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Tech & Social Impact: The Power of Volunteering
- 1. Tech & Social Impact: The Power of Volunteering
- 2. Hi, I’m Beatrice She/Her Frontend Developer
- 3. What is volunteering? Volunteering can be defined as any activity that involves spending time unpaid, doing something that aims to help other people
- 4. Types of Volunteerism 1. Skill-based volunteering 2. Service-based volunteering 3. Event-based volunteering
- 5. Volunteering can level up your skills and careers “Volunteering may play an important part in terms of getting a leg up on the competition when applying for jobs, as well as building skills to advance professionally” - Deloitte 2016
- 7. Build your confidence and tackle imposter syndrome
- 8. Gain a deeper understanding of the core concepts of programming
- 9. Improve how to explain technical concepts, solutions and bugs
- 10. Learning and building their pair-programming skills
- 12. Learn how to mentor and use different mentoring styles
- 13. Learning multiple ways to explain complicated technical concepts
- 14. Gain new technical and non- technical skills
- 16. Builds and Increases Your Companies Brand
- 17. Provide networking opportunity and make a career in technology accessible
- 18. Self-care and the volunteer
- 19. What is self-care? Self-care refers to taking the time and energy to care for yourself
- 20. Assess how much time you can commit
- 21. Learn when to say no
- 22. Take a step back if you need to recharge
- 23. Conclusion Volunteering empowers and uplifts everyone
- 24. Thank you for listening! @builtbybea Let’s Connect! @builtbybea Beatrice O
Editor's Notes
- Hello everyone! Welcome to my presentation: Tech and Social Impact: The Power of Volunteering
- My name is Beatrice My pronouns are She/Her I’m a Frontend Developer Today, I’m going to discuss the power of volunteering within the technology industry. Let’s jump right into it!
- What is volunteering? Volunteering can be defined as any activity that involves spending time unpaid, that aims to help other people. It’s considered a selfless act and intended to promote good or improve human quality of life.
- There are different types of volunteering and they can be loosely broken down into 3 groups: Skill-based volunteering - this is when volunteers uses their talents and experiences for example teaching other people. Service based volunteering - this is when volunteers assist and offers up their service to a company or charity for example mentoring, writing articles, helping out local chapters Event-based volunteering - this is when volunteers may assist at one-time or recurring activities for example Sponsoring events, providing scholarships, Donating to tech nonprofits or charities Your probably thinking by now why is volunteering powerful?
- By now, your probably thinking, Why is volunteering so powerful? Volunteering can level up YOUR skills and career. A study by Deloitte, explored the impact of volunteering. In this study they found: 82% of respondents were more likely to choose a candidate with volunteering experience on their CV. 80% percent of respondents agreed that active volunteers move into leadership roles more easily. 85% percent believe that volunteering helps employees improve communication skills That’s amazing, by helping others, you’re also contributing to your career growth. By now, your probably thinking how can I can level up skills and be empowered through of volunteering?
- Let’s look at how skill-based volunteering can empower developers
- For developers who share their knowledge and skills, the power of volunteering can help you: Build your confidence and tackle imposter syndrome On the right of this slide, there’s an image with four square panels. In the first panel, there’s a brown bear and panda bear. The brown bear says to the panda bear ‘I’m afraid I’m overstaying my welcome’. In the second panel, the panda bear says to the brown bear ‘You just got here’ In the third panel, you see the brown bear reply ‘Yes’ This comic strip, sums up imposter syndrome which is often felt by all developers especially junior developers. As you volunteer, you’re confidence will boost as you help someone who is coding. There’s nothing more satisfying when you see someone finally understand a technical concept. This links to my next point ... Mention image from @imposterbear.
- By volunteering, developers gain a deeper understanding of the core concepts of programming. A study by The British Psychological Society found that: Learning-by-teaching has a positive effect on individuals. This can be applied to developers who volunteer. As you spend time teaching what you’ve learned, you go on to show a better understanding and retain the information. There are two main reason why, I believe this happens: When your expected to teach others, this can lead to an increased motivation to learn and pass on your knowledge. When your teaching, this can lead to increase feelings of competence and autonomy These are core qualities that, are needed to move into senior positions So you see here volunteering, how developers can really benefit their career progression Whilst volunteering, you also ...
- Improve how to communicate and explain concepts, solutions and bugs Communication is a key skill for developers. As a developer, you will be collaborating with others. By volunteering, developers strengthen: Written communication for example providing code reviews which help others improve their code and provide alternative solutions Verbal communication for example explaining technical concepts to others. This links with my next points,
- When teaching others how to code, your also practicing and improving your pair-programming skills. As a result, volunteering empowers developers to build their confidence in pair-programming. I think pair-programming is an important skill for developers and it’s a skill that can take time to learn. An article published on Free Code Camp stated that there are three advantages of pair programming with others: Pair programming is a excellent way to learn from another coder (regardless of how long they have been coding for) Pairing is a great environment to practice collaboration skills which is the key to good software development The benefits of pair programming are even greater for new software developers, as they get instant feedback from the other developer As you can see skilled based volunteering empowers developers and builds the core skills that help move into senior positions. Let’s move on! Next slide --> https://developerexperience.io/practices/pair-programming https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/want-to-be-a-developer-you-should-probably-be-pair-programming-2c6ec12c4866/
- Let’s look at how service-based volunteering can empower and level up developers.
- For developers who are mentoring volunteering can still be useful and level up your skills. A key part of being a senior developer is being able to pass on the knowledge you’ve acquired when you were junior developers. An article published on codementor observed that people usually have one of three learning styling when it comes to programming: Analogist - Learners who use analogies to relate programming concepts to real world concepts Deep Divers - Learners who needs to need to know how thing work. They’ll usually ask challenging questions. Experimenters- Learners who want to try things out for themselves. They usually be testing and breaking their code. By volunteering as mentor, you will learn how to mentor and quickly adapt your mentoring style. This links with my next point…
- Volunteering as a can help developers to learn multiple ways to break down complicated technical concepts. This is a powerful, yet underrated skill that not often highlighted. Being able to explain technical concepts in a jargon-free way allows developers to: Improve their own communication skills Improve other developers understanding Build a more collaborative environment amongst developers, product managers and designers I think being able to explain a complicated concepts in different ways, is skill that’s not often spoken about and very important. Next...
- Volunteering can help developers learn new technical and non-technical skills. Through volunteering, developers might gain new non-technical skills such as: Leading and managing groups of volunteers Creating content on social media platforms for tech company, charities and non-profit organizations Negotiating with companies for funding for charities and non-profit organizations By gaining these skills it can help your next career move, for example: By leading/managing a group of volunteers, you might realise you want to become an engineering manager. By creating content for online plater, you might want to create a blog or create tutorials for others to learn By having strong negotiating skills, you might be able acquire funding and gain investors to start your own business As you can see, service based volunteering can allow developers to learn new skills and consider exploring other technical/non technical related roles.
- Let’s, look at how event-based volunteering can empower themselves and others.
- When companies volunteer to support charities, this builds and increases their company brand. Employees at are proud to work at companies that promote social good: In a study by SAGE, they found: Generation Z and millennials – not only want, but expect, their employers to provide opportunities to volunteering. In fact, employees are more likely to share this with friends, families and even post on social media about the companies volunteering activity. This increases the company status in the tech community and raises profile of the business, especially prospective employees...which to my next point
- Companies who volunteer to: Build build partnerships with tech charities Donate scholarships and discounts And sponsor events (for example providing spaces and or snacks) ….are providing networking opportunity for underrepresented groups which makes the technology industry more accessible as a career choice. This helps to hire more diverse and talented individuals from all different backgrounds. Technology is used by everyone, so we should see that reflected in the tech workforce As you can see, volunteering is an amazing super power however it can be hard to juggle with your work/life balance
- So I wanted to touch upon, self-care and the volunteer The importance of self-care needs to be highlight when volunteering Let’s look at how volunteers can look after themselves, still help others and avoid burnout
- Self-care refers to taking the time and energy to care for yourself, and help yourself cope with the stressors of life. For volunteers, it’s essential that you put the same care and love towards yourself as you would towards the individual/company/charity you are helping There are many ways to look after yourself when your volunteering in tech
- Most volunteers in tech are balancing work and their own personal life. When considering to volunteer and whilst volunteering it’s important to assess how much time you can commit. You want to make sure that your volunteering duties fit in with YOUR own personal schedule. Don’t feel obliged to volunteer endless hours, be realistic with yourself and your schedule
- When volunteering in the tech industry it’s very easy to overextend yourself and take on more than you should. However, learning when to say no is essential. “No” can be a hard word to hear, and sometimes even harder to say. As volunteers, you need to respect your own boundaries of what you can and cannot take on. Don’t be afraid to say “no” when needed.
- Just like how we can experience work burnout, you can also experience volunteering burnout. It’s amazing to give back to the tech community, and help others thrive however, sometimes you overextend yourself. This can leave you feeling fatigued and unmotivated. At times, giving too much can have a negative effect on your health. Remember, even the machines you work on as a developer to code on, needs to recharge. Be kind to yourself and know when step back and take a break.
- In conclusion: If there’s anything you can take away from this talk is that: Volunteering empowers in the tech community and self-care is essential for volunteers to continue helping others to thrive.
- If you have any questions on anything I’ve covered today, feel free to leave a comment on my CodeLand post on CodeNewbie Community. You can follow me on CodeNewbie Community at builtbybea. Follow me on Twitter at builtbybea. Or Connect with my on LinkedIn - you can find me by searching Beatrice O I look forward to hearing from you and I hope you have a great time at CodeLand! END https://www.thecut.com/2016/03/youre-excited-not-nervous-just-keep-telling-yourself-that.html https://www.ncvo.org.uk/ncvo-volunteering/why-volunteer#:~:text=People%20choose%20to%20volunteer%20for,on%20existing%20experience%20and%20knowledge https://tenforward.consulting/blog/tech-social-impact-why-should-we-volunteer https://tenforward.consulting/blog/tech-social-impact-what-specific-opportunities-are-there https://tenforward.consulting/blog/tech-social-impact-why-should-we-volunteer https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/us/Documents/us-deloitte-impact-survey.pdf https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/us/Documents/about-deloitte/us-2017-deloitte-volunteerism-survey.pdf https://tenforward.consulting/blog/tech-social-impact-why-should-we-volunteer https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/us/Documents/us-deloitte-impact-survey.pdf https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/us/Documents/about-deloitte/us-2017-deloitte-volunteerism-survey.pdf https://digest.bps.org.uk/2018/05/04/learning-by-teaching-others-is-extremely-effective-a-new-study-tested-a-key-reason-why/ https://effectiviology.com/protege-effect-learn-by-teaching/#How_the_protege_effect_helps_you_learn https://www.codementor.io/@npostolovski/how-to-teach-programming-pvgpdtoed https://www.sage.com/en-gb/blog/benefits-volunteer-days-employee-engagement/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/deloitte/2021/07/22/for-millennials-and-gen-zs-social-issues-are-top-of-mind-heres-how-organizations-can-drive-meaningful-change/?