Black Women Talk Tech hosted their 6th annual conference in downtown Brooklyn this past weekend and the advice and gems I gathered were just too good not to share. Where else would you get the opportunity to learn how to successfully enter and thrive in any industry, directly from successful business owners and leaders in those industries. With jobseekers and aspiring entrepreneurs in mind, I asked questions, took notes, and highlighted some of the best advice from three dynamic leaders in the tech and entrepreneurial world—you might want to grab a pen😊
How to Find Remote Work & Get Hired in Tech
Libryia Jones, Client Director for Amplifi, Remote Work Advocate & Educator
How to get hired:
- Update your resume and LinkedIn—professionally update both if you find you’re not getting any job hits.
- There is opportunity to develop skills in a new field without going back to school—Google, Coursera, EdX, and Codeacademy have certificate programs & bootcamps to help you learn new technologies, especially Web 3.0.
- Apply for the job! Don’t be afraid of the bullets. A lot of times the job postings have the unicorn version of what they want—you don’t have to meet all the requirements
Pieces of Advice for Career Transitions: You don’t need to be technical to work in technology, there are positions like product and project managers that require organizational, problem-solving and management skills. “What you went to school for—what you’re doing now—it’s not final, you can transition and change careers.”
Where to Find Remote Jobs: Remote3.co, Cryptojobs.com, Dice.com, Angel.co, Upwork, and companies such as Microsoft, Meta, Circle, and Polygon.
Solo-preneurship, Motherhood & Your Best Customer Base
Tanya Van Court, Founder and CEO of Goalsetter shared these tips and lessons she’s learned as an black woman entrepreneur:
On Not Quitting: “You can’t quit you have to keep going. The obstacles are going to be there but if you keep going you will be standing tall at the end of the 5 years.” When you’re comparing yourself to the success of white companies or entrepreneurs remember their privilege— “our spaces are totally different”.
On Your Best Customers: Tanya shared that she realized the black community was her target base and biggest supporters—it was hard for her to raise money to start her fintech company, but it was black and brown people and women who wanted to invest in their own community. She now counts NBA players, Chris Paul and Kevin Durant as some of her investors.
On Mom-Guilt: “As a mom it feels like you missed out, you always feel like you’re compromising—but you have to acknowledge and recognize and pat yourself on the back as a black woman, because there are so many people sitting at their desk saying I wish I could start my own company”
On Staying Mentally Well: “Build in “micro moments of happiness”—a monthly massage, brunch with girlfriends, putting your child to bed every night—find those things that reenergize you and be do dogged about it”
The Benefits of Cryptocurrency:
Armando Pantoja – Crypto Expert & FinTech Entrepreneur on why cryptocurrency is a great industry for people of color to get into:
What is Cryptocurrency: “Cryptocurrency is an encrypted coin; it’s a digital form of money, a recorded transaction—it’s safe, the data is safe.”
Anyone Can Work in Crypto: “The biggest opportunity is not in investing in cryptocurrency—[but rather] the suppliers of the technology, the services that support the industry are gonna make a lot of money going forth. And that’s an opportunity for people of color because we’ve been kept out of traditional tech but now with crypto, a whole new window has opened up for us and there’s not a lot of competition. There are [a lot of] opportunities there and it could be outside of technology—you need lawyers, accountants, graphic designers, people in business development…and because they’re connected to crypto and it’s a specialized skill you can make twice as much as you would in another industry doing the same thing.
How to Get into the Crypto Industry: “Learn the basics of bitcoin and blockchain technology—it would take a novice only three months to learn that, and then start attending conferences, attending events, get your name out there and network. I’ve known people, personally, and in three or four months they’re already in the industry making money.”
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