60 Seconds with WITS West Speaker — Devon Jones

Devon Jones is a Senior Engineer at Slalom Build. Her session at WITS West is Transitioning into Tech: How to Leverage Bootcamps for Diversity in Recruiting.

Why is speaking at WITS important to you?

The percentage of women with computer science degrees is about 18%. We are not going to solve the gender disparity in tech until we widen our recruiting outreach, and coding bootcamps offer a solution. According to a recent survey, 40% of bootcampers who graduated in 2017 were women.

What inspires you?

People who aren’t afraid to challenge their assumptions, about themselves and about others.

Most useful article you’ve read in the last month.

This article demonstrates how essential it is to have a gender diverse workforce. Excluding women from product development and testing can literally cost lives. https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/feb/23/truth-world-built-for-men-car-crashes?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Copy_to_clipboard&fbclid=IwAR2r0eQABI4EEeMSZPonY4C5Tkw9rUebFIk1slpW4TQoHvCcjcj51eE77RA

When you were a kid what was your dream job?

It changed every week! I’d cycle through actress, teacher, astronaut, diplomat, lawyer, and all sorts of other things. I started off as a theater major, then switched to communications, then ended up with a Criminal Justice degree, only to later get a Special Education teaching credential.