The Questions I Asked
I know what my next book will be! I want to create a workbook companion to “The Adventures of Women in Tech”, so people can have tools to think through the issues in their careers and lives we discuss in my book. I’ll be working on it this year with the goal of publishing next year, and I’ll be sharing some of the exercises I’ll include in the book on my blog as I play with them. I’d love your feedback!
Exercise #1:
Today I’m going to pretend to interview you. Below are the questions I asked my interviewees when I was researching women’s stories for my book. I crafted the questions to be open so I would hear a variety of experiences, and hopefully avoid swaying the content. The questions did focus on three main areas I wanted to explore.
Women’s backgrounds, what led them to tech, how women think of and describe themselves, and what they were interested in doing in the future
The challenges women faced and how they approached them
How women felt about their experience in tech and whether they were considering leaving
Questions
What did you study in school? (sometimes adapted depending on their background)
What did you want to be when you grew up?
What is your career goal now?
How did your career start in Tech?
How would you describe yourself in 5 attributes?
What's a key challenge you faced? [example follow-up: How did you approach this challenge?]
What do you like about working in Tech? [Follow-up: What would you warn women or other minorities about?]
Do you feel like you're surviving or thriving in your current position? Why?
Did you ever want to quit Tech or give up?
If you could change one thing about working in Tech what would it be?
What else do you want to tell me?
Thought Work:
As you answer the above questions, think about your responses. Women repeatedly told me that they found the conversation therapeutic or it helped them clarify things they were thinking about in their career.
How do you feel about the questions? Do any of them make you feel uncomfortable? Why do you think that is? See Chapter 2 of my book if you’re interested in what I observed as I interviewed others.
Do any of the answers surprise you? Why do you think that is?
Scanning your responses, is there anything you now want to rethink, or follow-up on? E.g. an idea, a desire? What would it take to follow up on it? How will you take that first next step?
Extra Credit: Share Your Answers
Depending on your goals, you may want to further this conversation or share your answers with colleagues, friends, or mentors.
Also given the goal of my book was to share women’s stories, I’d love to continue that and share your answers or a subset of them on my blog, and we can both reshare via social media, etc. That said, you can also be anonymous or just share with me if preferred. Fill out this form if you’re interested in sharing your responses, and I will contact you.
