I joined the Forem team!

#meta #career #forem

I'm delighted to say I'm starting 2021 with a new role in the Forem team as a Software Engineer where I'll be focusing all on things frontend 🎉

Why Forem?

As a career-changer into tech, the DEV community has been a huge source of support and inspiration for me on my developer journey. I really love what Forem is doing in helping create inclusive, empowered, communities, and I'm super excited to be part of that.

I'm also really looking forward to working on an open-source project and interacting with the wider community of contributors. My first forays into open-source were during Hacktoberfest 2019 (which I posted about here on DEV!), and it definitely helped broaden my experience and make some really rewarding connections.

And finally, I care deeply about accessibility and inclusion (you might already know this from my previous posts, and my side project Up Your A11y), and I'm delighted to work for an organisation that feels the same.

A little bit about me

I got into coding about 4 years ago, and in a previous life I was an English teacher overseas, and an international student support manager here in the UK. I've lived in Cambodia, Vietnam and Prague, and travelled extensively in Nigeria and Ghana. Needless to say I'm not travelling so much any more, and I'm happily settled in my home country of Scotland, living by the beach in Edinburgh.

My coding career began in Android development and then later React and the frontend, which I ended up falling in love with. I advocate for accessible web experiences, through meet-up talks and Up Your A11y. I'm also really into CSS art! Last year I completed a project creating a new piece of CSS art every day for 100 days.

Aside from coding, I love sewing and make a lot of my own clothes, I do yoga every day and like to lift weights and go on long beach walks with my dog. Roller derby is my sport of choice, and until recently I helped run and co-captain a roller derby team here in Edinburgh. I'm also a (part-time) foster carer, which has made me pretty well-versed in Marvel and Pixar movies 😂