Meet Jeanette, Soft­ware Engi­neer for Red Hat

From Site Coor­di­na­tor for a YMCA pro­gram to Events and Mar­ket­ing Coor­di­na­tor for a non-prof­it, Jeanette was always able to get jobs in dif­fer­ent indus­tries. But a long-term career where she could use her cre­ative tal­ents and pos­i­tive­ly impact peo­ple? That Jeanette had yet to find.

Even more, Jeanette rec­og­nized that with­out a sol­id pro­fes­sion­al net­work, it was hard to make a career change. ​“I was stag­nat­ing because I didn’t know who to con­nect with. I didn’t have that men­tor or even the net­work to show me the ropes.”

Her career began at Momen­tum. After a year in her Soft­ware Engi­neer role at TransLoc, Jeanette now works at Ansi­ble by Red­Hat as a Front-end Soft­ware Engi­neer. ​“I’m real­ly grate­ful for the fact I have a career now. It feels great. I don’t feel like I’m work­ing some­where just to be work­ing some­where.” She says ​“the door is wide open” for her career now. “[At Momen­tum], you’ll get a com­mu­ni­ty and you’ll get help find­ing a career. Not just a job. A career.”

The uncon­di­tion­al sup­port she received in the Momen­tum class­room helped her get there. In Jeanette’s words, she was the ​“biggest cry­ba­by” in her cohort but nev­er felt judged for it. ​“This tech com­mu­ni­ty has prob­a­bly been the most open, non-judg­men­tal com­mu­ni­ty that I’ve been a part of, espe­cial­ly the one that Momen­tum has built. Being a black woman going into the tech indus­try can feel very oth­er­ing so hav­ing that diverse com­mu­ni­ty that Momentum’s built for its stu­dents has been para­mount in my abil­i­ty to grow in my career.”

For Jeanette, Momen­tum was more than just learn­ing how to code. ​“My pro­fes­sion­al net­work grew and grew and is still grow­ing even now.”

Jeanette is pay­ing it for­ward. ​“At Red Hat I get to con­tribute to an open source com­mu­ni­ty. By doing that, I get to help peo­ple who look like me, who want to learn how to code, take real code and learn from it.” Whether it’s con­fer­ences, mee­tups, speak­ing engage­ments or Momen­tum men­tor­ship, Jeanette seizes oppor­tu­ni­ties to con­nect with oth­er women in tech and trail­blaze for under­rep­re­sent­ed groups to have a seat at the table in tech. ​“Every­time I go to work I think about all the oth­er women who are in the tech indus­try. I think about how grate­ful I am to be anoth­er woman in this indus­try mak­ing a career for myself.” 

It wasn’t easy, but for Jeanette it was so worth it. ​“Momen­tum was one of the hard­est things I’ve ever done and I would 100% do it over again in a heart­beat.” She’s tak­ing that expe­ri­ence with her into the com­mu­ni­ty as she advo­cates for diver­si­ty and change in the tech indus­try. ​“I want every­body to learn how to code. It is a future-proof job. It is a reces­sion-proof job.”