I've always wanted to be famous. And interviewed. And appear in some publication. All of that happened, but not to me. It happened to Freia, who's now a celebrity who was interviewed. Well, almost a celebrity.
From the moment The HBIC Project launched in June, my mom has asked
me to feature a woman studying computer science. She graduated with a
computer science degree in 1986. I always assumed she was one of the few
women in her classes, but it turns out that couldn’t be further from
the truth. The year before she graduated, 1985,
37 percent of computer science degrees went to women. That number has been on the decline ever since. Today, just
18 percent of computer science degrees are awarded to women.
“Mom, it’s harder to find a woman in computer science than you think,” I kept telling her. But I was about to be proven wrong!
A few weeks ago, two emails landed in my inbox within seconds of each
other. Freia Lobo, an NYU sophomore from Mumbai studying computer
science and economics, and Terri Burns, an NYU junior from Long Beach,
CA studying computer science, each suggested I interview the other one.
It turns out they’re both highly accomplished in the tech world — and
best friends, too. Since meeting in an Intro to Computer Programming
class last year, they’ve been inseparable.
Terri, left, Freia, right.
Freia is on the board of
Tech @ NYU,
where she leads a program for freshmen. She also works for NYU’s Women
in Computing, writes for NYU Local, and has interned for Girls Who Code.
Terri manages Startup Week, a week-long event kicking off this Saturday
run by Tech @ NYU. She also is an RA, founded the blog
Hackers of Los Angeles,
works at NYU’s Information Technology Services, runs events for NYU’s
career center, and is a Google Student Ambassador. (Whew!)
The three of us met up for a conversation about what it means to be a woman in tech today.
HBIC: Your support for each other is so sweet. It must be amazing having such a close friend in the same industry.
TB:
I can honestly say I have no idea if I’d be able to survive if it weren’t for Freia.
No, seriously. We live in the same dorm and just Facebook-message each
other all the time. Do you want to know what she did? She did the
sweetest thing. I was sick a few weeks ago. She’s messaging me, like,
“Oh, how are you feeling? If you need anything, let me know.” I said,
“Actually, I could use some motivation from the outside world.” And then
15 minutes later, my doorbell rings, and I opened it. There was no one
there, and I look on the ground, and there’s this bag of candy and
chocolate and a little note with a heart on it that says, “Dear Terri,
you can do it! Love, The Outside World.” How cute is that?
FL: It’s a very cool thing to a have a peer in your industry or field
of study because most of my friends that I know outside of the CS major
don’t care. As much as they’re like, “I’m so proud of you for scoring
Google technical interviews,” but they don’t really know what it means. ”
When I found out about Google, I told Terri and she reacted so
differently than my parents or my friends, because she’s gone through
the exact same process. So it’s cool to have someone to squeal with.
HBIC: What does it feel like to be a woman in the computer science department at NYU?
TB: I have a good number of women who are in my computer science
classes. I would say maybe 40 percent or so. It’s very interesting
because I do think there’s kind of this new movement going on about
technology and getting people to learn how to code and all of that. But
those numbers are still lacking for women. It’s something I personally
think about quite a lot.
FL: We’re still in classes that any computer science minor would have
to take, so once you make that jump, it apparently drops, but not too
much.
It’s not like you’re the only girl in the room or anything. But
at NYU, you don’t feel it as much because one, there are so many
people, and the rest of the school has a skewed to girls ratio, so
except for those two hours when you’re in your CS class, you don’t feel
outnumbered.
HBIC: Do you see an emphasis on tech programs actively trying to recruit women?
FL: I run a program called
Freshman Circuit at
NYU. We accept usually 20 freshmen. We get tours of different offices
in the city, so we get to visit Microsoft, Kickstarter, and more. I
really pushed a lot of girls to apply. While I was like, “Hey, are you a
freshman? You should apply,” it was even more so if that person was a
girl. When we accepted people, it was name-blind, but it ended up being
almost 50/50 anyway.
TB: My initiative that I run is
Startup Week. I was very aware of the number of women that applied. It’s always a weird balance to play, right?
Because
you want to get the best candidate, but I also like very much striving
for diversity and different people and different personalities.
I got very lucky because I interviewed around 15 people. The majority
of them were men, but we did have a good portion – again, maybe like 40
percent or so – that were women, and they were all awesome. My team is
now 50/50 exactly.
HBIC: What is Startup Week?
TB: Startup Week is Tech @ NYU’s flagship event. It happens once a
semester and its a weeklong series of events related to tech. So we have
coding workshops for people who are very beginner to people who are
very advanced, we have design workshops, we have entrepreneurial
debates, we have networking events where companies recruit and talk to
people who they’re interested in, we have a keynote speaker, we’re going
to have a huge rager that’s going to be awesome, plus we’re
collaborating with a bunch of other tech clubs in the New York City area
It’s the biggest Startup Week we’ve ever thrown thus far, we have a lot
of events. It starts November 1st.
[Editor's note: Want to get attend a Startup Week event? Buy tickets here.]
HBIC: What do you want to do after graduation?
FL: I really want to be a software engineer when I graduate. I have a
family member who worked for an early-stage startup when it was very
few people. Then it really blew up and then they retired, but they had
enough money so they only code for nonprofits now. So you have your
money, so your life is okay, and then you’re also doing social good so
someone else’s life gets better. That’s a very ideal combination.
I’m on the hunt for a company that’s going to blow up, except every company thinks they’re going to blow up.
TB: I’m interested in product management or program management, which
are positions in tech companies that are at the intersection
of hardcore technical skills and business and marketing. I cannot be
sitting in front of a laptop all day. I’m a people person. I like
chatting with people and managing different teams and thinking about the
user.
HBIC: What are your dream companies?
TB: We’re Google soul sisters right now.
FL: You should email my recruiter and tell her to hire me.
[Editor's note: Days after this interview, Google hired Freia as a summer intern!]
HBIC: Why Google? I mean, duh, it’s Google, but what specifically attracts you to it?
FL: They have divisions like Google X, which is this sketchy, top
secret lab where they work on the world’s biggest problems. They came up
with something called Project Loon that’s literally a network of
WiFi-providing balloons that they’re planning to deploy in parts of
Africa, India, or wherever, because you don’t have to go through the
process of building the network and cable towers and all of that to get
Internet access to these people.
TB: So how awesome would that be, to be on that team and traveling to
Africa and Asia and New Zealand and launching these balloons into the
sky?
HBIC: That sounds like such a crazy sci-fi novel.
FL: Last year, as a freshman, I got a coding interview at Google.
TB: We both did.
FL: It was so hard. After my interview, I called my mom and cried and
ate chocolate. I thought, “I’m never going to get a job at Google until
the day I die.” And then a month after that, I had an interview with
Girls Who Code, which is where I ended up working this summer.
HBIC: I’ve heard such cool things about Girls Who Code (a
summer academy for high school girls to learn coding skills, sponsored
by companies like Facebook, Twitter, and Uber). What was that like?
FL: I still get texts [from my students] at 1 am Pacific Time being
like, “Can you help me with my AP CS homework?” It’s like, “Ahhh. I just
woke up. Are you still up?” They’re like, “Yes! I’m still awake! I
can’t figure this out!” It’s like I’m a TA.
Freia teaching at Girls Who Code. Photo courtesy of SFGate.
HBIC: Last month, you went to the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Tech conference in Arizona, right? What was that like?
TB: Yeah! Grace Hopper’s like the OG of women in computer science.
FL: There were several early women computer scientists in the
military. This was still a lame job within the military, so they were
like, “Yeah, we can give it to women, because, you know, it’s them
sitting at a desk and literally punching holes, handwriting things.”
That’s what computer science was then.
One
of the computers she worked with had a moth in it, so it wasn’t
working. She was like, “Oh, why isn’t this working? There’s a bug.”
That’s why we call it debugging.
TB: It’s the largest conference for women in computing in the world, I
think. Freia is like the networking queen. We’d be walking around, and
every five seconds, Freia’s like, “Oh my God, there’s so and so from
this company! You have to meet them!”
HBIC: Networking is such an important skill. How do you do it?
FL: This is my secret. I know, like, five people. But they just
always show up at the right time. On my first day at Girls Who Code in
San Francisco, I ran into someone I knew from New York. My boss was
like, “How do you know everyone in San Francisco? You literally got here
yesterday.” The five people that I know are really well-placed.
HBIC: The tech world sounds like a bubble. What’s one thing you love to do with your friends outside the tech world?
FL: Almost every Friday night, my friends from high school and I go
to the Times Square AMC to watch whatever new Bollywood movie they have.
A few weeks ago, we were watching
Khubsurat and the most famous romantic comedy director of all time (in Bollywood, romantic comedies are everything)
[Karan Johar]
was just casually sitting next to us. We took a picture with him.
Bollywood’s become a bigger part of my life now that I’m away from home.
TB: I’m still continuously in awe of New York City, even though I’ve
been here for more than two years. One thing that me and my friends like
to do is just walk around random places, just wake up in the morning
and go for a walk. My top three places to visit are…
- The Upper East Side, starting at 86th and 3rd. My aunt lives there,
so my sister and I will often take the subway up there and that’ll be
the place where we’ll stop. There’s a Shake Shack and a Victoria’s
Secret and a couple of other shops.
- The Highline is just a given, because it’s so close by and it’s also
really beautiful. It’s super easy to walk there and just be inspired.
- The Lower East Side is one of my favorite places to go because I
feel so New York when I’m on the Lower East Side. I feel young and hip
there. I mean, I am young and hip, but whatever.
Check out Freia’s
website and contact her via:
Check out Terri’s
website and contact her via:
