Career Confessions: The software developer who aims to inspire minority women in tech

Do you like your job? Or wonder what it would be like if you’d gone against your parents’ advice and pursued your dream career? Her World’s Career Confessions column spotlights the professional journeys of its subjects and reveals how each individual’s career path and the choices they have made can have an impact on their personal finances, psychological health, and interpersonal relationships.

When Ainul Md Razib, more commonly known by her moniker Ain (@AinLovesCode), first started studying Information Systems in university, she was “acutely aware of the lack of minority Muslim women in tech outside of the arts”. 

“As a Malay Muslim, I was always looking out for people with a similar cultural background in tech, [both in the industry and on social media]. However, I rarely saw female content creators in the West sharing tech career advice, and I barely found any based in Southeast Asia,” says the 25-year-old. The field was predominantly male, or women who were not from minority groups, which made her journey in tech daunting without role models to look up to.

Instead of letting self-doubt hold her back, Ain turned these challenges into motivation. Driven by a desire to bridge the gap and empower individuals from diverse backgrounds, she created AinLovesCode, her social media brand dedicated to advocating for inclusivity and empowerment in tech.

“I decided to start my own social media accounts sharing my experiences learning to code and started receiving comments and private messages from inspired girls and women. It made me realise that there are women who feel inspired, seen and represented just by me sharing my journey.”

Today, Ain has long graduated from university and she currently works as a backend developer. Her social media has grown tremendously as well – on TikTok, she currently has more than 75.5K followers and 1.9M likes at the time of writing.

“The lack of diversity and minority representation [that’s still currently going on], as well as the encouraging DMs and comments from my videos, made me find greater purpose and meaning in my social media brand as a source of inspiration for minority women in Southeast Asia.”

Ain uses her platform to amplify the voices of minority individuals in tech and provide support and guidance to those navigating similar paths. “When I am available, I engage in short-term and ad-hoc mentoring where I speak as a female tech industry professional at community networking events,” she shares.

She is also the head of social media for a local tech community called Malay Muslim iN Tech, which partners with other Malay/Muslim organisations to initiate community networking events for aspiring and current tech professionals.

“My volunteer experience as a tech career mentor in the Malay Muslim community also allowed me to understand the importance of representation and mentorship in choosing one’s careers. I found a calling in sharing tech career advice and showing a different image of technologists — one that is closer to my Malay Muslim identity and as a hijab-wearing woman working in a technical role.”

Ain emphasises, “Representation and diversity go beyond the targeted funding support and campaigns we often see today. I believe there is a lot more that can be done to encourage a more open, supportive and inclusive work culture so that women like me can grow professionally, receive adequate mentorship and be respected for our skills and experience, not merely for our gender.”

“Some of these initiatives can be long-term community mentorships where minority women can learn and grow with other minority women within their careers,” she suggests. “It is also important to cater for women with family commitments like raising children and managing the household, which is still a prominent expectation expected from women by default.” In addition, Ain believes that every company should have internal support programs like employee resource groups and a career mentor/sponsor to encourage and support a minority women's professional growth and help them navigate the company culture.

Her biggest hope “is to continue to inspire more girls and women to take charge of their career aspirations by having the bravery to pursue STEM careers and find confidence in their skills and experiences to thrive in their careers.”  

In her career confession below, she tells us more about being an advocate for inclusivity in the tech industry, how she’s juggling between her day job as well as being a content creator, and why coding can be transformative for individuals.

Name: Ainul Md Razib
Highest Education: Bachelor's Degree
Job Title & Industry: Back End Developer, Technology
Years of Work Experience: 3

What initially sparked your interest in coding, and how did you navigate your journey into the tech industry?

I grew up as the only daughter with three brothers, and I'm lucky to also have parents that supported me in my interests, even though tech and coding are traditionally male-dominated fields. I had a safe space to pursue these technical interests, and I was exposed to video games and apps from a young age. Learning about the types of coding careers made me realise that the office life was a good choice for me as someone with eczema and a sweat allergy.

This then led me to pursue Information Systems in university, where I was exposed to different coding fields and tech jobs. I was also acutely aware that I needed to expand my professional networks, so I was attending networking events and career fairs to learn more about the tech industry and how to stand out. I eventually chose to work as a software developer building apps and websites while creating educational content and volunteering my mentorship as a tech professional.

How would you describe your career? Would you describe it as a job, a career, or a calling that you’re extremely passionate about?

Juggling two careers as a software developer and content creator is definitely challenging, but each fulfils a different calling. The former makes me feel excited to build the digital future while solving the recurrence mystery of why my code is not working. The latter allows me to give back to the community and inspire the next generation or women in tech to grow a more inclusive and diverse tech builder community.

Is this the career path that you envisioned for yourself?

It's definitely not what my younger self would imagine. I had dreams of being a hairdresser, then a veterinarian, then a doctor. What really helped me in my career path is sitting down and having lots of self-reflection on what I wanted from a job, and what I realistically must have.

I knew I wanted to make an impact quickly, while also earning enough to support my parents in the future and my medical care for my eczema. Software development is the fast-paced and good-paying role I found myself enjoying!

Would you say that your life is primarily career-oriented?

My career is definitely one of my bigger priorities at the moment, especially with how much it overlaps with my social media brand and my community advocacy. However, I also make sure to block out time for my family and close friends.

How has TikTok played a role in your advocacy and sharing coding knowledge? What kind of response have you received from your audience, and how does their engagement motivate you?

TikTok has been my main social media platform for years. It has so many editing tools, effects, and advanced posts analytics that make my content creation a lot easier and more accessible. I also can make a greater variety of content with better discoverability!

The TikTok team, their #LearnOnTikTok community and my audience have also been incredibly supportive, and I learned so much about making educational short-form content. My TikTok account has also been a main driver of my social media brand and landed me some incredible brand partnerships and media features!

You often emphasise the transformative power of knowledge. In what ways do you believe coding can be transformative for individuals, and what message do you want to convey to those who may be hesitant to explore coding?

Seeing how the world is becoming more interconnected with the digital world, I believe that coding is a key skill that will continue to be in-demand together with soft skills like communication, critical thinking and collaboration. For me, coding is like building the digital future to better visualise and make sense of the data all around us. Even if someone does not pursue coding professionally, the problem-solving skills and computational thinking are applicable to any industry.

My message to aspiring coders is to not overthink the learning process. Start with Python or JavaScript, which are easier, popular and more versatile programming languages. Spend several hours understanding the basics and try to build a simple project. The difficulty in coding is not the writing, but understanding the problem, how to solve it, and how to troubleshoot and be resilient when your code inevitably fails the first few times.

Do you have any favourite coding projects or areas within software development that you are particularly passionate about? What makes these projects stand out for you?

Generative AI is still an incredibly complex topic that I find interesting. It is often seen as a complete replacement for tech builders like coders, but there is still so much to discuss to protect our community from generalising our world. More importantly, I believe we need more regulations around generative AI, to prioritise the ethics of using AI beyond creating every tool to make things more convenient (at the expense of human workers without the opportunity to upskill), and to also encourage our communities to understand and appreciate what makes us human. Tech can make data more accessible and our lives easier, but we still need to ensure we uplift other less privileged people in our community that would be left behind from the lack of access to smart technology.

Do you feel pressure to have a successful career, or to earn more money? If you do, is it mainly internal or external pressure?

Mostly internal pressure – I'm guilty of excessively comparing myself to others and setting expectations of myself that are too high. It took me years to pace myself and be comfortable with slower growth that is more forgiving to me, instead of the intense hustle I used to force.

There is also a bit of external pressure because I'm the first in my immediate family to graduate from university and work in a decently profitable field like tech. I expect that I will eventually be in the sandwich generation - juggling my financial goals, supporting my parents and my own family. Although I know I am in a great spot financially, I know I lack financial knowledge and have been slowly educating myself and organising my finances better, so I feel better prepared for the future.

For individuals who may be considering a career in coding or tech, what advice would you offer based on your own experiences and journey?

One of my favourite pieces of advice I heard recently is from Ilya Nur Fadhly, Sudu founder and MasterChef SG Season 3 finalist. He gave a saying: "If you don't make your one day a Day One, there will never be a Day One."

Tech is one of the fastest-changing industries and it is really easy to get stuck by worrying about the best way to learn, or the highest-paying entry-level tech job. This fear will never disappear so to aspiring techies, just throw yourself into a coding tutorial and figure out if coding is something you can see yourself doing for hours in a day, for several years. Once you get started, give yourself a few months to learn coding on your own before investing in a tech bootcamp. If coding is incredibly frustrating and draining, there are also no-code tech roles like becoming a product manager, account manager and UI/UX designer!