Thank you for 1,000 followers

How did a tech culture blog get here, and where are we going next?

Kairsten Fay
2 min readJan 4, 2023
Wooden blocks spelling “Thank you”
Photo by Courtney Hedger on Unsplash

When I published my first blog post in April 2021, I had one goal in mind: scale. While networking, one topic kept coming up again and again. I have a Bachelor’s degree in biology, but I became what’s considered a “self-taught” software engineer. People naturally ask, “How?”

I would launch into hearty descriptions in person, over email, or in LinkedIn DMs with details about my journey. As my career grew, so did my inbox. I loved mentoring new folks in tech, but my capacity for answering their questions was hitting a limit. I could not scale.

So, I took a lesson from the workplace. That is, whenever questions come up repeatedly, document their answer. I started my Medium blog to document my personal journey so I could reach a wider audience. It took me one full year to write that first post.

Today, I have written almost 20 posts about tech culture with a focus on software development. I have received a showering of support from my readers and followers. I committed to a monthly post cadence, and I realized that I embarked not only on a journey of personal documentation, but self-reflection, too.

My blog’s mission statement is to demystify tech culture. I aim to deliver unique and authentic perspectives to create conversations and mentor those with 1–3 years less experience than me.

I am grateful to my readers for sharing this journey with me. You inspire me to keep writing. I read every comment you leave on my posts, even if I don’t respond to each one.

Q&A

I am always looking for new material for my posts. So, I am creating a forum to hear from readers about what’s on their minds. Please respond in a comment on this post. Here are a few suggestions to get you started:

  • What is your career? How far along are you?
  • What topics would you like me to cover? For example, trends in tech or more stories from my personal journey.
  • What questions do you have for me?

Thanks again, dear readers. I look forward to hearing from you soon!

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Kairsten Fay
Kairsten Fay

Written by Kairsten Fay

Sr. software engineer and storyteller. I publish articles demystifying tech culture. SWE @ Meta. 1x top writer in Technology. Seattle-based. 🏳️‍🌈