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<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
<title>Ashley Profile</title>
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<p class="profile__name">Ashley Patricks</p>
<p class="profile__job">Tech Lead</p>
<a class="link-home no-barba" href="index.html">Home</a>
<a class="link-about no-barba" href="#">About</a>
<div class="content clearfix">
<p class="content__heading">Tell me a bit about yourself. Where are you from?</p>
<p class="content__text">I'm from Stoke Newington, North London. I'm now living in Ilford. I'll be coming back and forth but I'll be based in Holland in Rotterdam, probably from next year.</p>
<p class="content__heading">What will you be doing there?</p>
<p class="content__text">Try and start a business. I have a software business with two of my friends; we are getting people that want to join everyday. I want to base it out there, as it's like the tech headquarter for start-ups and also for new ideas and fresh thinking, in the Netherlands, in Rotterdam. Plus you're in the centre of Europe; so you can go anywhere to see what’s going on in the FinTech (financial technology) scene.</p>
<p class="content__heading">What's your current role or your specialism within tech?</p>
<p class="content__text">I run audit engineering at Lloyds for the innovation labs. We make Proofs of Concepts: if we have an idea they might not be able to work on because they're busy doing other things on the road map, we build a prototype, sell it to them or work with someone else in the bank. So we get to think of cool things, to push banking forward, do something for the customers or even just work life in general. I get to code all day and crack the whip a little bit and it's a lot of fun.</p>
<p class="content__heading">How did you get into tech?</p>
<p class="content__text">Age, ageism. I've been dancing for a long time and around different ages. For example my present crew, you've got 6-7 year olds, then you've got us older guys. I tore my meniscus while break-dancing - a really bad injury - which took me out for a year and a half. During that time I saw how fickle the dance scene was. So, although I love it, I thought I might as well go back to higher education, because once you're injured you're out.</p>
<p class="content__text">When I graduated at 33, I got my first job at Lloyds and I was in this agency and people were laughing about it: you're a 33 year old graduate. I thought <em>“it's higher education, I don't need to justify it to you, and this is my path”</em>. There was this expectation that you should be a kid, 21, as a graduate, getting into the industry.
<p class="content__text"> Going in, I used my life-experience, so even though I was the least technical, I ended up getting the best job, the responsibilities, the most diversity. And a year and a half later I had all these people saying that <em>"you're a 33 year old graduate, you've got the best job, show us how?"</em></p>
<p class="content__text">Just because you're in this famous university, in front of a computer your whole life, doesn’t mean you’re going to be better when we compete in the workforce. There’s more than just being technically good, so I worked on that part, and now I can hold my own.</p>
<p class="content__text">And then, of course, skin colour. People look at you, shocked that I'm a software engineer. They're like <em>“what? I don't know any black software engineers”</em>. What you trying to say? That we are not as smart as you, or we are not as able to just read a piece code and make something? We’re probably amongst the most creative of peoples.</p>
<p class="content__text">All you're doing as an engineer is looking at a problem and trying to solve it creatively. That is something that lights a fire up my arse everyday. I've got to try and change that.</p>
<p class="content__heading">How do you overcome these challenges?</p>
<p class="content__text">You have to be excellent. If you put in the hours. Then the life experience, personality and culture comes in, makes you really rise to the top. The way that you interact with people, the way you can be a chameleon, as a black person in this country.</p>
<p class="content__heading">What motivates you to keep growing and thriving within tech?</p>
<p class="content__text">I'm so interested in the things that I don't know. I'll reach a point where I know enough to be able to put my mark out there. Also using what other people made in a different way to create something unique or fix something in the world. It will get to the point where technology controls our lives. I'm sort of coming out of the industry to fight against control and regulation and form this team where we are empowering ourselves with tech rather than making some company rich.</p>
<p class="content__heading">How do you vision your future in tech?</p>
<p class="content__text">You’re making cool stuff but what happens when the lights go out? How can you use what I think is the best skill in tech: taking a problem down into smaller problems and having a solution. If the lights stay on, I want to get to the point where we've got people that are good at hardware, people good at software, people good at artwork. Tech isn’t just about software and code, it’s a spectrum.</p>
<p class="content__text">And automation, which is the next horrible thing which is coming. Industries being replaced. So, you're going to see people that don't care, they’re just going to make money. And ones that are going to combat that, where I'm going to be.</p>
<p class="content__heading">What advice would you give a young person wanting to enter into the tech world? Anything that you've learnt that could be useful?</p>
<p class="content__text">If you're going to get into code or software, YouTube and Google are your friends, and you’ve got to study your arse off. Tech meet-ups and hackathons in your area - don't wait until you've learnt the language, just get stuck in. A lot people start out in their bedrooms or in colleges studying the language and have no idea about the context of what it can be used for, or why. They don't teach that in uni; go into the workforce or tech meet-ups where you can see things being built.</p>
<p class="content__text">I think the best thing to do is just look up cool stuff. Get inspired that way, instead of thinking you're going to get inspired by sitting in front of machine coding. I liked was mobile apps, thinking, <em>"how did they make that?"</em> Go to conventions, like Afrotech Fest. You need context if you're going to be studying in this field.</p>
<p class="content__heading">Is there anything else you would like to share?</p>
<p class="content__text">Black kids: they've so much energy they’re viewed as naughty. The way to get them involved in tech is to go to the coolest stuff available. At the moment we have a lot of voice-enabled products like Amazon Echo. Using these things as toys, but really they're learning, and then they get into it. I'd like too, to see more people coming into schools and doing demonstrations.</p>
<p class="content__text">I know they're interested. I'm on the train mucking about on my laptop with things and I see these kids wondering what I'm doing, and I let them see stuff. The software engineer field is blowing up, more people are interested. I see grads coming into the bank with very few black people, and I'm wondering,<em>"Why is that? Is it that we don't have people coming into their schools or communities?"</em></p>
<p class="content__text"><b>Instagram:</b> ash_patricks</br></p>
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<p>Credits</p>
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<p class="popup__text">The Black Techies Project is a photography and interview project that aims to increase the visibility of black people working in tech in the the UK.</p>
<p class="popup__text"><b>Interviews:</b> Hayley Reid<br><b>Photography:</b> Roxene Anderson<br><b>Coders:</b> Comuzi</br></p>
<p class="popup__text">With thanks to Helena Price and The Techies Project
(techiesproject.com).</p>
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