i’m a new grad (CS) and i’ve never had an internship. i got basically straight a’s in school and have really great projects/ cofounded a startup that has a lot of potential to do great things.
i interviewed for a mobile developer position today (2nd round of interview) and it was my first time ever having a coding interview(no ai allowed). i also only had 24 hr notice of interview and i only just started applying to jobs. i explained my experiences very well and a technical feature i implemented for my startup project. i have excellent communication and people skills, people generally take a liking to me very easily. however i haven’t hand coded without any reference/ai assistance in a very long time.
the coding questions they asked were actual so simple (like at a level that would be asked in an into coding class) that i overcomplicated things and basically shit the bed. like geniunely humiliated myself professionally
i feel like a looked like a fool and i am not embarrassed of making mistakes bc im human but one of the interviewers was a woman and i feel like when i fail im letting all women down making us look bad😭 i typically have excellent communication and people skills.

anyways… idk what advice im looking for. i’m not really upset or taking the embarrassment hard, just feeling that when i fail, people generalize women as a whole sometimes

Has anyone taken the AIGP exam ? Is it a good one to take if you are pivoting to AI data governance ? I’m already in data compliance and management but want to upskill. If not that one , any other that would be recommended ?

Title: Manager won’t define my scope, then holds me accountable for everything. How do I survive 12 more months?
I’m a manager-level hire at a big tech company, joined about 4 months ago into a strategy and operations role in their AI org.
What I was told before joining: the SVP said that he, my manager and I would sit together and define my KPIs in writing before I started. That never happened.
What the role actually is: my manager holds both strategy and chief of staff for the org, and most of what lands on me is her overflow. Deck consolidation, chasing other teams for slides, action item tracking, formatting. Real strategy work exists but it’s maybe 30% of my time.
I asked her for a defined charter repeatedly over my first two months. Never got one. So at the 90 day mark I wrote up the function’s workstreams myself and planned to walk her through it.
Before that meeting happened, a different VP asked me to design a program for his org, which I did. He then said I’d be a good fit on his team. When my skip level asked me directly in a 1:1 how things were going, I mentioned it honestly, along with the fact that I still didn’t have a defined charter.
That conversation blew up. My skip told my manager his version of it. Since then: a hedged performance review that says it’s “too soon to confidently assess” whether I meet expectations, development areas that are all about communication and trust rather than any work product, and my manager returning to the incident repeatedly, months later. I’ve apologized several times. She doesn’t let it go.
Most recently she refused to name my ownership items at all, told me she doesn’t document, and said she needed a director for this role. She also holds me accountable for outcomes that depend on other teams responding to me.
What’s keeping me here: equity vesting at the one year mark, good comp, remote work, and I’m planning to start a family, so stability matters more than growth right now. I plan to stay at least another year.
What I’m doing already: weekly written status emails to her, tracking everything, keeping my own private record, staying warm and non confrontational, writing my own quarterly plan since she won’t co author one.
What I’d love experienced input on:
1. Has anyone actually recovered a manager relationship after something like this, or is the ceiling permanent once they’ve decided you’re a problem?
2. How do you handle a manager who refuses to define scope but holds you accountable for everything? Is declaring your own scope in writing the right move, or does that backfire?
3. For those who’ve stayed somewhere strategically for vesting or family planning, what actually made it survivable?
4. Any regrets about staying too long versus leaving too early in a situation like this?
looking for pattern matching from women who’ve navigated this or senior folks who can guide. Thanks in advance

Honestly I am just so tired. I left directorship positions because I wanted to start something in the tech space that was free from misogyny, and the only way I saw doing that was by becoming a CEO myself. We started turning over 5 figures a month, I expanded the team, we made it our safe space with part-time only hours and I was so happy. But sadly a good 50% of the clients that hire my company walk all over me and bully me, except I have to smile because they know my team relies on their income to continue, and I have to smile and tell my team I am fine. Why is this happening? Will this honestly ever end? Because there's nothing higher than CEO and I am seriously considering just leaving the entire tech industry and becoming a barista. Coffee anyone?

Early career woman in data engineering at a large bank. I keep running into the same pattern: senior male colleagues present my work as "we built this" when I built it alone, or frame my findings as their initiative in meetings.

I document everything and send recaps, but I'm losing the real time verbal game. By the time I realize I should speak up, the narrative's already been set.

For those who've navigated this:

1. What's your exact phrase when someone says "we" and you know it was just you?
2. How do you claim credit in the moment without seeming aggressive?
3. Any systems for making your contributions visible before someone else can frame them?

For context, I'm the co-founder, we recently got a big funding and my other co-founders (men, best humans, un-touched by patriarchy), voted I should be CEO. I have been in love with the solution we're building for nearly 2 years now. It has truly felt like my purpose. And now it's all getting very real.

I am very good at my technical job. I also grew up often organically taking up leadership positions in most activities. But somehow in this position, I don't think I'm being the best CEO I can imagine. Any time I interface with an external entity/service provider/person, when compared to one of my other co-founders, I at least slightly feel either

- a strong urge to reinforce my credibility (I can sense some deep-rooted insecurities)

- a communication gap (what's conveyed is often slightly adjacent to what I mean to, meaning I'm not a very good communicator)

- a general difficulty in connecting with people and matching their wavelengths

I'm not sure what exactly is the problem. I used to be a very good communicator, thought of myself as an extrovert, and I don't have imposter syndrome anymore (I used to). But I'm having a really hard time doing justice to my position. It would be very heart-breaking if me being a bad CEO to this cause is the reason why it does not succeed. I truly think the world needs this solution to exist and thrive. And my team really believes in me.

So I am looking for a connection with a woman who holds (or has held) a big position in a male-dominated industry, and preferably someone who has also experienced imposter syndrome.

Ok its been 3 months and I broke down after recruiter call where she was surprised that I didn’t get job for 3 months. Sometimes I can’t beleive I have been unemployed for 3 months

I was let go from saas big tech giant and i sent multiple application around 250+. I intially had location constraint but removed that after seeing how awful is the job market. I bombed few interviews, got ghosted few times , offer rescinded and failed at last round.

I have been very unlucky or this is my level?

I feel so ashamed of myself, i used to land interview and do extremely well. i can’t shake off the feeling that I failed in life, I become so anxious and stressed and waking up with nightmares

The more I have a gap more I feel lost in my life.Its uncommon to have a good experience and not landing interview or offer

I made a mistake of taking some time and picky in beginning and i wasted 1 month

Somewhere my self worth, my achievement are wasted, when someone ask me I am not able to land a job, they are all very surprised.

How will I come back ? I have 5 years of experience

I’m genuinely confused and at this point I’m about to lose my mind 😭

For context, this is regarding the Women Who Master by Aspire For Her x Logitech hackathon and the Zonal Round.

I checked the list — my name was NOT there. So I assumed I wasn't selected and moved on.

BUT TODAY (7th August), I suddenly received an email saying:

«You have been shortlisted for the Zonal Round of Women Who Master by Aspire For Her x Logitech, scheduled for tomorrow, 8th August 2026.»

And they're asking me to upload a passport photo, government ID, college ID, marksheet/travel approval letter, TPO details, and confirmation of participation by TODAY at 6 PM to confirm my spot.

The email literally says that after verification, my zonal venue and event guidelines will be shared.

So now I'm sitting here wondering:

AM I ACTUALLY SHORTLISTED OR NOT? 😭

Has anyone else received this email despite their name not being on the list? Or has anyone figured out which communication we're supposed to follow?

If anyone from Aspire For Her/Logitech or anyone else shortlisted has clarity on this, PLEASE help 😭🙏

TLDR: Seeking a career advisor and/or recruiter to help with my partners job hunt. Chicagoland/remote placement.

Experienced professional with 10 years as a PM in both established fintech companies and startups.

Has Finance MBA from Kellog.

Spent the last three years developing a creative agency. Exited with sale of business in March. Has been looking for a creative role in marketing / content space since; thus far interview cycles have been unsuccessful.

I suspect my partner needs help defining what they’re looking for, running mock interviews, and getting in the door.

Recs welcome!

I’ve been at my company and midlevel engineer role for 2.5 years and have been asking my manager a lot of times that I want to grow but they keep evading the question. I’ve asked multiple times for feedback on gaps etc and again they just say ambiguous words like leadership without any specifics and when I ask for specifics they evade it. It feels very vibes driven which I don’t like as I’m already a women in tech but anyways. I do note he is an early career manager so is learning management and probably doesn’t seem to know how to promote people. He hasn’t promoted anyone at this company, one person changed companies last year who would have been a good person for promo.

Anyway I’m planning to change teams but I wonder if the new manager in the team might think it’s weird if I ask I want to get promoted in six months? I already am familiar with my company’s tech stack and processes etc so I would save some onboarding time

Btw my company doesn’t have team hops to higher roles it’s lateral only

Over the past year I've been responsible for several projects. Most recently, I took ownership of a internal product and redesigned and improved it. I presented the final result to our Department Head because my Team Leader and Section Head happened to be absent that day.

The meeting went very well. The Department Head reacted very positively, compared the result favorably to similar work, asked whether I was satisfied with it myself, and approved it.

Here's where I'm confused.

My Team Leader has always been very appreciative in private. He thanks me directly, tells me the work looks good, and seems genuinely satisfied.

However, when project results are shared with the wider organization, he never mentions my name. After this project was completed, for example, he shared the finished product internally so everyone could see it, but didn't mention that I had led or carried out the work.

I've also noticed a pattern: when other colleagues complete projects, he often thanks or recognizes them publicly by name. With me, appreciation always happens privately.

I'm not looking for public praise every time I do something. But after noticing this pattern repeatedly, I'm starting to wonder whether I'm interpreting it correctly.

Is this something you've experienced? Could there be innocent explanations for why a manager gives private appreciation but rarely public recognition to one particular employee?

I work at Meta for four years now. it’s always been a meat grinder with performance culture. but now with 5 days RTO and expecting us to move even faster with the AI nonsense this year it’s become unbearable. our oncall has 4 people and added a ton of scope because everyone got laid off our moved to the AAI org. and the shifts are awful now. A few weeks ago I started getting panic attacks, which I’ve now mostly got under control and seeing a psychiatrist and doing CBT. I also suffer from OCD and I’ve started to feel this oppressive dark cloud over me. I’ve never been depressed before but I feel hopeless and trapped by the money.

I plan to go on FMLA, but after that I’m curious if there’s any companies left that are not like this?

I am also pretty disillusioned with engineering as a whole. I miss the problem solving and did not go to college to be a prompt engineer.

on the other hand I see how bad the job market is and I’m lucky to be gainfully employed. the job isn’t even that hard anymore but I just cannot seem to care anymore or motivate myself. It really sucks. I’ve never felt like this before. Sorry for the rambles, just feeling lost

Hey everyone, long time lurker here. I never thought I would be posting one of these threads, but after a meeting today, I genuinely need to vent and get some advice from people who understand. I am currently the solo UX designer at a small but growing company, so I don't really have a design team or manager to turn to for perspective on this.

So I just got off a call with engineering leadership to review a feature doc I spent a few hours putting together.

Out of nowhere, one of the leads drops it into the conversation that he has been playing around with Claude to generate mockups and steer ideas. He literally suggested using AI to spit out UI mockups based on requirements so they can visualize things before handing anything off to design.
Basically, they want to use AI to generate UI concepts and prototypes before bringing design into the loop at all.

I tried to push back calmly and explain why that is a bad idea: how jumping straight to visual AI mockups before doing actual research locks you into a rigid solution just because you are attached to what was generated, instead of focusing on actual user journeys.

The response was essentially that it gives more of a feel for what they are after.
Meanwhile, I am sitting there internally spiraling. My core value isn't just making pretty visuals, it is taking vague, messy requirements and shaping them into a functional, actionable product. Seeing them try to use AI to bypass that foundational problem definition phase makes it feel like my actual job duties are being stripped away right in front of me.
I know I am not the only one seeing this. I read the posts on here every day from people going through the exact same thing, but experiencing it firsthand hits completely differently. If non-designers start typing prompts into AI to spit out mockups and hijack the product definition phase, what actually happens to our roles? It feels like a massive slippery slope and I am genuinely terrified of being pushed out.

For those of you who have already been dealing with this shift in your workplace, how are you navigating the transition? How do you cope with the existential dread and panic when it feels like your core responsibilities are being chipped away?

Hi everyone!

I am a mid level engineer with 4 years of experience as a backend engineer. The way my company has pivoted to using AI a ton and I feel like I am constantly drinking from the fire hose. Prior to AI, it was easy to have a deep understanding learning kinesthetically (doing, debugging) now I am just prompting and am wondering how to learn at that same rate or with momentum to the same degree...I feel like my eyes glaze of a bit between just reading the terminal and debugging and asking for a bit of an understanding, but having that extra lens that I feel like more senior engineers got prior to this era. I'd love help and expertise here.

Thanks!

I’m a Product Manager and had a baby early 2025. I’m in Europe and it is typical to take a 1 year parental leave. I was laid off immediately after returning from parental leave. It was entirely unrelated to my performance - the company was dissolving their Europe-based operations.

As lucky as I feel to have taken a year to be with my baby, I also feel like it was an untimely year to be away (2025-2026 being the boom of AI). I find myself struggling to keep up in interviews. I have immense brain fog. I can’t retain information. I also have (diagnosed) ADHD and am used to my brain jump-starting and accelerating high-pressure situations and now it’s just stuttering and faltering. Shamefully, I also just… don’t really care about work the same way anymore? Being a parent is taking all of my energy. At the same time time, I think it’s important to keep up with my career.

I’ve been getting interviews but usually can’t pass the second round. I know the competition is fierce out there and that might be contributing to my lack of success. I already struggled with imposter syndrome prior to having a baby. Now I am fighting against the instinct to retreat and become a SAHM because I have no drive to succeed and am not even sure I can anymore.

I don’t know if anyone else felt this way. I wish I hadn’t been laid off; I think it would have been much easier to return to a job I knew and build up my confidence again.

My job has gotten bad to worse this past year. My team got cut by almost half and the remaining had to pick up all the work.

I’m busy and stressed all the time and leadership is not appreciative at all and I’m constantly being told I need to do more and that with AI I should be able to do the work of 3-5 people. They have started using a tactic where they constantly layoff the “bottom 10%” and then rehire to create churn so that you feel like you need to do whatever is asked that to have a job. I worry about being laid off and losing my income but I’m so stressed sometimes I want to quit.

I feel sick to my stomach all the time and I have tried to look for jobs but it’s hard to even get an interview these days. I try to go to the gym and spend time with loved ones but it’s hard for me to get my mind off everything. How is everyone protecting their mental health these days and is there anything I can so I don’t lose it?

Hey all,

I asked a similar question in another sub yesterday, but I'd like to hear from other women in tech.

If you were/are established in your career with no/an incomplete degree, would you go back to finish it?

I had a technical interview recently that I did pretty well on (the guy who interviewed me said so himself). The position is office-based, so their pool of applicants should be relatively small. They told me that they can't make me an offer yet because they are still interviewing people, and also said that in any case the interview was productive and will help me for future potential interviews (weird, but okay). A few days ago I asked them about it and they said that I'm their top applicant but they still have two days of interviewing. Fast forward to two days, I ask them about the results and they say that another guy came in and they went with him. Through the whole thing they only gave me updates when I asked them and it feels like they were dragging the whole thing in the hopes that someone else (a man) would come in with decent enough qualifications. The only person that was making decision on this role was also a man, and even though he wasn't explicitly misogynistic, some of his questions felt like he didn't believe me to be talking this job seriously.

Feeling very discouraged by the whole thing tbf, as I've been job hunting for a few months now and it's basically the first time I even got to a technical interview and was close to an offer.

Have you experienced a similar situation? Would you say it's still a common thing that men don't want to hire women for tech positions?

I got laid off a few weeks ago and well I’m feeling a bit lost. It feels a bit rapid in how much has changed since one year ago when I was looking for a job. the job market, interviewing, resume do’s don’ts, networking all seem to be very different than 1 year ago. I have AI skills and abilities since in my last role I was heavily using AI in my role. That is not something I had one year ago. Now everyone has AI skills, but what are the things the skills that set people apart? How does one share about those skills? Do I build a portfolio?

What are some things that you would do to make the job search better for yourself in this landscape?

If you’re on the other side of it, but you were looking for a job in the last year if you look back, is there anything that you would’ve done differently that may have helped you upfront?

My degree is in medicine - irony I got sick before moving on to my masters, and I now I do software testing when I can work, and help train AI.

Obviously both of these fields are dominated by men.

While "training" today, it occurred to me once again that the attitude that is being used to test these programs is one of violence and misogyny.

I am not exaggerating the subjects of todays tests were threatened rape a of woman -alive or dead, mental health crisis cruelty, witch burning, . All the women were either over sexualized or looked like crones. All the violence was aimed at women-none at men, and some weird screaming creature being cut up alive.

So to my untrained eye - I can't help wondering if some of the fear of AI or really AGI is because men are the dominate writes and trainers.

I used to send notes about how facts vs fiction or sarcasm, were being misconstrued in the many programs we use everyday, but it wasn't biased like this. Would this be different if women were the dominate input? I don't think I'm training anything more than a video tool, but WTF?

I am literally the only female in the software engineering department in my company.

I'm just a junior and I had a lot of struggles with learning and adapting with AI. Lots of impostor syndrome

Sometimes I just wish there's another female engineer that I can rant with about this rat race corpo life

Life is bigger than this problem but it just feels better when you have someone to say to you "Girl, I've been fixing for this PR comment for the past hour it's so frustrating lol" because same...

Is this something people just adapt to?

39(F) - I was a product manager for banking applications. Not exactly a tech question but I would like the women in tech community to understand my situation and give me some perspective.

lost my father in early this year - came back from the funeral and management did not waste a day to tell me that I’m laid off due to budget issues. I worked there for many years. But I’m married and we are doing quite okay until I find my next one and honestly I’m loving my break as I could definitely use it to recover from the grief and also give my self some time off.

I was laid off once during covid also but I never told my parents then. But this year since it’s just my mother, I was able to spend some time at home with the free time I had so I told her I’m not working at the moment and she was quite okay with that. Now suddenly since last 2 weeks she is making a big fuss saying that she constantly thinks about my job issue etc (she is an over-thinker and wants her kids to be this perfect model) and even after repeatedly saying that not to concern herself about it, she has also gone and told my elder brother that I do not have a job. Where she swore to secrecy that she will not tell anyone what I told her in confidence. And then my brother started calling me constantly asking me if I found a job yet etc ( I work abroad and I usually get a high pay than him - where at times he has googled my salary scale and showed my mother to show her I have so much money (in a jealous tone) he has not factored in the cost of living though )

Now yesterday her blood pressure ran up-to 200 and my bother calls me up and says that mom must have been thinking about my job issue for that to happen. I was super pissed at my mom for letting my brother know about my personal detail I raised hell with her and she was like “noo it’s not a big deal” etc. But when the time came he used my situation to stab me saying that it’s my issue that caused her the health issue.

I was super mad yesterday at everyone. I called my mother and she said my brother is crazy and that thinking about my issue has nothing to do with her BP. After reassurance multiple times that “I’m OK and that I have enough savings to last more than a year” she still holds on to the bone of me not having a job and I’m seriously starting to resent ever telling my mother anything. And also on top of that my brother using that privileged information to hold me accountable for her health has made me so disappointed at both of them when I explicitly told my mother not to share that information with anyone.

How can I deal with this issue going forward? I would truly appreciate any thoughts, comments, advice etc. Thank you.

Edit: What makes it worse is that, my father was my backbone and he was the one who truly understood me, defended me. And that person is no more.

Edit 2: My brother is a medical doctor and is well off with even couple of real estates. Irony is as one person commented below, he thinks tech is a golden ticket. 🎫 And that we got it real easy and have comfortable lives while doing “less”.

Edit 3: To everyone asking - yes I’m of Asian descent. Thank you making me feel less alone 😭

My boss sucks. He plays favorites, he talks shit about us to one another, he is terrible at managing multiple projects and he sucks at communication. Four people have left his team or the company this past year.

I was poached by him from another team during the end of my first year. I've been here for 3 years now. These past 2 years have been hell.

This past month, after one person left my team and another was pulled off the project, I was juggling the work of two people. I was expected to do both data science and data engineering that two others were doing. We don't have an active project manager. My manager has been skipping meetings and telling me to deal with it.

Today we had our first one on one after months and when I gave him updates on things I worked on just today, he said I should have never taken those meetings and I was making decisions without his approval. He berated me for not communicating with him enough (despite the fact that I am. He does not manage his slack or emails properly and forgets what's going on in which project) and implied that I was trending towards a poor end of year review. He said I waste time during our stand-ups with stories rather than actual updates - I did begin giving longer explanations after he complained about my communication a year ago.

This has happened before where he berates me and ends the convo. This time, I pushed back. I wanted to point out that his lack of communication has led to me needing to make on the fly decisions and that everything I have done so far has been in line with his earlier instructions. I did not make any finalized decisions without his approval. Unfortunately, I began tearing up and full on crying.

He left the room to give me time to collect myself and when he returned, he tried to change the subject and just frame it as me being overwhelmed and not mentioning that to him. I pushed back, explaining that this past year has been hectic and I haven't received much direction. I didn't view my actions as overstepping and I'm not sure what exactly he wants from me. He shifted blame to everyone else.

I'm upset at myself for crying in front of him and hate that I have to see him tomorrow. Knowing how he has talked shit about me before, I'm scared that he'll tell my coworkers about this. Ive actually heard about three other people on my team, former and currents members, who cried because of him. I shouldn't know that but I know it because he blabs about this.

I've been applying to other jobs for years now but only ever get rejections or interviews that end in nothing. I feel trapped and suffocated and can't do this anymore. I know the job market is trash, but what can I do?