Building the Tech Community with Jessica Rose
Tech-community

Building the Tech Community with Jessica Rose

Jessica Rose, a passionate technology professional, is the founder of Open Code meetup series and has co-founded Trans*Code. She is also a public speaker specializing in tech community building, outreach and developing better processes for talent in the technology sector. In this interview, she speaks to us about her tech journey so far and why she chose a .TECH domain extension.

Tell us about your technology journey. How did you start off and what do you find most exciting in this field?

As a self-taught technologist, I’ve had a challenging but incredibly interesting time entering the tech industry. I started off working in developer marketing and technical writing before moving on to work in developer relations. I love this work as it lets me spend a lot of time talking with brilliant technologists about their needs, their work and the cool new ideas that are kicking around. I’m going to be moving into a management role with FutureLearn soon but will continue to run my own podcast, learner webinars and a host of other side projects in my free time.

What made you start your tech-focused initiatives: Birmingham Open Code meetups and Trans.TECH?

The Open Code meetup series provides regular peer supported study spaces for programmers and aspiring programmers. I began these meetups when I was first getting started in tech and needed someplace where I could get people to answer my questions. It was entirely selfish!

Trans*Code is a project I co-founded with Naomi Ceder. She’s an incredible technologist and community builder. I couldn’t pass up on the opportunity to work with her in supporting tech community building, creating a space for the transgender community and working on common goals through technology.

What is Pursuit Podcast?

The Pursuit Podcast is a new podcast focusing on achieving goals in technology. It covers learning goals, employment and promotion tips, and any other thing you might need to do as part of work in the technology industry.

Taking from your experience of executing outreach strategies and developer facing marketing activities, tell us the secret to building a thriving tech community.

This is a hard question, there’s a bit more to community building and technical outreach than just one quick tip. If I had to pick just one thing to call out as the secret it would be to approach community building as a service that you do. You’re aiming to support the needs and goals of people entering your community and making sure they have everything they need to thrive and help the community grow.

What made you do a webinar on Portfolio and Personal Website Building for Junior Technologists?

I had been doing several one-to-one mentorship-calls with junior technologists and found myself giving a lot of advice on building portfolio sites and presenting oneself professionally. I figured that I could reach a wider audience through webinars on similar topics.  I recently concluded one webinar and it was a great success. The next one is scheduled for August 17, 2017. Anyone who wants to attend can register.

Why did you choose a .TECH domain for your website, www.jessica.tech?

I picked jessica.tech as my domain out of vanity, for the most part! Having a novel, easy to remember and decidedly brand-able domain name has made it so much easier to drive traffic to my site and promote my projects.

Looking for a startup domain name? Get it here!

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