Woman as a Developer

I was surprised to learn when I arrived in France in 2010 that “You are a woman, why would you do science or engineering?” is a widely accepted opinion in Western countries.

I was born in China in the 1980s, and throughout my education, I never heard anything like “literature is for girls and engineering is for boys.” (Thanks my parents, my teachers, and my hometown.)

That said, at HIT (Harbin Institute of Technology), the top engineering university in China where I graduated, the ratio of boys to girls was nearly 7:3.

In some fields, such as computer science, it is even more unbalanced. I personally did not like coding at first, and I studied physics instead.

Programming is a highly logical task. I love logic, and once I understood the rhythm of the language, I actually fell in love with it.

After my one-year postdoctoral research, when I started looking for a job in industry, I noticed that developer roles were in the highest demand (and they still are).

Thanks to several factors, especially LinkedIn, I got my first developer job as a Data Scientist Consultant in 2018.

In companies and in the real world, the gender imbalance in developer roles is even more obvious. Among several hundred people, you may only find a few women.

The good thing is that you are judged quickly by your skills and opinions.

Today, I am an AI architect, and for the past six years I have been helping large corporations build AI products as an independent contractor.

I have a lovely child and a good income.

2024 is a year of change for me. What AI can build fills in my missing wing in a fraction of the time.

I started building apps aggressively for my personal use.

Then I realized these tools could also be useful to others.

Now I am improving them and shipping them one by one.

I am an entrepreneur and an adventurer at heart.

In the coming days, I want to show you how I am working to grow my product income to the level of my consulting income, as a woman.