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Whats the problem with …

Woman being interviewed

Recruitment?

We’ve been having talks with women working in tech over the years and discussing the issues they face, we’ve decided that its worth having a wider conversation to help people have awareness of some of them. To start off we are tackling the Recruitment process both internal recruitment processes and external recruitment companies appear to have or are blockers for our women. We were really first made aware of this at our tech3shed recruitment fair where we were talking to the managers/CTO’s/CEO’s who attended and were bemused by how astonished they were by the number of high-quality female candidates they were seeing. Apparently they were not seeing them at all when they were recruiting, and when we spoke to the women it wasn’t like they hadn’t been applying. So the question for you all is – what’s actually blocking them? ……. We don’t have all the answers but check out this piece to start off your thinking on the interview process for those that do get that far.

Women Tech Founders

Holiday slippers on beach

… have run off on holiday but assured us that they will be back in September. As with everything we are still available for 121’s if you send us a message on info@wthub.org, we can arrange a call or zoom.

Jobs

Robot searching for a job

We have new Jobs coming in every week for those of you looking check out our Jobs Board. For Companies looking for diverse candidates then please also check out our candidates page as we also have new members on there every week.

Check out this one for example – its supports remote working, is a charity and is bending over backwards to create an inclusive team. They are also upskilling in house to keep their employees careers moving, if we had a checklist for suitable companies they would have passed – solutions-developer.

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Summertime – Time for a break

I am on holidays

As with every summer we try to take a bit of a break as many of our members have families and take holidays at this time. This means that Free 3 Fridays is closed for a break, but if anyone wants to have a chat then we are available for 121’s if you send us a message on info@wthub.org we can arrange a call or zoom.

Robot searching for a job

We also know that some of our members have been hit by the current situation so if you are looking for a job then you might want us to add you to our candidate’s page here and also take a look at our jobs board for companies who have an interest in diverse candidates.

So while we are closing our doors on the fridays we have decided to carry on with our Workshop Wednesdays events throughout so people can carry on with their upskilling.

Workshop Wednesday

The next Workshop Wedenesday will be next week on the 29th of July and we currently have:

Sign up here (or in the individual group meetups on the links above) and feel free to join us for just the part that interests you, we will showcase what’s on from 6 – 6.15 before starting the talks.

If you wish to do a talk then please let us know by email on info@wthub.org.

We are happy to host other rooms if you want to discuss projects etc and if you wish to sponsor one the details are on our networking page here.

Don’t forget Mondays Women Tech Founders on Monday!

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Direct recruiting without the ghosting or gaslighting

gaslighting

As members of women’s Tech hub, we know that there are multiple issues of bias around recruitment. Our members complain about ghosting, which is when they simply don’t have any response or gaslighting, which is when someone agrees on a price or agreement with you and then tells you they never agreed that. It’s rife in the industry and drives many of you away, we know this because you tell us!

We, therefore, set up direct recruitment with tech3shed, which was where we introduced members directly to the companies cutting out the recruitment process by talking directly at a careers fair. AND it worked! It was amazing to see how many of the main companies were shocked to see the quality of our members whom, without the industry blockers, they would never meet.

Because of that we now go direct and we have some great companies who are keen to talk direct, which is great. You can be a member on our candidate’s page here without your current company knowing it’s you (an issue with LinkedIn for some) and also we are only charging 5% as it means it keeps us independent and supports our work. We have some new companies and candidates coming in weekly so check out our pages – candidates here and jobs here.

If you are a company not understanding where the women are, then speak to us direct on info@wthub.org and we can explain why you don’t see them yet.

Workshop Wednesday

The next Workshop Wedenesday will be this week on the 15th of July and we currently have:

  • Guest speaker Eleanor Stowe: Design in Change Roles
  • Bristol Data Science & Machine Learning: Self-paced peer-supported study session
  • Python Beginners: Following an online Python Course (https://www.udacity.com/course/introduction-to-python–ud1110) – consolidating lesson 4
  • Introduction to Software Testing
  • Webdev 101: How to deploy a static site with Netlify. A great way to get portfolio sites up and running

Sign up here (or in the individual group meetups on the links above) and feel free to join us for just the part that interests you, we will showcase what’s on from 6 – 6.15 before starting the talks.

If you wish to do a talk then please let us know by email on info@wthub.org.

We are happy to host other rooms if you want to discuss projects etc and if you wish to sponsor one the details are on our networking page here.

Don’t forget Mondays Women Tech Founders on Monday!

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WTH project and Women Tech Founders updates

woman managing meeting

Women Tech Founders

Kissy Kissy by Pretty Digital

Supporting women founders: It’s hard to work stuff out when you are right in the middle of things. This month we are introducing a regular 20-minute slot called “Its not about the nail” to work talk through your ideas, projects and business conundrums.

1. Intros and catch ups
2. Agreeing the rules
3. Its not about the nail – with Constance Fleuriot and Pretty Digital
4. Planning for the year – sessions ideas

Watch this video for some background on what we mean by “its not about the nail”

The aim is to give one person each month some space talk about their business, bring their whole selves and to be listened to. WTF’s agree to listen appreciatively to each other and give one person a safe space to share and think through their problem. This can only work if we listen attentively and don’t rush to fix things.

Women’s Tech Hub project

Bristol Tech Fair

As part of the workshop wednesdays we are repurposing our websites and asking members who are upskilling to take them over. As part of this our member Marija is being mentored by Rob from Codehub to work on the Bristol tech fair website and turn it ito a resource site. Its a great protfolio piece and anyone wanting to get involved please take a look below

Hello Everyone!!! Excited news! I am contributing to the design of one of the WOMEN’S TECH HUB LIMITED project and I need your’s and your kids (if you have:) help.
“The project is to turn Bristol Tech Fair website into a kids tech resource so that we can outreach to all kids .. apparently the private schools are doing better with this than the state so its about being inclusive to all – and it should be for the future for kids that aren’t engaged in the school system.”
We are at the very beginning stage of the project and now I am looking for candidates to participate in a short survey about an upcoming website of Bristol Tech Fair. I would be very grateful if you could fill out this short Google survey form and especially ask your under 18s to do the same:) Here is a link: https://lnkd.in/dmJ5WcN

Thank you for your contribution and please share around!

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First WTF and now the Shops are Back!

Shop windows welcoming shoppers and customers back after Covid19 lockdown

Looks like we can go and sleep with or in our bubble and also go to the shops again this week. The question is, who is in any fit state to be seen out on the streets again? For those of you seriously not feeling too keen on the idea you’ll be glad to hear that there’s still a lot going on that you don’t need to get dressed for.

Women Tech Founders

Women Tech Founders Logo

Thanh will be running the events and will start the first one This week on the 15th of June. The subject will be the new fund that she is managing and we have decided to keep it short and post-family bathtimes so from 8 – 9pm. Join up here: We’re Back with the new Digital Innovation Fund.

Workshop Wednesdays

Workshop Wednesday lineup on the 17th of June


Donna Grimmer with software testing

This week we will be looking at the usability of websites and how a poorly designed website can impact your business. Sign up here

Gabriela Morales Data

Tableau & Data visualisation for current Excel users. Sign up here

WebDev101 Breakout room

We will open up a breakout room for the WebDev101 should any members wish to work on web development together. Currently, we do not have a host so this will be on request and we can leave the room open for the full meeting. Sign up here

James presenting his ‘intro to’ series

He’ll be presenting some slides on SQL, relational databases and how to use them to store information. Then there will be at least one database server to play with, so please have a laptop available and you can try a few things. We’ll look at how we create a database, query a database and, if we have time, structure it to optimise for different tasks. Sign up here

Python Beginners with Kathryn Armistead

For the next workshop we will cover lesson 3: there is quite a lot of substance here and all things that you will use over and over again, so if you have time any extra practice will stand you in good stead. Sign up here

We are happy to host other rooms if you want to discuss projects etc and if you wish to sponsor one the details are on our networking page here.

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