My other #shecoded piece dates back in 2019, when I was overcoming the challenges of becoming a dev and a mother at the same time. A global pandemic and another baby later, I am happy to report that keeping at it was worth it! I am a senior dev now, no doubt about it. It's clear to me from the way I approach technical problems, from doing my own research to reading others' code to asking questions to submitting clean pull requests. And I am a mom of 2 who works 4 days a week, so I can also be present and have some time with my kids!
My biggest technical goals
I think I am pretty language agnostic. That is, when I look at a problem I never think in terms of how would I solve this in Ruby/Rails vs. Java vs Scala. I try to understand the problem and find a solution, the first solution that comes to my head. And then I work to improve it with whatever tools I may use. I need to think more in terms of performance, of data structures and algorithms. Most problems in life and programming are variations of the same issues over and over again (I'm thinking game theory modelling for programming problems). So the very broad goal would be to master the fundamentals - but of course, I need to work on how that looks like in the context of my current job and interests.
My biggest technical achievements
I wanted to skip this one, but I often skip/fail to look at my achievements and today is not about staying humble and small. So yes, in 5 years I touched a lot of code, lots of different styles and languages. I did JS but agh, Groovy/Grails and Java and then Scala and Spark and now I am back to Ruby on Rails. I did a tech talk about migrations. I worked with ElasticSearch and docker and what not. I had my fair share of tech failures and they did not break me. And probably that's the biggest achievement. That regardless of the failures, I moved on and learned and got better.
I don't know how I can break the bias in tech or how to better advocate for myself. I try my best. What I can do is ask for what I want - no fear (ok, yes fear, but I'll still ask for what I want). Like the 4 days week or more money or more time off or more remote days, whatever makes my life easier, I should just go for it! And I think the best way to help others is to let them see that it is possible.
So, code! Do your thing, learn, fail, get better, get confident! Be afraid and still do it!
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