Charlene Hunter is the Founder and CEO of Coding Black Females, one of the largest platforms for black female coders in the UK.
Charlene wrote her first line of code at the age of 10 while in school. She often loves to play with the computer system and her parents bought her books on computing and electronics and she just fell in love with Coding.
Her Dad likewise runs an IT Software company which made learning coding easy because she got motivation from him.
After graduating from school, she got her first job but notice that she wasn’t seeing black people at work. She noticed people often displayed unconscious bias and discriminatory views towards black people in the workplace.
Also one evening, she went to the cinema to watch a movie, the story of a team of female African-American mathematicians who served a vital role in NASA during the early years of the U.S. space program.
At the end of the movie, she went straight home and created Coding Black Females focusing on black girls so they can get exposure in the tech industry and give them career advancement.
She started going to meet other black women in tech to learn from their experiences and realized they share the same experience.
Today, Charlene is the Lead Software Engineer at Made Tech and has been nominated as one of Tech Nation’s 50 most inspiring, prominent, and influential black voices in UK tech.
In one of her interviews, she shared her advice to black women in tech.
“Don’t allow yourself to view your ethnicity, sex, or gender as a barrier. I never thought of myself as different and it’s allowed me to focus on my skills and what I can offer to people. Find your people! A community you can lean on will be more important than you can realize.
Never be afraid to ask for support. Find yourself, a role model, and mentors. When you’re starting, try and get as much experience with different projects, languages, and roles as you can.”
She earns a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematical Sciences and an MSc in Computer Science before advancing to learn coding as a professional career
Carlene desires to get to solve problems and make a difference with technology.
