New interview series: Hey Girlfriend!

Hey Girlfriend! is a new series on my blog that I am announcing today. I am beyond excited about it because it is related to a movement that is close to my heart: that of women working in tech – in information technology, with computers, with computer science, or with science in general. Anything that pertains to a woman basically going against the stereotype and doing what society believes to be a “man’s job” (newsflash: it’s not a man’s job).

I have been working as a web developer in the industry for about six years. It’s no new news that I love what I do, because I talk and write about it all the time and have great passion for the things I build and develop and code. I spoke about my journey becoming a web developer, and how I never thought it was unusual that a girl was working with computers until someone pointed it out. To this day, I have noticed a shortage of women working in tech, and I have often been the only girl in my company or team.

I love to encourage more women out there to learn to code or get involved in programming and with computers, and Hey Girlfriend! aims to do just that. I will be interviewing women from all around the globe, of varying ages, who work in tech. I really missed doing my old 2 minutes and 40 seconds interview series a year back. It ran from 2014 to 2015 and I interviewed one person every two weeks. This is sort of a way of bringing it back in a revamped way.

I named the series Hey Girlfriend! because I wanted it to be in line with Hey Georgie and my blog’s character. I also wanted it to not be too stereotypical. Things like GRL PWR came to mind as well as Girl Crush, but I think “girlfriend” reflects the warm, supportive nature of the community around women in tech. I want to put my interviewees in a position that makes them feel comfortable and not like they are idolised, even by me. 🙃

The first interview will be posted next Tuesday (Australian time). I am so excited to introduce you to my new interviewee. Interviews will be as frequent as once a month and I will continue to post on the fourth Tuesday of each month. If it becomes popular, I might make it more frequent, but with 2 minutes and 40 seconds I often struggled to find interviewees for every two weeks. This time, interviews are not full of random questions but will be related to what makes this person, this person. Although focussed around their work in the industry, I’ll also ask questions about their hobbies, passion projects and other things that shape who the interviewee is as a person.

I would love to hear your thoughts and hopefully everyone, no matter what demographic, can be inspired from and learn from these interviewees. 💖🤗

Comments on this post

I love this! I’m in school for library science but sometimes I want to go back to school and get a degree in computer science and also study front-end development more. I’ve tried to teach myself new coding languages but it’s getting harder (personally) trying to self-teach myself at an older age.

Anyways, I’m super excited for the first interview. It sounds really cool and it’s awesome that you’re highlighting women working in tech. It’ll also be interesting exploring their own journeys to working in an industry highly populated by men.

I actually love this. I’m in college to study computer information systems with an emphasis study on web design. I would love to be interviewed. I just wanted to say that you among a few others have inspired me to be this creative person online. I know you know that you’re the reason who got me into writing poetry, but I don’t think I have ever said that you also got me to be creative with websites.

Yeah, I don’t think it’s something one can request because she’s choosing the best and/or influential peeps in the industry, i.e. people who are out there working in it or up-and-coming. Notorious women in tech most known for hijacking others’ code probz isn’t what she’s looking for.

Also, the trick to getting interviews is not to ask for them when someone announces an interview series, unless it’s a legit call for them—like a casting call, but for interviews.

“Notorious women in tech”

More like “Women who act like they’re in tech but avoid gaining legitimate industry experience because working is daunting to their soul.”***

Get a job, work in the field for a bit, and earn the position of being a woman in tech. Studying on its own doesn’t do any good if you’re not contributing to society. Come prove me wrong and be a contributing member to society for once. ☺

I don’t think you you can request to be interviewed because this interview series is meant for women that actually excel and work in the tech world. Just because you are studying web-design doesn’t mean you automatically qualify to be interviewed for this series. As for you being “inspired” to be “this creative person online,” please know that there is a FINE LINE between creativity/inspiration and out right copying people aka using their source and passing it off as your own.

I know this is an inappropriate thing for an Asian man to say, but you go, girl.

It sounds like an interesting series, and I am familiar with the reverse of this. I enjoy crafting. I like Gilmore Girls. I collect Kawaii stationery. All my life, I’ve been told, “Hey, that’s only for women.” Eh, I like what I like. Sue me. :p

I’m excited to see this series come to life! I’m looking forward to reading the interviews of women who work in tech. I can see this series help empower other women to start or continue working in tech. We live in a world where job positions shouldn’t be labeled with a specific gender. ♥

I love that you’re doing this! It’s really encouraging to see more women speak out and tell their story. I hope it’ll help out others who are considering a tech field but are worried about how it’s male-dominated. It’s definitely not just a man’s job! We kick ass at it too!

I can’t wait to see the first interview next week :D

This sounds like such an awesome series and I can’t wait to read it. It’s great to support other people within an industry, especially when it is not exactly represented equally. :D Nice work. <3

This is such a great concept for a series! This is going to be great for women who work in tech everywhere :) Even better it will encourage future generation of women to work in the so-called field that were viewed as being men only. Kudos to you, Georgie, for starting this series up, especially since it’s something that’s dear to you ^_^

I am SUPER excited for this Georgie! Such a great way to encourage more females into tech and bring those who are already killing it into the spotlight! 💕

Looking forward to the series. As someone who has been taking classes for over a year now and trying to get into the web development industry, it’d be awesome to learn from interviewees regarding the fields they’re currently at, how they get there, and hopefully provide some advice to those who are trying to get into the field. Hope the series become successful. :)

I love this idea and am really looking forward to reading the first interview!!

That’s a very cool idea and definitely fits in the theme of your blog very well :D I can’t wait to read the first post in the new series!