DEVCHATA is a series of online meetups aiming to become a creative space for people in tech to connect, share their experiences, and exchange ideas. While promoting women on stage is one of our main goals, DEVCHATA is open to everyone regardless of their gender or any other attribute. Since November 2020 more than 2K people have joined the community and discussed over 25 topics.
Women in tech be like
Clara Bodin has a colleague, Eugenia, a highly skilled IT architect and back-end developer who used to be a man, Eugene. She changed her gender because she has never really felt that she belongs to the one that she was born to. What happened to her career? Being a man, she has been hunted constantly, got promoted, and earned more. But when Eugene became Eugenia, everything changed, not only the photo and name on her social profiles and LinkedIn. She had the same fantastic CV and experiences, but the job offers stopped coming. The headhunters almost stopped calling, and when they did, their most common requests related to UX Design and Front-end due to the widespread stereotype of women's incompetence in more technical areas.
The gender divide limits the recruitment pool of qualified tech professionals, preventing the entire tech industry from keeping up with rising demand. Companies with low rates of diversity in their teams tend to have lower profits and long-term value. Besides, because of disparity, digital technologies risk being gender-biased.
Sweden vs. Ukraine: gender equality
According to the International Gender Gap Index Report 2020, Ukraine ranks 59th out of 153 countries, Sweden has long been a strong promoter of gender equality and ranks 4th.
However, there are some similarities between our countries. Thus, in Sweden and Ukraine, women have a higher share of the population with higher education. And when it comes to top managers, about 40% of them are women. In some spheres, the differences are more significant. For instance, the percentage of women in the Ukrainian parliament is 20%, while the Swedish Parliament encompasses 46% of female members.
Let's have a look at paternity leave. The Swedish Government has been working for 30 years on having more fathers take paternity leave. It is 30% compared to 2% in Ukraine. What about the pay gap? The pay gap in Sweden is 9.8%, more than twice as low as in Ukraine (20%).
Coming back, in Sweden and in Ukraine women are predominantly found in the educational and health sector while men are found working in private business and tech, where the salaries are much higher.
Norms became new biases: the Big Seven
Norms are that things that have a very big influence on the decisions that we take in our lives at work, what we do, what and how we recruit, how we promote the products that we make etc. They become biases. The good news is that norms are not set in stone and can change over time. So what norms are we facing today?
1. White norm. The norm of whiteness is a big one, and it can be expressed in many ways. For example: what do we mean when we say something like a band-aid or a crayon is “skin colored”? Often, it’s a beige color. The whiteness norm can also be expressed in ideas of what job someone is applying for, or what job we think they might be fitting for.
2. Gender norms are social norms defining acceptable and appropriate actions for women and men in a given group or society. They play a role in shaping women and men's (often unequal) access to resources and freedoms, thus affecting their voice, power and sense of self. Images and languages are one way in which norms are being produced and inherited. Also, in clothes, expressions, body language. Is it possible to break these norms (man in a skirt, for example) and still be considered a good applicant.
3. Age norm. The age norm might be the most frequent discussed norm when it comes to recruiting and hiring new talents. There are norms of what is expected of people during a certain age. But wouldn't you agree with me if I say that it's possible to change career in your 40s? 50s? 60s? Does everything need to happen by a certain age? Can this be challenged and if so, what happens if this norm is challenged
4. Hetero norm. Everyone is expected to be heterosexual. A family with a man and a woman is just a” family”, whereas a family consisting of two people of the same gender then gets an added word “gay family”. However, adding a word like “gay” to family, can also be to make a statement; such as “women” engineer: we are actively showing who we are, and that we are breaking the norm and expectations.
5. Ability norm. is the norm that everyone is “supposed” to be “able-bodied”, and can for example use their legs, work in loud environments, understand figures of speech and so on. For example: “Let's stretch our legs”. What we really mean is, let’s take a break! And here, the point isn’t that we should look around and see if someone is in a wheelchair before we speak; we should be aware of these norms nonetheless. Because our words, and language, are how we keep these norms alive!
6. Religion Norm. What religion is valid for vacation days? This norm can also be expressed in diets, and an idea of “fitting in”, who is someone expected to be because of their religion? Example: A company that asked the employees to choose their holidays instead of the company choosing the typical ‘Christian holidays’ for them.
7. Cis norm. The cis norm means that everyone is expected to be cis. And what does cis mean? Cis: Latin for on the “same side”. Meaning, you remain on the same side of the gender you were initially identified as at birth. Trans: Latin for “different sides”. Meaning, you don’t identify with the gender assigned at birth.
One good example of a company that has changed the "old" view on norms is the company Mattel, which produces Barbie dolls. Before 2014 Barbies looked the same; tall, blond, long-legged girls with big blue eyes. The male Barbie was often a tall-dark-and-handsome guy with a sports car. The dolls looked nothing like us or our friends. In 2012 Mattel's sales dropped and research showed that parents were hesitant to buy the doll since it did not represent the society. Children and parents were unable to identify with the ‘too perfect’ Barbie. By 2014 Mattel started developing Barbies that represent different norms, sections of society and professions. Since 2016, Mattel has seen an increase in sales after they changed their marketing strategy. Examples of new barbies in the market: scientist, game developer, president and a Barbie in a wheelchair.
Why is diversity & inclusion important for business?
Numbers speak better than words:
What about gender equality in the Beetroot ecosystem?
The discussion appealed to the successful practices of the Beetroot ecosystem where gender equality is prioritized. Today, the Beetroot ecosystem comprises over 600 people and counting. Female consultants make up 42 % of our team. 54 % of our team coordinators are women, and so are 57 % of the Board. Moreover, the share of women among the Beetroot Academy graduates has grown from 41 % in 2020 to 57.7 % in 2021 (the number is expected to grow by the end of the year).
Beetroot was awarded a 2020 Top Employer prize by the Ukrainian Corporate Equality Index. In September 2021 Beetroot became a member of the Global Compact Network Ukraine, the official local platform of the United Nations Global Compact. Some significant sustainability challenges that Beetroot aligns with its strategic goals include providing more opportunities for women in tech, with a corresponding goal of reaching 50/50 gender parity in the Beetroot Ecosystem's team by 2030.
Beetroot Academy as part of the ecosystem has the same goals. Learn more about our values and gender equal approach in tech education — become a student at Beetroot Academy.
Not quite unusual for computer fonts, Times New Roman has been around since before computers became a thing. The British newspaper The Times commissioned it in 1931 as a retro update from a regular 19th-century font to something more solid with a strong 18th-century vibe. Old broom sure knows the corners (or so the saying goes), but you can see how the font may feel outdated in the 2020s.
It would not be a stretch to say Times New Roman looks ancient, as we already know it was designed this way. Even Roman in the name is a nod to the Italian school of printing from (15th century!). Seeing old-fashioned characters on a groundbreaking visual device, CRT screen, was weird enough. Now that we have modern LCD screens with much higher resolution and fidelity, a font capturing aesthetics from 300 years ago feels crystal odd.
Fonts classification is usually much more objective than old-fashioned or modern. One reason why Times New Roman may give an archaic vibe is that it is a serif font. All letters (or other characters) come with decorative lines, which range from very subtle to indeed something you would see in an 18th-century newspaper. Note how you can’t see any tails on the letters in this article—or almost any website created in the last 10 years.
Serif and Sans serif versions of Inria font from Black[Foundry]
Times New Roman, much like a lot of newspaper fonts, is rather narrow. It is a mostly business decision: you gotta fit in as much text on a page as possible—even during the times (ha-ha!) when the ratio of ads to stories was much lower. At the end of the day, all publications did that and it’s not like many people would’ve changed morning newspapers just because one is a bit easier to read than the rest.
Computers, however, do not have the same limitation. You don’t pay more for publishing an article or sending a document with much more reasonable line spacing and kerning than the average Victorian newspaper. If it’s the intermediary audience (e.g. client that commissioned an article) that needs to save costs, they can always change character size or pick a narrow font themselves.
Furthermore, the mobile boom is not helping narrow fonts like Times New Roman. Most devices connected to the internet now have a vertical layout. Trying to squeeze in extra characters on screens with little horizontal space will bring nothing but frustration for the reader. Interestingly, The Times had to adapt similarly in print: they had to create yet another Times New Roman-inspired typeface after moving from broadsheet to tabloid in 2004. These days, a narrow font is a compromise on usability that you don’t actually have to make—and people would appreciate it if you didn’t.
One could argue that a document in Times New Roman screams laziness or indifference. If the sender didn’t change the default option to something more balanced, it communicates that they either did not want to make your experience better or did not bother to do that. That kind of attitude does not help to secure a job or scholarship.
On the other hand, certain institutions would have you use nothing but Times New Roman. Some universities strongly encourage if not outright mandate the use of Times new Roman for papers, and so do scientific journals. Older government forms coming as templates to be filled out in Word would not play nice if you try to change the font. That being said, such restrictions are getting scarcer, especially with the rise of Mac. The OS and default office-like apps there have a default font different from Times New Roman (and a new one every few years at that).
The current default font on MacOS
Summing up, the cardinal sin of Times New Roman is defaulting to it without consideration. The font is a must in very few scenarios, but you see it much more often than that. Even Microsoft agrees something has to change: the default font for Word has been Calibri since 2007.
The above-mentioned Calibri is a spiritual successor to Times New Roman. It is now the default font for Word, PowerPoint, and Excel. It is a sans serif font (no decorative lines) that looks perfectly fine on both screens and paper.
If you want to ditch the default and stay sleek, Georgia is a great option. It is a serif font but letter strokes are much more subtle than what you see with Times New Roman. Georgia does not look outdated and works better for vertical screens, as it is not too tight on the horizontal space.
Should you feel like going barebones, Helvetica is the right font. It is a sans serif font looking as bland as it gets—in a good way. Helvetica lacks elements that would make it look too modern, but it also has no archaic elements that would make the font too classic. I think we can trust Apple on that: they used a spin on Helvetica, Helvetica Neue, as the MacOS system font for two years.
Somehow, I felt a big future for tech when the Internet connection was provided in my dormitory
I'm from Kramatorsk, Donetsk region. I studied in Kharkiv and was supposed to become a radio-electronic engineer, but in 2001 I understood exactly what I wanted to do. It was the time when the Internet “appeared” in our dormitory. I liked what was happening there and felt a future was behind it. So I switched to web development. I bought some books, and for the next two years, I had the luxury of free time to study without having to work. 2003 I graduated from the university, and within one month, I found my first work as a PHP developer. I was the happiest junior developer who was paid for the work he liked. I remember my first salary — $250 transferred via Western Union from the USA — was like a fortune. Back then, there were no web developers among my friends. Compared to nowadays, it wasn't that hype. But for me, it was evident that this was a future. I told my friends that all the companies I knew would need a website or should be represented online somehow. And I wanted to be a part of this evolution.
Pink Floyd, my lifetime project, and three kids
I was always a fan of the music of the 70s, and Pink Floyd was my favorite band. But there was no website dedicated to Pink Floyd in Russian or Ukrainian. So I decided to do that on my own. I reached out to the person who did the official newsletters about Pink Floyd to help me with that, and long story short — I made a website, and it turned18 recently. This fan website is the most extended project in my life, but I switched it off because I didn’t want to contribute to the Russian-speaking community anymore. The most crucial thing is the following. Remember I mentioned that person who worked on the official newsletters about Pink Floyd? She is currently my wife, and we are bringing up two kids. We used to make jokes that we actually had three kids — our first one was the Pink Floyd website.
From a web developer to a start-up founder
After two years of work in Moscow, I was back in Kyiv. I didn't like living in Russia, so moving back to Ukraine was obvious. At this time, I stepped out of web development, and in 2007 I started my own business. All went well, but the political regime of Yanukovych reminded me of Russia, so we decided to move to Poland and work remotely. Since 2014, when the war started, it has been impossible to run my business in Ukraine.
And after a 7-year break in web development, a dozen hours of upskilling, and 60 interviews, I have found a new job in Berlin as a senior back-end developer. Now in 2022, I'm a co-founder of the tech startup countX, and all my engineering team is from Ukraine.
How I met Beetroot Academy
It was a coincidence and proof that networking rules. One of my colleagues, Alex, also works as a teacher at Beetroot Academy, so I've heard a lot about this online school. When Alex introduced me to Dmytro, CEO of Beetroot Academy, I was ready to start our partnership. He told me about the fundraising campaign on a mission to help Ukrainian people affected by the war start a new career in tech. So I couldn't stay away from it and donated for scholarships — the less I could do in these challenging times. Now seven women from Donetsk and Luhansk regions are studying at Beetroot Academy, and I’m happy to be their mentor.
Why I support tech education for Ukrainians
Ukrainians, especially men who are out of the country, live with the feeling of guilt. My life is safe, but my three classmates are now fighting against Russia, risking their lives. People try to find their own way to help Ukrainians win this war, overcome the consequences and rebuild the country. So do I.
I already had an idea of investing in tech education. That is where I can contribute as a professional and entrepreneur, so I chose to support the future of Ukraine this way. Many Ukrainians affected by war want to enter the tech industry and need an opportunity to do that. Tech education is one of the most impactful and cost-effective ways to help Ukrainians restore their lives and fight poverty after the war ends. I believe our country will be the next tech cluster after Silicon Valley in the USA and Bengaluru in India. Moreover, I want many Ukrainians to be a part of that success story. I contribute to it by donating for scholarships and would like to encourage others to support Beetroots Academy’s mission.
Imagine a house. To have it running steadily, there should be a good foundation, building blocks, proper infrastructure, good furniture, designs, and usability functions. In web development, the front-end developer is somewhere in between the processes as he takes the ideas from the UI\UX team to turn them into clickable websites that work. Back-end developers, PMs, and QAs take care of the other vital parts, such as proper foundation, team and project management, and testing.
So there's actually a front-end and back-end. We won't say which one is easier. Let's just leave one picture here for your understanding.
To light up a room, you have to click the button. Ensuring it is clickable is a job for a front-end developer; ensuring there is a light is a task for a back-end developer. Front-end web development is the art of using HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and a set of other tools for a website/app for a user to see and interact with them.
Basic front-end development glossary
In front-end web development, there are vital terms you should know. We bet you've heard most of them, so let's just keep them handy in the list below.
Programming languages or codes
For example, HTML
In development, you need to speak a language everyone understands — your machine, your code compiler, your user, and your project manager. Below are just a couple of languages we use in the front-end. They look different to everyone, but mean the same and help achieve the result — have the webpage ready and running.
HTML, or HyperText Markup Language, is the code developers use to structure a webpage. Remember seeing a webpage made up of blocks, paragraphs, or tables? HTML helps with that. It originates from a code developed by WHATWG some 30 years ago, in 1993.
JavaScript, conveniently referred to as JS, is a programming language considered one of the cores for front-end development. Designed over 26 years ago, it is now used in almost every webpage you see. Even on the Beetroot Academy website, too :) JS is used to create animation, control multimedia, and generally work with dynamically updating content, buttons, banners, etc.
Here, you can also look at some Javascript libraries — jQuery, React.js, and more here on Kinsta, for example.
Front-end development tools
Git, Google Fonts, W3C, and more
Compilers, linkers, code editors are essential for every front-end developer. These are basic tools that you will use in your daily routine — as home technicians use multitools for repairing the leakage, for example.
To name a few, there are Google Fonts to help you work with fonts, W3C Markup Validation Service to validate your code, and many more.
Version control tools are also part of the list here, used for monitoring changes to your code. We guess you strive to make your code better and better each time. Hence, version controls will help manage the evolution of your code as it becomes clearer and more effective. Git is the most popular, and it's open and free of charge.
Design principles in front-end
In front-end development, we use responsive design to ensure our content fits every (or almost every) gadget and looks good on it. Recall how you open a webpage on your iPhone, reopen it on your laptop, and send it to granny's email — and it still looks good on your grandparents' old-fashioned computer? That's responsive design in action.
Design automatically adapts to given dimensions, so all users feel comfortable interacting with the content. The feeling is the key here — because the front-end is mostly about what the user feels while using your web piece.
CSS, closely connected to HTML, is a code used actually to style an HTML doc. It has everything to do with the colors, styles, and other properties.
Looks quite interesting, huh? Now that you're familiar with the basic front-end development glossary, it's high time to learn the front-end. We hope you find this glossary helpful, no matter which tech direction you will choose. Keep it in your saved links to come back once in a while.
Join our next group in May and start learning with tech industry experts to gain knowledge you need to work as a junior front-end developer.
While such languages as Python and PHP have existed for quite a long time, C# is regarded as a young programming language. Danish software engineer Anders Hejlsberg developed it in the year 2000. Today, he still works for Microsoft as the lead architect of C#. Anders Hejlsberg is also known for being the chief architect of Delphi and the original author of Turbo Pascal.
C# was originally named COOL, whereby the acronym stood for “C-like object-oriented language”. Alas, Microsoft could not hang onto this “cool name” because of trademark law.
C# is pronounced, “see sharp”. The name was taken from the musical notation, whereby a sharp symbol points that the written note should be played a semitone higher. The “sharp” suffix has been used by several other .NET languages that are editions of present languages, including J#, A#, and the functional programming language F#.
The base syntax of the C# is similar to C-style languages such as C, C++, and Java. This programming language most directly represents the underlying Common Language Infrastructure (CLI).
If you plan to create apps for the Microsoft platform, you should definitely learn C#. The developers favor this language for being easy to use and well-designed. Also, it is often recommended programming language to use when creating games through the Unity Game engine.
C# used for:
A list of programs and applications written in C# includes Microsoft Visual Studio, Paint.NET, Windows Installer XML, Open Dental, FlashDevelop, KeePass, NMath, Pinta, Banshee, OpenRA.
Here are a few reasons to work with this particular programming language:
The future looks bright for C# because of its popularity, versatility, and existing creations. If you want to have a solid foundation to become a master developer, you should learn this “cool” programming language.
