Ekaterina Berkita: "This is a stereotype that the girl and it are incompatible"

Ada Lavelis compiled the world's first program for a computer. Hedi Lamarr patented a system that controls the torpedo at a distance, and Susan Car created icons and fonts for Macintosh.

On Mitap, the greenhouses Ekaterina Berkita told what opportunities the IT sphere opens for girls and where to start the transition to a new area. Mitap was held on March 21, 2019 with the support of Covorking Caliber .

Online marathon on mobile development

International Girls Who Code , Women in Tech support girls in choosing an IT-case. In Russia, there are also educational projects that open for girls IT specialism.

Ekaterina Berkita, founder of the IT-Girls Russia project, talked about an online marathon for girls. Within 12 classes, participants study how to make mobile applications in Kotlin . Kotlin is a universal language for the development of applications on iOS and on Android.

Training takes place in stream broadcast format. Participants can in a voice ask questions, show their screen and communicate with the teacher.

In Moscow , It-Girls Russia actively cooperates with the Russian State University of Oil and Gas named after I.M. Gubkina, where free courses for students in JavaScript and blockchain are held.

In Russia there are no models of women leaders who could help develop within the team. According to Catherine, this is one of the reasons why the girls do not go to the IT sphere. The IT-Girls Russia project was created specifically for girls so that they have an understanding where to start studying and where to move.

“I did a survey among the girls“ Why are you interested in it? What would you like to study? ” And I heard a lot of stereotypes that “it is not for me”, “this is very difficult”, “please do not touch me”, “help someone to install the program”. In fact, this is not so difficult. This is a stereotype that a girl and it are incompatible things. ” Ekaterina Berkita

How to approach it

It is not only programming. If you have project management skills, then you can become a production manager, business analyst, a marketer of products. Catherine has identified those IT spheres that are now actively developing.

• Corporate development includes automation of the processes of large enterprises or companies. For example, Accenture integrates technologies into business processes.

• System programming is a programming subsection that consists in working on system software. It includes writing programs for most operating systems, mobile applications, drivers.

• Web development is the process of creating a website or web application.
• Mobile development - the process of creating services, applications for smartphones.

How are grocery teams arranged

The IT product today understands any service, application. The grocery teams have the following roles.

• The production manager is a person who is responsible for the development of the product, for its concept and for its vision as a whole.
• The designer makes layouts for layout of the desktop and mobile versions of products. It can combine the competencies of UX/UI.
• The developers are engaged in the technical part of the product, programming. The starting position of the developer is called Junior, then with an increase in the speed of product development, you can switch to the Middle position. After 3-5 years, you can grow to Senior. English should be at the level of reading and understanding, since it is necessary to work hard with the documentation of projects.

Where to go to study

When searching for IT specialists, they look at the practice and existing skills.

• An alternative to classical education-online courses. On them you can study any programming language, learn how to make layout design and layout, product prototypes.

Online courses: Coursera , Netology , Skillbox , Geekbrains , Universerium, open education . Courses on Skillbox and Netologies offer the possibility of development in IT companies after the end of the courses.

• Internships will be interesting to those who want to immediately apply the knowledge gained. Keep in mind that in large IT companies, to get on the internship, you need to undergo preliminary selection and have a portfolio of work.

• Startups give experience and the opportunity to make out the idea from scratch and realize it. While working with startups, you will gain knowledge both in design and programming.

• You can also start making freelance projects, for example, finding orders using the IT-Volunteer platform.

If you want to try yourself in product design, then April 6th
It-Girls Russia organize Design Thinking Workshop. In 4 hours you will master one of the interface design methods and create an interface of a mobile application.

Download Presentation of Catherine Berkita in PDF format