I feel like I am not doing enough to give back to those early in career or those looking to get into tech. What would you suggest I do to help other, mentor, speak, volunteer or something else?

Hi Danny!

Thank you so much for your question and honestly I had a hard time with this one. Specifically because within each of those that you suggested, in regards to mentoring, speaking, volunteering, their takes a certain level of skill set and it's not a one-size-fits-all. I thought really hard about this and I came up with two things I think everyone can do no matter their skill set or their time commitment or interest level. There are two things that are really concrete that folks can do.

The first thing I wanted to share is that some companies and depends on your company of course there are what is known as ERGs, Employee Resource Groups. These are groups where they support folks depending on the affiliation; so it might be something like folks who are early in their career or folks who are based off of their ethnice or cultural heritage or based on  their sexuality or their physical capabilities. There are, potentially, within your company these groups that exist that you can join and you could support and you can volunteer within those groups to help others within those spaces. That's a great way that you can connect.

Now if for some reason your company is small and doesn't have those groups, something that you could do is look outside of your company by looking at different tech communities. I believe, Danny, that based on your LinkedIn, I'm going to make an assumption based off of your last name and the fact that you speak Spanish, that potentially you might be Latinx. So something I really wanted to share with you is that there is a community called Techqueria. Which is all about supporting Latinx folks in tech as well. You could definitely join that group, there's a slack group; you can offer support as well. There's tons of other other community groups that are focused around tech that potential you can join and of course depending on your skill-set, it might be offering some mentorship or being a sponsor within your company for folks, or volunteering. 

Those are at least two concrete ways that potentially you can support and help others when it comes to coming into the tech world and them being new. Another thing I want to note is that the onus isn't always on folks who are part of the minority. I know this is something I struggle with, as a woman and I'm also a Latina. I always have to be mindful: it's not only on me to support other minorities, Latinas, people who come from non-traditional routes as well. Something I like to do is to share opportunities with my peers, primarily white men. I usually go “hey so-and-so, did you know that there's this group that you could support in this way?” That's another way that you can help out and invite other people to support more diversity within the tech industry. 

Thank you so much Danny for your question!