I began coding because...
My dad was an engineer and saw a potential in me to become a coder/engineer so he encouraged me to play around with any tech I could get my hands on.
In middle school, we were given graphing calculators for math class and I wanted to play games on them but the default games had been removed so I learned TI-BASIC to make my own games. In high school, I moved on to HTML, CSS and JavaScript to customize my Xanga page and later build simple websites.
I'm currently hacking on...
At my day job, I build enterprise software and do full-stack web development. You can usually find me coding in Ruby APIs and Angular JS on the front-end.
As for side projects, I'm a knitter and I'm working on a Vue.js app to show all my projects. I have a degree in electrical engineering as I really like working with hardware so I've also been playing around with Arduino.
I'm excited about...
Speaking at ChefConf in May! I submitted my first conference talk proposal earlier this year to ChefConf and it was accepted. The title of the talk is Adding Developers to the DevOps Process.
My advice for other women who code is...
Be yourself and value the unique perspective you have. I was "the cool girl" to guys I went to school with and worked with for the longest time because I thought it would be best to fit in. I hated hiding who I was and my career actually seems to be on a better path now that I am more willing to be myself.
Also, take time to mentor others. Knowing how to teach is a valuable skill to have and helps accelerate learning for yourself sometimes. It feels good to help those learning to code or early in their coding careers.
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