Meet Ume Habiba, a senior who’s helping women break into the tech industry! She’s gained 87,000 followers on Instagram since March and has spoken at multiple tech conferences, including Google’s DevFest, Kode with Klossy’s speaker series, and php[tek]!
Ume Habiba (Cohort 38) is a senior majoring in information science, minoring in computer science, and graduating this fall semester. She is passionate about increasing representation in the tech industry. Since starting her Instagram account (@umxe) in February 2024 focused on helping women break into tech, she has gained over 87,000 followers and continues to make a positive impact in her community. Let’s learn more about her journey and her brand!
When Habiba started college, she was majoring in computer science. However, she always felt as though she had to navigate her challenges alone. When she got her first software engineering internship at Estée Lauder, she felt shocked that she got this far on her own. Wishing she had a mentor to guide her, she began to use social media to empower other women in technology fields. She then began regularly posting about her professional milestones on Linkedin, gaining up to 9,000 followers across a diverse audience.
Earlier this year, after having worked with the technical side of Kode with Klossy, an organization providing free coding camps to girls across the country, for six years, Habiba tried something new and took an offer to work on the social media team. With this, she gained hands-on experience in creating content that consistently aligned with the organization’s brand and message. She ended up using a lot of what she learned there to create and curate her own brand on Instagram.
When I asked why she focused on Linkedin first, she said that she wanted to “use [her] professional brand as a source of credibility” for making content on Instagram. After developing her branding skills with Kode for Klossy and building her credibility through her professional presence on Linkedin, Habiba felt like it was the right time and she had enough knowledge to start her Instagram account. Now, she has over 87,000 Instagram followers.
On top of being a content creator, Habiba is also an avid public speaker who travels around the world because of the brand that she’s built online. In fact, she even pitched herself to Google’s DevFest in New York City using her LinkedIn profile.
In addition to being a keynote speaker at php[tek], the largest conference for the PHP language, and being a speaker at a Google conference in Italy, Habiba’s most memorable speaking engagement was being a co-host for Kode for Klossy’s speaker series last year. From interviewing women trailblazers in the tech industry, such as CTOs from Netflix and Apple, to improvising and forming natural conversations with panelists, Habiba strengthened her public speaking skills and worked towards making a large, positive impact on her community, with the conference reaching over 5,000 attendees worldwide.
As her brand grows, Habiba wants to be seen as the representation she never saw in tech. She believes that it is important to embrace your femininity and be yourself, especially if you do not see that enough in a male-dominated field. “The only way we can see change is if someone starts being that representation,” she says.
To students interested in creating a personal brand, Habiba’s advice is to try anything and everything! During college, students have an endless amount of time to try new things. For example, she tried doing undergraduate research for a semester. “Even though I did not like it, I learned that I don’t want to go to graduate school,” she said. Trying something new allowed her to gain unique skills and make her brand more well-rounded.
Habiba is inspired by the people who find value in her content. She is motivated to continue creating and posting content because she gets to see the value that she provides, whether from people’s messages to her about landing an internship or a job with her help or when she speaks at conferences with a global audience.