Berlin Buzzwords 2025

Fatima Taj

Fatima is a Senior Software Engineer at Yelp with a deep passion for mentoring early-career tech professionals. She has successfully guided many individuals through their first steps in the tech industry, helping them overcome challenges and achieve their career goals. In addition to her mentorship, Fatima is a prominent voice in the tech community, with a substantial following on LinkedIn, where she shares actionable insights on career development and growth.

An experienced speaker, Fatima has presented at leading conferences including Developer Week 2024, the Southern California Linux Expo (Scale) 2023 and 2024, NDC Copenhagen Developer Festival 2023, Women of Silicon Roundabout 2022, cdCon+GitOpsCon 2023 (as a keynote speaker), Momentum 2024, and the Black is Tech Conference in 2022 and 2023. She has also spoken at over 80 hackathons across North America. Her sessions are renowned for their practical, hands-on advice, making her a sought-after speaker on topics related to career progression and professional growth in the tech industry.

Fatima holds a master's degree in Data Science from HEC Montreal and a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics from the University of Waterloo, Canada.


Company/Organisation

Yelp

LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/in/fatima-taj-37363a109/


Session

06-16
16:30
40min
How I Sidestepped ‘Being Glue’
Fatima Taj

We all do things in our day to day work that are deemed ‘non-promotable’ - these are tasks that are crucial for project success but might not get you promoted. This is commonly known as glue work, a term coined by Tanya Reilly. Being glue doesn’t mean an end to your career, and it isn’t something that you can’t recover from.

Maschinenhaus