YouTube is a great place to access free and informative advice and insight derived from both lived experience and experts on topics such as diversity and inclusion in the workplace and wider society. From tech vloggers creating consistent content centred around being a woman in tech to TED talks and more formal videos produced by tech companies, there’s a whole host of content available on YouTube for women looking for more information to help them decide how and why to pursue a career in technology.
We all know how important YouTube has become. Not only for the ones who see it but also for the ones who create content and explore the audience. The increasing numbers on the YouTube platform are certainly striking every marketing agency and brand to capitalize on. More engagements on the videos are making it to be much more enthusiastic. Relative data and charts from all over the world show that YouTube has now officially crossed over 1.86 billion content creators from all over the world.
In just the last three years, YouTube has seen a rise in content demand for 13.5 Billion, which may increase further in another year. The most active users on this platform are around 15-35 years, with an average of 77% of all internet users coming over to the use of YouTube applications by age. At least 97% of the people who have a YouTube account are active in a month and are looking for more content. This opens up a big space for brands. We’ve included the infographic on the bottom of this guide for more insight on the rise of YouTube.
We’ve compiled our top 5 must-watch advice videos on YouTube that are especially helpful for understanding more about what it’s like to be a woman in tech or how to support and advocate gender equality in the technology industry:
Women in Tech – BBC Click
This 20-minute video is a special episode of BBC Click that celebrates women in technology. It features a fascinating segment where three senior female tech leaders talk in front of an audience of 100 young women at the start of their tech careers. It also features an interview with Joanna Shields of UK-based BenevolentAI, whose artificial intelligence has developed a treatment for some categories of Covid-19 patients. For anyone interested in what it’s like to be a woman in tech or how important women are for the tech industry, this is a must-watch.
What It’s Like Being a Woman in Tech
With over 13k views, this video by YouTuber harshibar has proved to be a popular resource for learning about what it’s like to be a woman in tech. Lived experience is valuable when seeking an understanding of what an industry is like from an employee perspective, and in this video, harshibar does just that. She explains how much of her experience in tech was tainted by the fact that she usually was the only woman in the team and depicts some of the challenges as well as reflects on past experiences.
Black Women in Technology Give Tips for Success | ESSENCE Now
This video has had almost 18k views and hundreds of likes and comments, which emphasises how empowering and helpful it is proving for women in tech. In the video ESSENCE Now speaks with entrepreneurs Dana James Mwangi, Kristen Ransom and Sheena Allen to gather their top tips and advice on succeeding in the technology industry. The video is a must-watch if you’re looking for advice derived from personal experiences and varying viewpoints.
Women in Technology: through the eyes of my daughter | Mark MacNaughton | TEDxColumbusWomen
No must-watch list for advice videos would be complete without a good TED Talk in the mix. This TED talk by Mark MacNaughton is particularly poignant because it draws attention to the importance of men’s roles as allies in the fight for gender equality in technology. As well as sharing valuable insights and transparency on the issue of unconscious bias in tech, Mark also explains the process he went through of viewing the lack of women leaders in science and technology-related fields as a simple math problem to something far greater.
Making a Career Shift into Tech
This video is a must-watch if you’re looking for advice on changing careers to pursue a career in the tech industry. In the video YouTuber nicole.young addresses some of the questions that can be overwhelming when deciding to change careers such as: how can I learn to code? How will I make the transition into tech? What will a tech career look like for me? She draws on her own experience and uses her own story of being a self-taught developer to give honest and authentic advice.
To read more about female tech vloggers making content for women in tech on YouTube, click here.
View the latest research on the growth of YouTube:
