Quote: A magnificent weirdo who really cares about Christmas, board games, and getting more diverse voices into the tech industry.
Q: What is a regular work day like for you?
A: Most of my day is devoted to stories for one project. I spend a lot of time writing tests and drinking a lot of coffee. I'm still pretty new, so a few hours of every workday are spent reviewing my code with my mentors and searching Stack Overflow for answers I don't know.
Q: What do you love most about your career/major?
A: I really love problem solving-- so much code is figuring out the logic, and then applying the given language to that logic. It's frustrating but in a really fun and satisfying way.
Q: When did you become inspired to partake in tech? What was your inspiration?
A: I wanted to make a more significant difference in the world and I realized tech was an achievable way for me to do that. I also have a lot of friends who are web developers who strongly encouraged me to try it out (and I'm very glad they did!).
Q: What prepared you the best for your job/major today?
A: I went to Omaha Code School and the thing I loved even more than learning Ruby or JavaScript was learning how to be a better member of the community-- collaboration, inclusivity, writing maintainable code, things like that.
Q: What is the biggest obstacle you've been faced with, and how are/did you overcoming/overcome it?
A: Before I got into coding, I thought I wasn't 'the kind of person' who could be in tech, which was kind of a backhanded way of me thinking I wasn't the right kind of smart to learn code. Whenever I get super frustrated I try to break the problem down into very small, manageable pieces. If that doesn't work I text someone I trust and just blatantly ask for validation (which is a service I gladly perform for them as well!).
Q: What non-tech skill do you find most helpful/important that's for your career?
A: COLLABORATION! My background is in theatre and education, and I feel like those team skills help me almost as much if not more than my knowledge in any particular language or technique.
Q: Where do you see yourself in ten years?
A: I want to increase my own knowledge so that I can be a better mentor to the upcoming developing community.
Q: What's your favorite coding language?
A: I think I'm ready to commit myself to Ruby on Rails!
Q: What are some of your interests outside tech?
A: Board games, makeup tutorials on YouTube, and making pizza.
Q: What are your plans for future projects?
A: I have some apps in the works and once I'm a little more knowledgable I'd love to start volunteering with my new skills more often.
Q: What advice would you give a young person interested in tech now?
A: Find your community! Go to meetups, take free classes. Take free online classes with your friends. Try! Do! Make stuff! Even if it's silly. Silly's how you learn!
