Nevertheless, Sewvandi Coded in 2022🎙
Tags: wecoded, podcast
Published: 2022-03-09 02:28:22

I had an incredible chance to conduct a podcast together with Arshad Zakeriya, a DevOps Consultant and AWS Community Builder.

This was my first podcast, and I talked about *Women Who Code*.🎙

![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/coxjrhbh9mlcqbktxdg1.JPG)

Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3paKiFB
Anchor: https://bit.ly/2Z2v4qU
Apple Podcast: https://apple.co/3aM1E3d
Google Podcast: https://bit.ly/3AQcOi0

Here's a quick rundown of what was discussed in the episode. ☕️


**How my life turn into the field of technology**.

How did this thing begin?

- What limitations do girls face when it comes to choosing a career in technology
- Why does society believe that boys are more skilled of technical tasks than girls?
- What sort of knowledge level did I have when I choose software engineering bachelors?
    - My first ambition is not to become a software engineer. [ It was to be a doctor 🙂 ]
    - Basically, I'm just familiar with O/L Information Technology. 
    - Because of the chaos that occurred in 2017 against private medical schools, I felt compelled to choose SE.
- I had a lot of competition with my batch-mates because of the knowledge gap that we had.
- University syllabus content is not enough.
- I chose open source volunteering to expand my knowledge, satisfy my curiosity, and get involved in the development side of things.
	
How did open source volunteering become my favourite hobby?

- My very first event participation was in 2018(In my first year) and it was about google crowdsource organised by SLIIT FOSS.
- I never imagined I'd be on the board of SLIIT FOSS that day.
- From year 2 onwards, I became a volunteer in my university's open-source communities.
- And stepped into the local communities of Sri Lanka.
- I have to admit that the first impression that I got from was the best impression I had.
- I had some days where I had to lie to my parents in order to volunteer for an overnight hackathon.
- Many days I didn't even have my parents' permission to join my volunteer events or any other extra activities / competitions. It was so heartbreaking to say that they were just concentrating on my semester grades. Usually, they don't pay much heed to my other achievements.
- Volunteering helps me to improve my public speaking skills. 
- Volunteering makes it possible me to expand my knowledge of development.
- Volunteering has given me the confidence to say yes to any challenge.
- Volunteering made me to meet people in my industry who were a good fit for me.
- Keeping up with the tech communities are more enjoyable than I thought. 
- My volunteering experiences are really paid off. It led me to multiple opportunities that I could never imagine. 

I continue to code because…

- It has a combination of all the things I like imagination, critical thinking, technology, social interaction, learning, and regular challenges.
- I enjoy helping other girls and guiding them that there is no reason to be afraid of coding. 
- Being a girl doesn't mean that they can't get jobs from IT industry.
- I can stay up to date on new technologies and compete in coding competitions.

I want to brag about...

- When I decided to switch jobs, I had to do my best to make an extra effort on the coding challenge and the interview.
- I initiated first female open source community (SLIIT Women In FOSS) at my university because I wanted to see an improvement in female contributions to development.
- It wasn't a straightforward road to find the courage to complete all the projects because the content was getting more and more challenging.