Ep 86: Chloe Condon: Choreographing A Completely New Career

Diva Tech Talk interviewed actor-turned-technologist/evangelist, Chloe Condon , Cloud Developer/Advocate for Microsoft.   

Chloe is a passionate supporter of women in technology, with an extensive social media brand following, and  “non-traditional background,” since she “grew up doing musical theater in all shapes and forms.”  Chloe’s father is a director/playwright. Her mother is a theatrical costume designer and graphics designer.  “So, I grew up in a trunk!” She had little exposure to tech. “I had blinders on. I just knew that I wanted to be an actress.” After performing arts high school, Chloe matriculated at San Francisco University for a bachelors’ degree in theater performance. “I booked my first starring role, playing Kira in Xanadu,” a San Francisco stage production.  Reality brought Chloe up short when “they handed me $500 for three to four months of rehearsal.” She addressed cash flow through “bizarre 9-to-5 jobs to support my nights/weekends in theater.” She took numerous retail jobs, then landed an Account Executive position at (pre-IPO) Yelp. She became fascinated by the startup, tech environment, but “was terrible at sales.”   She “stumbled into other tech roles” including Zirtual, the first virtual personal assistant company.  There she met Ben Parr, (then editor-at-large of Matchable), who co-founded VC fund The Dominate Group. Ben has gone on to be a columnist at Inc., a sought after speaker, and philanthropist.

During this discovery period, Chloe was unhappy, from a deficit of free time combined with minimal personal autonomy.  Then she attended a Google-sponsored talk focused on girls interested in programming. It inspired her to find a bootcamp for coders (“these can be life-changing”).   She chose “HackBright Academy, since it was all women. It felt very empowering.”  Hackbright’s message, to the male-dominated programming world, is “change the ratio!”  Initially, Chloe suffered from “Impostor Syndrome” which she thinks is more pervasive in technology than other field. A key to making progress, at the bootcamp, was to adjust learning style from simply reading about concepts to reading AND doing.  “I had to think of it like choreography,” she said. Her tenure at the focused camp culminated in a project: a social media application that rigorously timed postings to achieve optimal exposure, no matter your time zone. As she prepared for “Demo Night,” Chloe’s revelation was that “building the app was hard; talking about it was not. I had always viewed my theater degree as a setback but I use my theater degree, every day, as an engineer, and doing public speaking.”

Initially interviewing for junior engineering roles, Chloe experienced “a significant change” when she “pivoted my brand to be more ‘developer relations’.”  Her blend of speaking, performing, and communications merged with newly minted programming skills. She was hired by start-up Code Fresh, specializing in Docker innovation.  After a year, Chloe left Code Fresh  to join Sentry.io, a company focused on error-tracking for developers working in open source. She lauded the company’s culture.  “You wanted to go to work, every day. The people were so fun and cool.” There, she reveled in creative, fun projects. Through that work, she collaborated with Microsoft, who gave her “an offer I couldn’t refuse.” At Microsoft, Chloe currently works with the cloud-based Azure platform.  Most recently, she concentrated on cognitive services, infusing applications, websites and bots with intelligent algorithms to interpret in natural language. “I built an app that analyzes images of Cosplay Mario Kart characters to determine their mood and emotions. 95% of my demos are funny, quirky or solve a unique problem. I try to have fun elements in everything I do.”

Chloe shared classic advice. “Treat people like humans. As they say in The Book of Mormon, let’s just be really nice to everyone. It’s not that hard.”  When faced with a challenge that seems insurmountable (like code not working) Chloe advised: “Take a walk and come back with the solution.”  She also counseled people to take breaks to achieve higher productivity. And “ask for help!” She cited Twitter as a rich source of feedback and advice.  Chloe is amazed by the generosity of experts in the tech industry. “People are willing to help. This community is welcoming and warm.”

Chloe has evolved to revel in her differences.  “I do not look like an engineer. And I fully embrace that,” she said, discussing the male, middle-aged technocrat stereotype. “I think it educates people” when she is the keynote speaker at a tech conference.  In 2017, she wrote an article matter-of-factly describing how it feels to be a sole woman at a tech conference.  It went viral because it allowed others to empathize without judgement. To protect herself, from Internet intrusion, she wryly said “I am very sharp, and witty, on Twitter.  Anyone who comes at me, publicly, will get destroyed by my awesome jokes!” More pragmatically, she is building a bot to respond to inappropriate DM’s.

In terms of job-hunting, Chloe urged women to be selective.  “Work at a place you are comfortable.” She cited “red flags” like a company uncomfortable with negotiation; or a company displaying paucity of women leaders in the interview process.  Positively, she expressed appreciation for companies who cultivate sensitivity to diversity issues. She also cited Ru Paul’s advice to “silence your inner saboteur” and proceed with confidence. Chloe noted the industry is missing the mark by not considering those with degrees that are not technical. “If you are going to claim you are a diverse company, be open to hiring people from bootcamps! Put your money where your mouth is.”

As an evangelist for Microsoft, Chloe measures success by “folks approaching me and telling me that the work I am doing changed something fundamental for them.  At the end of the day, if I have affected one person, or opened eyes to something new, that is success for me!” For other women in the field, she urged “be authentically you. Don’t feel like you must act like one of the guys. We need more ideas, and diverse thoughts.”

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