Everyone is seeking that larger meaning in life, and so am I! These days I’m working as a DataAnalyst for iZettle.com, an enterprise trying to empower small businesses to survive the game which giant monopolies and duopolies are ruling. Coming to iZettle has given me a strong sense of the meaning I’ve been searching for. As a proudly failed entrepreneur in a previous role, I feel like I have landed on two feet at iZettle and I feel fulfilled and strong. But this only makes up some of the meaning I am searching for. There is so much more!
Around 9 years ago I immigrated to Sweden to do my master’s degree in Computer Science. I was immediately pushed into the batch of immigrant-female-engineers and was labelled. As if I couldn’t only be an engineer. I resented that label so much. However, I really felt like the ‘immigrant-female-engineer’ thing had potential, and I felt like it was my duty to encourage other female immigrant friends to join me. Years later, Pink Programming formed and was (and still is) the perfect platform to encourage women to join the IT job market by teaching them programming.
Pink Programming is now taking on a new project together with Region Skåne that focuses on encouraging female immigrants to take up coding. It is absolutely heart-warming to see the logo of Pink Programming in a project together with other big logos such as Lund University (my beloved previous employer) and EU (the European Union). I could not be happier to be part of this project with Pink Programming and Region Skåne. Together we are helping to grow this pool of ‘immigrant-female-engineers’ I have for so long been passionate about. It will only be a matter of time before we are simply called “talented-engineers”.
Pink Programming deserves closer attention, more support and broader recognition for its brilliant work towards a better Sweden, a better world.
We happened to coincide with an IT-dependent era of continuously blooming technologies. It just makes sense to hop in and be a part of it. Pink Programming is a great platform for that matter, let us all be a Pink Programmer.
Farnaz Motamediyan
Data Analyst at iZettle
Mentor at Pink Programming