Unboxable in Tech

This is a submission for the 2026 WeCoded Challenge : Echoes of Experience "I don't know which box to put you in." I've been hearing those words for thirty years. And every single time, it lands like a slap. The violence isn't in the words. The violence is in what the words actually mean. It's not: which box could I put you in? It's: you make me uncomfortable. So I won't hire you. In a lot of companies, recruitment works like that old Eastern European joke: you give two agents a round peg and a square hole. Two solutions: enlarge the hole… or hit the peg harder. Guess what the industry has been choosing? It hits. Harder. Again and again. Tonight I'm not going to tell you a story about resilience. I'm going to show you the cost of refusing to fit the box. Exhibit 1 — The Unlikely Internship End of studies. 1989. Everyone is chasing SSII firms, banks, impressive CVs. Me? I choose a middle school. A library. An 8088. I know perfectly well it won't lead to a job. That's not the point. I wa