you’re the only girl in the room or whether you’re being held accountable for your gender. Not held accountable but, 'Why am I representing all female engineers? Because I am the only female in the room and there are 20 men here?' It’s tough. It’s tricky," Jess Loeb says.
"My whole life I lived in a place where almost everyone looked like me — dressed up like me, talked the same language, and when I was in Portland and Seattle, I guess I just accepted that I’m a foreigner. When I moved to the Bay Area and made it more of my new home, I started becoming more aware of the fact that I am a minority, but being in a company like Facebook, that was a good thing! As a Muslim hijabi woman, it felt I was accepted and even celebrated for being different. That’s the biggest thing that keeps me going here," Rana Abulbasal says.
"What’s most exciting [about my work] is that it’s all about little tiny puzzles. Puzzles are everything. I love puzzles. I do them on a daily basis. These are little tiny puzzles that you need to solve and once you do that, you unlock the path to the bigger puzzle. You cannot proceed until you have figured out all these little tiny parts," Uche Nnadi says.
"Use social media, like Twitter and Facebook, to find people whom you admire, follow them, and if you’re feeling a little bit bold (because why not), reach out and ask them what it took for them to get to where they are. When I was in college, I had a Twitter account that I used to follow a lot of designers who work in tech. Despite being in central Connecticut, I was able to tap into the bustling Bay Area tech scene from afar and stay up to date on trends," Lisa Sy says in her interview.
"I’ve found a lot of love in the Bay Area since I’ve moved here, and it’s quite stunning. That’s really what keeps me going," Chloe Madison Parfitt says.
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