Yes, women develop apps too!

You’d be forgiven for thinking that developing mobile apps was just for the boys, but there are some very successful women out there developing apps, too. Don’t think you need to be one of the boys, either. Sally Huang, Lead of Visual Technologies at Houzz says “Maintain your own personal identity and be selective about who you work with. You’ll feel connected to the best people you work with, regardless of gender”.

So where should you start? It could really pay to learn a little code even if you don’t see yourself coding the app yourself. That’s because it’s much easier to understand your product if you know how it works ‘under the bonnet’ (hood) . It will also help you spot the differences between a good coder and a not-so-good one when you reach the point where you’re ready to hire. There are many places online you can learn to code, some are free and there are even some specifically for women including Girls Who Code and General Assembly.

But if coding really isn’t your thing, there are other roles in app development that might be right up your street. In this interview, with Caroline Thompson talks about what it’s like to be business development manager at Ask Bongo Australia’s biggest SMS information service.

If you’re wondering where to find your great app idea, Ask Bongo ‘s story is a good example of how ideas can pop up in the most unlikely of places. Caroline says “The initial idea was the product of a casual remark made by one of our founders, who, while trying to verify a hard-to-believe assertion about a historical figure — Genghis Khan, if I remember correctly. While struggling to quickly find such a specific piece of information, he said something along the lines of “Wouldn’t it be nice if I could just text this question to a history prof or some omniscient monkey?”

You can start small, too. In fact, Samantha John of Hopscotch Technologies says you should. “Whatever you do should start as a side project. If you have constraints on your time you’ll only work on stuff you really believe in. We did this at Hopscotch and within a couple of months it became very clear to me I had to quit my job and go full-time”.

Finally, Liat Zakay co-founder and CEO of Donde says “If you have an idea you believe in don’t wait and watch. Act! Find a partner that completes you and work hard. Don’t be afraid, fear is your worst enemy.”

So what are you waiting for?

 

One Reply to “Yes, women develop apps too!”

  1. I think give it even a few years and this should be a thing of the past. What you need to remember is that in the UK the computer revolution started in the 80s and for a lot of children who grew up in this initial environment, you will find a good split of girls. But in the 90s we lost our ways and children growing up in that decade (and beyond), the revolution was lost to consoles and to be honest in that period there was a lot of sexism in video games. The great news is that in the 00’s children started being creative with content and guess what, the girls are back…

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