Good. My name is Darian Maples. I am the managing director for Girls and Tech Dallas. I work for an organization totally under girls and tech. So today I wanna talk about the journey of getting into tech with no tech background. So just wanna get into more of that.So let me make sure I can also share my screen with you. If not, I'm just gonna get right into it cause I've tested this out several times. But if you have any questions in the chat or wanna connect with me later on, uh definitely just put it in there, connect with me through linkedin or through my Instagram, which is girls in tech dot Dallas and I'll be leaving that for you shortly, but let's jump right at it. So I can't share my screen. So I'm just gonna get right into it. So getting into tech with your network, the biggest thing that's helped me in my career and to be successful in this journey of building a tech background. So to kind of share how I started, I graduated from Prairie View A and M University with a communications background and a sociology minor. So when I graduated, I didn't really know what I wanted to do. My first job was in credit card processing. And yeah, I was there for about two years and trying to figure it out. And I reached out to a friend that was working for a cybersecurity company and it was in sales.

So with this company, they introduce you to anyone that's new in the industry and put you through a two week boot camp of cybersecurity. So it wasn't about sales. It was me learning about the whole industry and I fell in love with it. I was at that company for six years and I built this amazing background and portfolio there and it helped me with my career today. So with that knowledge and being at that company, I started to volunteer for women in cybersecurity events, anything cybersecurity just to learn it.

I would sit with engineers trying to understand the technology. I learned about coding, data science, you name it so much. And I didn't have the background. I had to research, I had to talk to people. I had to go to networking events and everything. So being at that company, it really helped me build this career of technology. So, you know, going from a background of communications and speaking all the time or trying to get on TV to be in media, I use that knowledge in the industry. So my true career move is technology partnerships. So I work with c level executives understanding their environments, their ecosystems and be building out a cybersecurity portfolio for them to make sure that their industry is safe and they have the best of the best products that they're working with.

And that took a lot of knowledge to understand cybersecurity as a whole. And so what I did to kind of grow up this journey as I started to volunteer more, and one thing that I think everyone needs to understand is if you're excited about technology, if you're excited about the industry, volunteer for a lot of things, you know, girls and tech is a nonprofit organization, there's other organizations out there so many nowadays um that you can join and be a part of and learn new things.

And what I've noticed is when you're volunteering, you're understanding the root of your community, you are putting about two to, well, 1 to 2 hours of your free time a week and devoting your time to organizing events, connecting with people, event planning, social media marketing, you name it.

So if you love networking with people, if you love getting to know new things, I suggest finding a network that fits you in coding, cybersecurity, um food science, anything in technology or anything outside of the realm, find that because it really helps you and it helped me a lot because you know, not having that support system and not having a mentor.

And it was really scary getting into this as a woman or being the only person that looks like me in the room. So you have to kind of build up that network. Uh There's so many men so it's hard to go to them and be like, hey, how can I get in this industry? How can I do this? Do you have any events going on? And it's not comforting if you don't have that support. So, so find, find that support system really helped me. Um Another thing that helped me was getting into boot camps and free online certifications. You know, you have to build that portfolio. And what really helped me is within the organizations I worked for, there were certification programs, you know, also some companies provide, you know, continued education. So if you want to go back and get your master's degree and that's something I'm working on. I'm actually working on my master's in cybersecurity um from University of Dallas. So I had to build my journey into this process, which I'm sure some of you ladies are doing the same because getting into tech, getting into anything in this community is very hard. You have to understand it. You have to be willing to risk it. Um One thing I always do is I go after everything I'm scared of and technology is scary. Um Hello, thanks for joining. We're still going on. But um yeah, free certifications, free online boot camps.

There's so many um and great you built your own journey, you have to and there's so many online, if you do the research, you know, working with other companies, they're providing certifications, you name it for you to learn more. Um and to go further into your careers. Uh The next thing I'll say is virtual events. Um being a part of girls in tech, we put on several events each year. Uh big ones, you name it in all kinds of ways of mentorship, start ups, cybersecurity, coding, uh design thinking, you name it. We are doing everything we can to kind of build out an ecosystem of different things to provide to everyone. And virtual events really help you connect. Like look at all you ladies, I'm gonna look you all up on linkedin. We don't know each other, but now we do, we're all gonna be great friends, connect and learn things about each other and see what other events that will be in the future. But virtual events have really helped my career and even in person before COVID happened, I think I was traveling to New York or any of the tech events, California, you know, aws events going everywhere to just see where these events are to connect with people that are trying to learn the same things as myself and everyone being a part of this event today.

Look how many connections there are, look what we're doing today as women. Um Yes, exactly. Virtual events have kind of helped people that are maybe scared to talk to people or go up to people in person. You know, it's, it, that's a hard thing to do. It's just like, hey, here's my business card. Hey, connect with me on linkedin show, your showing you my phone. But um being virtual, it's really helped you kind of reach out and understand these people when you go to their platform. So definitely that's really helped me a lot.

Um Another thing is connecting with tech influencers, which I've noticed is like a big thing. I don't know if you guys noticed, but if you go on Instagram, people have created their own businesses or created their own platforms. Like one of my favorites is she secures and then if you follow her, she talks about cybersecurity. There's several other, you know, girls in tech, of course, you can follow us on Instagram. Um Women who code, there's just so many different influencers out there that are providing free information that would cost you so much money right now. Um Going on these platforms, they talked about you to how to get into technology, how to get into cybersecurity, how to get into coding and it's free. And these women are working for huge corporations and men, I'll definitely recommend some great boot camps for you all that.

I've been a part of. Um Cyber has some great ones that I've done. And uh actually girls in tech, we provide a few boot camps through a lot of our um sponsors and partnerships. So I'll definitely be providing that to you all. So stay tuned. And um yeah, but the connection through Instagram with technology has has increased so much. And you know, I think if you go to anything on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, even linkedin, you'll see these platforms are just expanding each year, like I stated. Um I know that the time is kind of running but creating your journey, you know, and one thing that I've done is I've built a team of women that have the same kind of drives me in girls in tech. So being a managing director for girls in tech, it's a volunteer opportunity. I had to find seven women that wanted to be a part of this also men. But I do have a variety of women on my team. Very diverse, come from all different type of tech backgrounds. They're not all cybersecurity like myself, but what we've done is we've created this platform together, you know, when we're scared and we need help finding a job. I know last year was really hard and tough on some of my um team members as far as career opportunities COVID didn't hit us all hard.

So these resources of helping each other and staying as a team, we really need that, especially in these times of day, you know, a lot of things are happening, we're all stressed out and I know last year was probably the most stressful year, you know, for anybody. So create your path, create your journey, you know, start your own Instagram, create your own title, create your own logo. Go after what you're scared of ask questions. Like I stated, like you want free resources, you don't have to pay for this stuff. This stuff is here. Google's providing it for free Microsoft um Girls in tech. We have so many opportunities even this platform here. So yeah, it's, it's an exciting time. Um And I'm gonna end it off with. Thank you so much for joining my, you know, segment. I really just wanted to share of you're finding your place in tech, how the way the ways that you can do it as far as free online sources, virtual events, tech influencers. I'm kind of like a tech influencer on girls in tech dot Dallas. I'll put that in the chat. And um yeah, if you have any questions right now, I would love to answer them and kind of provide any feedback regarding girls in tech, getting into cybersecurity understanding, you know, technology partnership, ecosystem careers. That's more of my realm.

So, yeah, anyone have any questions that Instagram in here? And how do you feel about different certifications? Are you and anyone recommend any thoughts on them? So I actually used to work for a company, a cybersecurity uh certification company. How I feel is if, if you have no background experience in it. And if you need to study, if you need to understand, depending on what type of position you're going towards, I definitely suggest, you know, investing in yourself to get that certification. It is very important. Uh Employers do look at it, but if you build your own platform and you actually build your own experience through, you know, connections or networking or putting your own portfolio together, you definitely can get it without a certification. Um But yes, I, I do recommend if you're a beginner to kind of start out with the security plus comp T certification, start out with those kind of do your research ise squared, um Any type of CISSP or CCS P, those are more for advanced um cybersecurity. Um If you're trying to get into coding, yeah, I definitely suggest if you want a certification, just kind of look and do the research because sometimes it's for people that are already have been in the industry. But if you're a beginner, I would probably start out with comp tia and cybersecurity. Thank you so much. Do you think a master's degree will help with the career in tech? I definitely do agree. I think it would. Um I'm working on mine. I don't need it.

I just wanted to add to my portfolio. Um because, you know, as I moved up, I was like, wow, do I really need this master's degree? But then I, you know, I see people that I talk to that have one and I'm like, OK, well, how do I get to the next step a little bit faster or how do I want to speak? Or how do I want to understand things? I think the more information you add to yourself and the more you put into yourself, even without investing or putting money into it, it always looks good. Um You have a step ahead of that person. So, you know, I'm getting mine because you know, I just want to add that extra to my portfolio. So I suggest it's something you wanna do if you're passionate about it, go for it. What does it take to start a girls in tech chapter? Oh, well, you know, the great, the greatest thing about that is we have so many chapters. We have over 50 chapters. We are global. Um I'm in the Dallas Texas area. If you want to start a chapter, it's pretty much you can just reach out to me. Um I'll put my email in the chat depending on your location if it's not already in our chapter community. Oh, I don't know if we have one in Kenya. That's a good thing. If we don't have one available, we create it.

So reach out to me, I definitely can see what I can do um to help you start a chapter. So what it takes is, you know, for you to be that person that's ready to volunteer create a team, be super passionate about what you wanna do. Um have the time, you know, it is a volunteer opportunity. However, you get so many much access to everything. Um You create a board, you get to interact with so many founders, so many huge people that are working for Amazon Google. I mean, our founder, Adrian is so well connected um girls in tech helped me get my job actually. So it's a great community. So reach out to me if you have any questions about starting a chapter or girls in tech at all, check out our website. This is a website um would love for you to, to have you there. Yeah, I will definitely connect with you. Awesome. And let me see if I can connect with you on linkedin and totally uh sorry about that. I totally messed up my email. Thank you for catching that. It's J Maples at Girls and tech.org. My work is.com. Sorry guys. It's OK. Thank you for taking that. So if you said.com, I do apologize. Um It is.org um But yes, reach out to me. Um But girls and tech is a great community. It's I know it says girls but it's for women that are college and career level. So anyone up after that, we are trying to reach out more of high school students later on. But right now we're working with the community of career women.

So if you are interested and want to learn more about our events, check out our website. It's really amazing. It's a free membership. You do not have to pay for anything. You get access to our newsletter, access to our events, um access to anything pretty much that we have in our network. And um if you wanna learn more about myself, you can definitely connect with me um through linkedin or you can connect with me on Girls in Tech dot Dallas on Instagram. Any more questions? I know that this is short. I know that they give us 20 minutes, but I'm definitely gonna connect with a lot of you on linkedin. I wanna, if, if any of your speakers, I can't wait to hear what you guys have. This is an amazing community trying to see if there's any questions I missed. I changed careers last year, became a techie and a mom of three and I want to help other women do so. Oh That's so awesome. Yeah. You know, um a lot of women on my team, they are moms and I'm, I'm, I'm not a mom yet but how I see them juggle girls in tech, their tech careers and being a mom. I'm like, wow, that's amazing.

Um I it just shows how, how strong we are. So that's so great. No problem. Thank you all for joining. I'm, I'm so excited to get to know everyone. I'm so excited for you to learn more about myself and girls in tech, it's a great community just like this, any advice on presenting yourself as a technologist with no background interviews. Um I, like I stated, you know, the biggest thing that I've been seeing, you know, even going through like these tech influencers, a lot of people or me being in the industry right now and working with a lot of C OS or technology people, a lot of them didn't have a tech background, give the name that you feel comfortable with because we're all u utilizing technology.

We get on Instagram, we get on social media, we know tech. So however, you're presenting yourself and how you feel comfortable even with a non tech background. Like I give myself a cybersecurity professional because I've been in the industry for over 10 years. I work with partnerships, but I have to understand cybersecurity as a whole. Um because I'm talking to founders of tech companies and they're asking me these difficult tech questions. So I have to understand that. So when you're presenting yourself, give yourself whatever you are passionate about, let's say you're passionate about cybersecurity awareness. Say you're a cybersecurity enthusiast. If you're passionate about coding, coding enthusiast, you know, if you, whatever you want to be you that you love and you're passionate about create that pathway and create that name for yourself because non tech doesn't matter. You are tech because you're, you're excited about it. Yes.

Let me put my linkedin in here and connect with everyone. So excited. Hopefully you guys can see it. If you guys can just click on that. Add me, ask any questions, reach out to me. Um I'm here to assist. Um you know, girls in tech is amazing. Also, you know, I'm, I'm part of other organizations as well. I'm part of women in cybersecurity. So, you know, I try to join as many things as possible to stay in the loop and understand. So if I can help anyone join in what I'm joining into, hey, the more the merrier, it's always good to connect with others and to assist because I did not have that opportunity in the past. So I'm always about sharing connections. No problem. Well, I don't know if my time is up but if there's any more questions that I can provide or any advice, um or if anyone just has any comments, I am here to assist. But why did I choose cybersecurity over? Ok, I need that. I, so cybersecurity fell in my lab. Um When I reached out to my friend regarding a position it was in, it was a sales position. At first I knew nothing about cybersecurity when I had that two week training. Um for that job, I fell in love with it because I was like, wow, this stuff is scary. So you have to investigate, you have to research, you're learning about people hacking and all this stuff. And I was just like, oh, this is really interesting stuff.

So I, I really did my research and I kind of just fell in love with it and I created a pathway and I created a journey through it. And I've kind of wanted to, I've always been a person where I like stuff that just never goes away. Like I just cybersecurity is needed all the time. It's a, it's a safety net if you want to get into career where that's always gonna be needed no matter what. Definitely. Now, you know, everything is virtual, you know, virtual school, virtual events like cybersecurity has even increased even more. So, um I've been super busy um As you can see, I couldn't do my hair today or get all crazy. Um you know, put my hair up, I just had to handle a huge call with um a company. So yeah, it, it does take the beauty out of things, but it's an amazing space and I feel like if anyone wants to be a part of cybersecurity, there's so much you can do. Um I just switched to cybersecurity this year since I was not making any of those African. Oh, awesome. I'm excited for this new field. I would be happy if I connect. Yes, definitely. Let's connect.

Any guidance on career switch from non tech to tech while you're on the job, career switching. Um Very good question. So that happened to me. So what I would do if you depending on what field, even if outside of any type of tech job, if you want to switch out of it, I would really reach out to your network, ask questions, reach out to me. Um Any type of field you wanna go into kind of switch and kind of use what you're good at. So if you are really good at speaking, if you're really good at, you know, whatever other realm you have, that's just you perfected, put that into your portfolio, create a portfolio, do some boot camps, add that to your resume. Um Join girls and tech as a member, you can put girls and tech member on your resume and say, you know, volunteer, say put whatever tech things you've created and you know, say you went to this add that to your linkedin. Um putting as many things as volunteering or putting anything that you need on your resume that's helped you succeed, add that they're looking at that stuff. So um that's what helped me.

I've added so many things to my linkedin to help me succeed to show like this is what I've been doing. I did this certification. I'm going to school like whatever you need to do to help yourself and you guys are so amazing. I hope everyone just has success in their journey into tech if you're not in it, um Connect with me, I have several connections in the technology world. So if you're looking for any jobs, we have a jobs board on girls in tech as well and there's several companies hiring for entry level positions if you're just getting into it. And also for, you know, if you're already in the tech industry, we have positions as well. All righty. Well, I think that's my time. Um I'm definitely gonna connect with all of you. Oh, let me, let me, let me answer this. Any recommendation on boot camps. So um on my girls in tech dot Dallas uh Instagram, I'm also going to um if you check out my linkedin, I'm gonna put some more updates too, but cyber is really great. Um And I can definitely suggest that for any type of boot camps also girls in tech, we have some boot camps coming up.

So um just connect with me on email, let me put my email all the time and I'll definitely send you because I messed up my email last time with some great boot camps and share with you our events that we have coming up. Where do you see yourself as a cybersecurity engineer in the next 10 years? Um Engineering more. I wanna be more into the growth of cybersecurity awareness into organizations. So I deal with partnerships and ecosystems right now. So I build, you know, I think I left, I think my chat disabled guys. I'm so sorry, but definitely connect with me on my email, my linkedin and I will answer any questions. It was so amazing to meet all of you. Thank you.