International Women’s Day 2019
This is my contribution to the 2019 Dev.to International Women’s Day Celebration
I began to code because …
My journey so far hasn’t been the most traditional one.
I didn’t study computer science or even IT at university. After graduating with a Business degree I landed in the world of supply chain. I really enjoyed solving the puzzle of how to get the right stuff to the right people at the right time.
Putting together a plan based on the customer’s needs, the shipping timetables and in the case of my first job shipping apples from New Zealand around the world, what the growers estimated they would harvest. Even though we did everything using Excel it set me on the path to where I am now.
Making the move from working in Excel to coding in SQL happened when I joined Xero three years ago. I started in the marketing team as an analyst pulling lists for email campaigns and doing post-campaign analysis. I was pretty late to the game when it came to using SQL, but was hooked. Now I am working in the BI team in a role that allows me to support those junior and not so technical analysts, who were ‘me’ three years ago while growing my technical skills working on projects to build data models a new database platform.
I continued to code in 2019 because …
2019 is my fourth year coding professionally. During the last three years, I’ve come a long way. From crashing the database with inefficient ‘dumb’ queries to upskilling in a big hurry when joining a tech team to now upskilling those who were ‘me’ three years ago, I’m now more determined to build my skills.
This year I’m going to talk the talk as well as walk the walk. I’ll be writing at least one post here per week and will be giving my first tech talk in a few weeks.
My advice for other women who code is …
Be fearless – Don’t hesitate in putting yourself forward to lead a project or take on something new.
Back yourself – If you don’t shout about your achievements, how will anyone else know? Be proud of what you have accomplished and how far you have come.
Lift others up – You don’t have to be a manager to lead. Reach out to others and find where you can help teach, lead and mentor.
Photo by Jefferson Palomique from Pexels
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