DEV Community

We Belong Here: Lessons from Unconventional Paths to Tech

15. Michelle Brenner: How She Became a Sr. Backend Engineer

Michelle Brenner and I chat today about the transferable skills she learned while studying art and working as a support engineer in the film industry that help her today as a Senior Backend Engineer at ChowNow. 

In art school, she learned to accept and listen to critiques which has proven to be incredibly helpful during code reviews as an engineer today. 

Early in her career, as a support engineer in visual effects at Sony Picture Imageworks, she was encouraged to automate parts of her job and thus taught herself Python. 

Michelle works tirelessly to promote diversity and inclusion in tech by organizing events, mentoring, and conference speaking. She also runs an interview format tech podcast called From the Source to answer the question of what tech jobs are really like- be sure to go check it out! 

Resources:

From the Source podcast

Write Speak Code

Tech By Choice 

Find Michelle on Twitter: @MichelleLynneB

We Belong Here Podcast: 

Follow Lauren on Twitter @LoLoCoding 

WeBelongPodcast.com website

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts 

Subscribe on Spotify 

LoLoCoding.com 

Episode source