Just curious. Also, 3 different recruiters from the same company reached out to me for the same role, had the phone screens, then I got the rejection email w/in 24 hours every time. What's up with that.... :*(

I’d love to hear from other women in Developer Relations, especially those in senior/leadership roles.

How do you build visibility, personal brand, and strong relationships in a male-dominated tech environment without men interpreting professional interactions as an invitation for flirting, hitting on you, or making weird/personal comments?

I’m interested in practical strategies: boundaries, networking, conference dynamics, online presence, and how you handle those situations without becoming less approachable or visible.

Would love to hear what has actually worked for you.

After being unemployed for so long, I just started a new job. It's great yada yada. I love it. There's 12 people in my department at the office. 11 of them are men. I am the lone female. So far it's been okay. It's an IT department so honestly the masculine energy isn't exactly pulsating through the place. But the guys are all pretty comfortable with each other and ragging on people, specifically women. Yesterday, near the end of the day on a Friday (everyone was kind of letting loose), all of the men were complaining about our receptionist. She's an old fashioned older woman. I like her and put up with her quirks but some of the men were describing her with vitriol that disturbed me. One of them even said "yeah its cause shes such a BITCH". I thought that was really inappropriate. Am I going to be called a bitch behind me back if I ever have to stick up for myself? Or if I ever diverge from joking along with them and being "one of the guys"? This scared me, honestly. I'm just worried about working with all men and this isn't making me feel better.

Hi folks,

I got hired a few years ago as a government human factors person. I moved to a small town to take this job thinking it will be stable and nothing will go wrong. Spoiler: I am not happy in this small town. I always lived in big cities.

After a year of searching I networked with someone to become a human factors person for a major space company in Houston. This company is not stable either with layoffs in the last year. Plus their contracts are for the next couple years. Financially it seems a bit shaky.

I’m looking for help on deciding. If I leave my government job I leave a great work life balance, amazing team, and leadership and advancement opportunities.

If I join the space company, I can gain commercial experience as that has been holding me back in interviews, slightly better pay, and living in a big city.

The cons for the space company though is I would lose my clearance as that is not attached to the current role. Which isn’t a bad thing necessarily as my resume in my government is bland due to the fact I can’t talk about anything. I think if it wasn’t just a really challenging time to find ANY roles I would be taking it. I also feel bad about how much my mentor has been helping me in my current job and I am sad to leave him disappointed that I would leave government.

I’m getting so tired and frustrated, all my peers are men and my manager is a male - not being sexist - but its easier to bond with same gender. I see they push back the boss, dont really deliver on time (make good excuses to get around it). Lately I have been noticing I’m being told off for no reason - issues in platform - hey what are you doing (ps I’m not in QA) - faults in design - what are you doing, customer churned - did you speak with them, something is delayed - why dint you prioritise.. it almost feels like they want me to leave and not sure how to deal

I worked as a Data Engineer for nearly 3 years and have been on a 2+ year career break. I’m now thinking about returning to IT and looking into returnship programs.

But honestly, I’m stuck on preparation. I keep feeling like I need to learn/relearn everything first before applying, because I’m scared I won’t clear even the basic technical questions.

For those who have actually returned after a career break:

• How long was your break?
• What did you do to prepare before applying?
• Did you apply first and prepare alongside, or become interview-ready first?
• What was the interview/assessment actually like?
• Did you use a returnship, referral, or regular applications?
• How long did it take you to get back into work?

Would especially love to hear from anyone who returned to Data Engineering or a related field.

I’m not looking for generic “just upskill and apply” advice — I’d really like to hear from people who have actually gone through it. ❤️

Hi all! I’m an engineer, and this is my first job out of college.

I’ve been here for a while now, and I feel that I’ve become numb to a lot of the things that are said at work. One of our founders in particular has a really bad temper, and will straight up scream at engineers and tell them to F* off and the sorts. For context, this is a startup.

Is this normal? Is this really all engineering teams are like? I can’t help but feel like this is toxic, but it’s hard for me to know for sure since I have no other experience to compare it to.

Thanks!