TechTok stars go viral for sharing profession strategies, programming jokes

• “TechTok” is a TikTok tag exactly where computer software engineers share guidelines, gripes, and jokes. 
• TikTok end users have considered movies tagged “TechTok’ nearly 900 million moments.
• Several TechTok personalities have received 5-digit follower counts, like Emily Kager and Izza Khan.
• Read through additional on the Insider homepage.

About a thirty day period just after Mozilla software package engineer Emily Kager posted a tweet that poked entertaining at code documentation, she recognized that her joke would function even better on TikTok. So, she set up her freshly purchased ring gentle, donned a stylish pink turtleneck, and press history:

“Some men and women never remark their code due to the fact they think that their code is self-documenting and any one can understand it” Kager deadpans in the online video, which has 108,000 sights and much more than 350 opinions due to the fact she posted it in January. “That is this sort of a absurd assumption. I will not comment my code mainly because I will not even comprehend it.”

This variety of area of interest humor could not make it into everyone’s TikTok recommendations, but the virality of the online video highlights how a builders have created a local community on the social media app. One particular of the most preferred hashtags among programmers is #techtok: People have seen videos with this tag nearly 900 million situations. However the hashtag casts a broad web — it has video clips of engineers outlining tech ideas, like the distinct branches of machine finding out, gamers showing off their Pc builds or making solution suggestions, computer system science students joking about breaking into the tech business, and extra — a subset of experienced engineers have utilised it to acquire massive followings. 

Kager for example — who goes by @shmemmmy on TikTok — has accumulated 27,500 followers and 725,800 likes for video clips that acquire digs at “tech bros,” clarify the typical myths of computer software engineering, share job tips, and bust stereotypes about women in technological know-how.

She’s labored at Mozilla considering the fact that joining as an intern in 2017 and is now a senior mobile engineer, doing work on the Firefox browser for Android. She commenced creating TikToks in earnest when trapped at property for the duration of the pandemic, she tells Insider, and estimates that she posts a online video at the very least when a 7 days, coming up with topics based mostly on bad normally takes she sees on Twitter or when anything funny takes place at get the job done.

Eventually, she hopes her TechToks encourage other gals in CS, particularly students who want to get a occupation in tech, and convey awareness to some of the toxicity in the marketplace, in hopes of inspiring improve. 

“I’ve experienced a few persons tell me that my satire video clips have spurred interior enterprise conversations, so I would say I am succeeding,” Kager said. Her most preferred online video skewers how tech field interviewers hope candidates to work on programming facet jobs in their free of charge time.

Elizabeth Kenyon, liz.kenyon on TikTok, is a whole-stack software program developer at ecommerce firm Bold Commerce and a fellow TechTok sensation, with 45,600 followers and 562,100 likes on the system. 

Kenyon originally wished to make TikToks about vogue — her initial online video exhibits off her coat assortment — but as she was searching as a result of the application, she assumed it would be a enjoyment to acquire a preferred sound and convert it into a developer joke. In her initial TechTok, Kenyon can make an exasperated nod to how programming language PHP makes use of greenback indicators. This video obtained hundreds more views than her very first. 

“I assumed all right, I should really make one more pc science TikTok — those seem to be well-known,” Kenyon mentioned. “So I produced one more, and that just one received 200,000 sights, and I was like ‘oh my gosh, this is incredible.’ And then I was sort of hooked.”

Kenyon explained she’s gained messages from young women finding out laptop or computer science saying that her content is practical and helps make them sense considerably less by yourself in the male-dominated marketplace.

Other notable figures in the TechTok world are Cassidy Williams (13,400 followers, 273,700 likes), Izza Khan (67,700 followers, 916,600 likes), and Scott Hanselman (51,100 followers, 137,300 likes). Williams is acknowledged for her witty tech takes, like the dangers of deploying code on Fridays, Khan is acknowledged for sharing CS secrets and techniques and ideas, when Hanselman can make tech explainer video clips, responding to his audience’s laptop or computer science queries. In the past, he’s answered questions like exactly where to commence coding as a beginner and the importance of rubber duck debugging, which is when you describe your code to a rubber duck till you uncover the mistake.

For viewers, these TechTok creators provide both humor and concrete suggestions. Most video clips garners hundreds of opinions, ranging from the silly — “VP of techtok” on one of Kenyon’s movies — to the sincere — “You taught me a new git trick. Thank you.”