Female ninjas in web3 - Jamie Steinberg

Female ninjas in web3 -
Jaime Steinberg

Orchestras, pizza & cryptozombies

Web3 is for everyone – that’s my opinion.

But in order to get there, we need more education and easy access so that folks understand what this technology is actually about. And role models that help us understand that there is a space for all of us. And when I say for all of us, I mean it.

When I entered the space 2 years ago, I had little knowledge, a lot of naivety, and plenty of ideas. I had no technical or fintech background and was not really interested in traditional finance either. Two years later, I’m still not very intrigued by finance, but I feel comfortable maneuvering through the space, understand what draws me to the whole idea of decentralization, and why I find it so important to provide education. Yet, a lot of successful actors within the space come from the start-up culture or traditional finance (which is in no way a criticism).

But where are all the folks that successfully work within Web3 and come from different backgrounds?

Thanks to SheFi, an educational program for women and non-binary folks that are interested in learning about Web3, I met a lot of lovely humans. One of them is Jamie, who used to be a music teacher and has, as a result of taking part in SheFi, entered the web3 space and successfully shifted into a full-time position in the ecosystem.

So what better way to encourage more people to learn than by talking to her and getting inspired by her example?

Make the brain hurt and connect.

Jamie is based in the US and was teaching music in public education, teaching tiny humans from kindergarten up to 12th grade, from bands to orchestras in 4 different areas all over the country. She always had the desire to work from home and thanks to the COVID pandemic, this started to become an option. In 2021 she returned to community college to do a course in web development and operating systems, and after not having huge success in the job market at first, she reached out to her LinkedIn contacts and got to know about SheFi.

She considers herself a technically inclined person but in no way an expert. And when asked about the connection between music and math, which seemed very obvious to me, she rectifies:

“I don’t think programming is necessarily math – because the computer does the math – programming it is simply more logic based.”

After going through the SheFi course and creating new neurological pathways by learning solidity (which admittedly hurt her brain once in a while), it was time to step up the networking game. Weekly intros and meet-ups helped her to make her network grow and she got her current position at Reservoir after 6 weeks of the job hunt. Since November last year, Jamie works as a Developer Relations manager, and is happier than ever before.

“I work from home, have a lot of agency and ownership and a lot of flexibility – and the job uses my brain, I am mentally challenged, which I didn’t get in my old job.”

She LOVES (emphasis intended) working at home and after being in the space for a while and getting to know that blockchain is so much more than Bitcoin, she’s also able to have a realistic view of what the technology might be able to do for mankind.

“People are naive in thinking that this will change the economy of the world – this is a nice hope. People who have historical wealth are still able to get in ahead. Yet it is a new way of redistributing wealth for the population of this world. And it will provide more stability for emerging nations and that is great; it has the ability for more agency, also in finance.”

And then there is of course the metaverse, the strange enhanced digital alternative to our physical realm. Which has plenty of potentials to go wrong, but also the potential to connect humans globally based on their core values, rather than on physical proximity. Time will tell how we end up using it – for better or for worse.

A word of wisdom.

“We’re all learning this, this is a new space, and we don’t know the final use case. It is fine if you don’t have 5 years of experience in Ethereum or DeFi.”

Jamie’s advice for fellow web3 astronauts:

Stay curious and showcase your curiosity
Keep your self-intrinsic motivation alive and keep on learning
Don’t be afraid of experimenting with something new
Use the SheFi demos as work experience
Get familiarized with testnets; there is no requirement to experiment with real money if you’re not comfortable with that at the time
Admit that, even when not knowing everything, you know where to find the answer;
Create a network

And because you have come this far, here is a little extra on top. Because Jamie does not only know how to work with music and tech, she is also a passionate pizza baker who has levelled up her skills to perfection:

For pan pizzas in a focaccia style hand crush your tomatoes, rip the tomatoes in bits, and season them (don’t cook that sauce, add straight to the dough). And when using vegetables, sauté or roast them first or cut them with a mandoline slicer, so that your pizza gets crunchy rather than soggy from all the water that the veggies contain.

Try that at home – and you’ll never buy a pizza again.

Here is one of Jamie’s examples: