What we lose at the gates

Perhaps it is the social bubble I find myself in, but it seems there is a lot of talk about gatekeeping happening at the moment. While the bubble metaphor does not quite work for what will follow, I do not have a better one, so humor me.

I want to start by telling you a story.

I know this person who, at age 15, discovered their love for music and guitar. At the time, it was hard rock, which evolved into heavy metal and later death metal. School was okay, and they did really well at some sports activities such as tennis and cricket, but their participation was mainly because of the fringe benefits bestowed upon those who excelled in these activities.

What they could not wait for was to get home, pick up their axe (a common name for an electric guitar), play along with their favorite tunes, practice scales, sweeping, tapping, and write music. Even better was the weekends when the band got together and made music. There was no option to study music at school, so their interest in schoolwork declined over time, as did their grades.

At the end of grade 9, they decided to leave school and go to a local college to study music (classical guitar) and music theory. Unfortunately, after only a year at college, the music department closed. They faced a choice: C'est la vie and go back to school and the way things were, or decide to take the road less traveled and do private tutoring for guitar and music theory.

They chose the latter, and some might say it made all the difference.

After a couple of years of dedication and hard work, they started winning one music competition after another, played at music festivals, and passed their grade 8 practical guitar exam with the highest grade in the institution's history. Wanting to pursue their performer's licentiate and possibly a teacher's licentiate, they encountered a hurdle (gate). Without a matric (grade 12), this was not possible. Not being one to give up easily, they signed up to do their grade 11 and 12 in one year and write their final year exams while studying through correspondence, all while continuing to study music theory and playing concerts.

After completing the obligatory grade 12, they had the opportunity to attend classical guitar master classes in Bath, UK. Not something one could pass up, they jumped at the opportunity. Upon returning, they spent some time teaching guitar and music theory, played at local festivals, and met the woman of their dreams.

They got married and started a life together. Another opportunity came knocking – the chance to travel to the Netherlands to play a house concert. After returning from the trip, another challenge awaited – their first child was on the way. After giving teaching a proper go and playing more concerts, it became clear that passion and love alone would not pay the bills.

It was at this time that the internet was making itself known, and an interest started to form. This was not new, as they had always been interested in computers from the days of Visual Basic. They signed up for graphic design classes using the Corel suite of tools. This did not quite scratch the itch, and they decided to sign up for a 6-month course in web design. This, along with a tool called Macromedia Flash, unlocked a new world of possibilities. They could use their design skills and combine them with motion and sound to build multimedia pieces for clients from all over the world thanks to platforms such as Elance and the ability to reach across borders through the power of the internet.

After some time, they signed up for a diploma in Java 2, which introduced them to the world of building software and software that could run in the browser through Java Applets. Java was also the technology that introduced them to open-source through projects such as the Apache Foundation and the Tomcat server. Through open source, they were introduced to the world of web standards and web accessibility.

After some time working in the Java world, later dabbling with Java 2 Micro Edition (J2ME) to build software for the Blackberry, and then finally moving to enterprise Java (Java EE) using Tomcat and JBoss, they had worked at a variety of corporate companies, but something was missing – the passion they had back in the days of making music.

Finally, in late 2011, they found the community that would reignite this passion. The community was built around open-source, the open web, web standards, and building a web based on 10 principles known as the Mozilla Manifesto. They saw an opening for a front-end web developer at Mozilla (globally remote), applied for the role, and resigned from their current employer before having gotten the thumbs-up from Mozilla.

Thankfully, the gods were smiling upon them and their family, and the offer from Mozilla came to be. They spent almost 12 years working at Mozilla on a wide variety of projects, from web to Firefox OS, the Firefox onboarding experience, the shape of the web project, and finally, MDN Web Docs.

In late 2023, they made the difficult decision to leave Mozilla, tried to start their own company (during a time when the world economy was not great), realized the wheels were coming undone, and thankfully landed a role at the startup BoxyHQ.

In April of 2024, their paths would diverge, and they are now on the precipice of something wonderful. What the next part of the journey will be, they do not yet know, but they are cautiously optimistic.

If you have not yet realized, the protagonist in the story is me.

This is my story.

My name is Schalk Neethling, I live in Pretoria, South Africa, and I am a proudly self-taught frontend engineer. I got where I am today through perseverance and never allowing myself to give up. With that said, this would not have been possible without the incredible support from family, friends, and the wonderful open-source community I have now been a part of for going on 15 years.

There is much more to my story, but I will save all the gory details for another day.

Why did I choose to share all of this?

I shared it because at any point during this story, my journey could have been cut short, and things could have turned out very differently for me if I had been blocked from participating and applying to the opportunities that came my way because I did not finish school in the same way as many others, because I was not in the top 5% of those in Grade 12, or because I do not have a university degree.

I do face limitations and have to swallow bitter pills from time to time when I cannot apply for a role because of where I live. Thankfully, there are enough companies with a big enough vision who embrace what it truly means to be a remote company. I have also felt discriminated against due to salary scales based on where you live and not your contribution to the company (by the way, I am here to tell you that this can lead to very uncomfortable conversations between peers).

So what do we lose at the gate? While I do not consider myself the greatest software engineer, designer, contributor, or maker, I do know that I have something worthwhile to contribute to the world.

When industries, companies, and individuals with seeming authority close the gates and slam shut the padlock on those who chose the road less traveled, these are the people we lose at the gate.

These are the people who miss out on contributing their voice and their skills to the world. These are also the people those on the other side of the gate are missing out on working with and learning from.

If we truly want a diverse, rich, welcoming, and vibrant global community of contributors and makers, it is time to unlock the padlock and open the gates.