Bekah Hawrot Weigel Joins the Developer Relations Team

Hey friends! I'm excited to be a new addition to the Deepgram Developer Relations team as the Technical Community Builder. I'm lucky enough to be bringing my non-traditional background as an educator, my technical training as a developer, and my community organizing experience into this position.

I never really dreamt of a career change. In fact, I loathed the days my family would drive an hour to CompUSA and browse computer-related things after we got our first computer. And even after nearly ten years of teaching college English, a career pivot wasn't on my mind. But after experiencing birth trauma with my fourth child, my whole world was turned upside down. As I tried to work my way back to some semblance of normal after surgery, my husband--a second career developer himself--suggested that I learn to code. What I thought would be a couple of lessons from freecodecamp to get him to drop the subject turned into the thing that I needed in my life.

Not only did the trauma stop cycling through my head when I was coding, but I also found community in the tech world that I didn’t expect. For the first time in a long time, I felt like I was a part of something with the Moms in Tech group I belonged to. It changed the way that I saw myself and the world around me. Because of the experience that led me into tech, I felt a drive to make sure that no one felt as alone as I did in the early days of my trauma.

After finishing bootcamp, I was fortunate to find work as an independent contractor where I had support, encouragement, and felt safe. But about a year into it, the pandemic hit. I lost my work for a while, and found myself doing school at home with my four kids, interviewing, and crying every night. Then one day it hit me: I knew these feelings and I knew they grew when we’re isolated. So I opened up Twitter and asked who wanted to meet up for virtual coffee. That single message turned into the developer organization Virtual Coffee, where we continue to meetup, support each other, and grow together.

For me, that's the most important part of tech--creating space for people to feel comfortable sharing, learning, and mentoring together. When we feel safe, we grow and we support each other. As part of Deepgram's Developer Relations team as the Technical Community Builder, I get to keep doing that. I get to find new ways to support the tech community, to learn from others, and to share what I've learned. I can't think of anything better than that.

Outside of tech and momming my four kids, you can find me swinging heavy kettlebells, eating spicy foods, writing, or playing outside. If you have any questions or just want to say “Hey!” you can pretty much always find me on Twitter.