To me, age doesn't make a difference in terms of how playful or fun life can be.
I moved to San Francisco to work at Apple's Cupertino office in the summer of 2006, then stayed on remotely in a part-time job back in Austin. It was an internship with iTunes. I helped them launch new features as well as new marketing programs. I also helped program the iTunes Store every week, working on which artists and albums got featured.
Yeah, the majority of Brit+Co users are women, but DIY? You see kids DIY, adult men geeking out hardcore with anything related to woodworking and all these cool new technologies, metalwork, leatherworking, concrete making. Everyone has a passion. I truly believe it's in our DNA literally to build things.
I was extremely curious growing up. I taught myself how to sew, French braid, and cook. When I wasn't creating things with my hands, I was learning more about tech. I was experimenting with email at nine, had my first cell phone at 13, and was truly obsessed with the Internet as a teenager.
Don't let a lack of big company names on your resume get you down, but also, don't let it feed a Silicon Valley ego. Oftentimes, the best candidates come from startups or smaller companies. It shows they are open to risk and can keep up with the long hours and occasional harsh demands.
I made physical objects because I know how to do something on the computer. That struck a chord with me: Most women of my generation have grown up with technology but lack the handmade creative skills of former generations. This is a big opportunity to fill that gap.
Really take the time to focus on finding your voice and making sure that whatever you're creating is of high quality and is useful for people in their everyday lives.
Brit + Co tries to help women understand that they are creative and give them all sorts of opportunities to try their hand at something creative. We want it to be as easy as possible to start. If that means you uploading a pattern to Spoon flower and make wallpaper, that's great. You made it!
At Brit + Co, our mission is to unlock creativity, so we look for future employees that actively flex their creative muscles. The design of your resume is the first way to let me know more about your aesthetic.
While it's true that women are the minority in most tech companies, I don't think that inhibits entry into the tech space. My motto has always been, 'Live What You Love,' and as such, I think it's incredibly important to do work you believe in and to work for a company that has values that align with your own, be it in tech or another industry.
I'm a supporter of female entrepreneurs. I don't feel like a victim, and I try to not think of myself as one.
By the time I was a senior in high school, I knew I wanted to move to Silicon Valley and learn more about computers and the Internet. I just fell in love with technology and the potential of everything the Internet had to offer.
I moved to San Francisco when I was 20 years old. I couldn't even drink yet. My friends in college thought I was so stupid for missing out on the four best years of my life. But I was so ready to start living my own life and absorb Silicon Valley culture.
Social life was different for me in college. I didn't go to as many parties as my friends did. I didn't join a sorority because I knew I couldn't make a long-term commitment. I was constantly traveling back and forth from Silicon Valley to Austin for internships. It was hard, but it was worth it for where I wanted to go.