April is the founder of Compassionate Coding, a conscious business that helps technical teams cultivate sustainable, human-­centered software development practices built on a foundation of emotional intelligence. She has spent the past decade as a software engineer and technical leader at various startups in Silicon Valley. As an advocate for a more socially responsible tech industry, she also mentors technologists around the world and volunteers with organizations to teach coding to people from underrepresented groups. When she is not coding or speaking, she enjoys writing, running ultramarathons, and experimenting with vegan recipes.

Together we started by talking about ultrarunning and how to start a career in IT. We then brused over April's story, from Sony to various Startups in the Silicon Valley. We then talked about hiring practices, looking for a growth mindset, avoiding biases, etc. April then described her company "Compassionate Coding", what it is and why she felt the need to create it. We finally spoke about the pushbacks she endured and April gave the advice to get in touch with your core values.

Here are the links of the show:

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/aprilwensel
• Compassionate Coding: https://compassionatecoding.com
• NewCrafts Conference: http://ncrafts.io
• Growth Mindset: https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Mindset#/Fixed_and_growth
• Black Girls Code: http://www.blackgirlscode.com
• Hackbright Academy: https://hackbrightacademy.com
• League of amazing programmers: http://www.jointheleague.org
• Couch to 5K App: https://www.active.com/mobile/couch-to-5k-app
• Article about the bias embedded in the false dichotomy of “technical” and “non-technical”: https://link.medium.com/gDLA8q8bNU

Credits

• Music Aye by Yung Kartz is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Your host

Software Developer‘s Journey is hosted and produced by Timothée (Tim) Bourguignon, a crazy frenchman living in Germany who dedicated his life to helping others learn & grow. More about him at timbourguignon.fr.

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