Since publishing the first all-star interview yesterday, I have received a lot of questions regarding what makes a tech lady all-star. Allow me to deconstruct:

Tech: I’m interested in software and software-related jobs especially, particularly those where a woman is likely to be the only one of her gender in the room. For some examples, I think a Product Manager working for an internet-based start up totally counts. Similarly, a tech writer for a software company definitely counts. This is probably the loosest of my terms for me – if I found a woman who worked as a mechanical engineer for Lockheed Martin, you better believe I’d want to hear her story. So if you consider an interview candidate to work in tech, there’s a good chance I will too.

Lady: To be perfectly clear: if you refer to yourself as female, you can be a lady. I’m using gender, not sex here.

All-Star: Since someone asked this, I wanted to answer clearly: this is not about Sheryl Sandberg or Marissa Mayer. I’m happy to write about power tech ladies when it fancies me, but that’s not what motivated me to start this. My hypothesis, which has yet to be disproven in my 15 years in industry, is that the women who manage to make it through the sausage fests that are high school CS, university CS, and the entire tech industry have something special going for them. These are really unique qualities that I find fascinating and I think make their stories worth sharing. If you’re considering nominating yourself, you probably meet the bar. And if for some reason you are truly overconfident in your own skills, well I admire your juevos and will probably think you’re worth interviewing anyways. If that ends up being the problem I’m dealing with, then we are in a much better state than I ever imagined.

So in short: when in doubt, just ask. I can manage one interview a week at most right now, so I’m quickly forming a back log. In addition to interviews, I’d love to get contributions from women on the ground. If you’d like to talk about any post ideas, drop me a line at techladyallstars@gmail.com.

After all the positive feedback I received, I’ve been having quite a personal dance party for the last few days. Right now, I’m hooked on Bang Bang Bang by Mark Ronson and The Business Intl. It features a catchy tune and some terribly pronounced French. Enjoy!