• I graduated from University of California, Davis, with a Bachelor of Arts in linguistics and worked as a court reporter for about 10 years, but decided to switch to coding because I wanted to build things and help people solve problems. I joined a bootcamp during COVID lockdowns because it seemed like the perfect time to lock myself in front of a computer for several months. After I graduated, I participated in a fellowship program through my bootcamp to intern for a month at Verb Energy, an e-commerce startup. I was extended an offer of employment after the fellowship, and I stayed there for two years until they shut down the entire engineering department due to the economic downturn this year.

• At Verb I worked in Javascript/Typescript using the MERN stack (MongoDB, Express, React, Node) plus Vue and GraphQL, developing for an in-house CRM (customer relationship management) and workflow automation service, using event-driven architecture to automate SMS communications and subscription orders. I also developed expertise in writing Node scripts. Although my focus was on the backend, I often did the UI for features that I worked on to keep my frontend skills sharp as well.

• Quick Learner: I am a quick learner and no stranger to throwing myself in the deep end. From bootcamp to intensive (human) language courses to a three-month wooden boatbuilding workshop when I knew nothing about wood, tools or boats, I've shown an aptitude for learning quickly from scratch.

• Strong technical foundation: In addition to my working experience with Javascript and Typescript, the bootcamp I graduated from had a month-long data structures and algorithms course so I have a strong foundation in computer science fundamentals as well. For instance, when I was tasked with adding user events to the timeline for our in-house CRM, I was able to finish the project two weeks ahead of schedule because I realized the core of the task was merging two pre-sorted arrays, something I could easily look up an optimal algorithm for and adapt to our data.

• Proactive: If I see something wrong, I'll speak up and push for a fix. For instance, the engineering team was often called in by customer support to troubleshoot when orders were not processed correctly. A number of these cases would be what I considered non-engineering errors, such as a payment processing error due to insufficient credit. I took the initiative to start a project to refactor the error handling flow in our order processing and fulfillment services to return better errors that informed the customer support team why the order didn't process, allowing them to directly handle payment issues, thus reducing the number of on-call requests to engineering by 3-4 a week.

• Team player: I'm a supportive and empathetic teammate. I strongly relate to the idea that everyone has something to contribute, and I believe that teams are strongest when we use our strengths to cover each other's weaknesses. For example, at Verb, when one of my co-workers struggled with on-call, I stepped up to help out so he could focus on the things he was good at. By leaning into our strengths, the team performs better overall.

• Healthy work culture: If you think the phrase "competitive grind" is a positive, you can pass on me. I treat my teammates as allies, not competitors, and while I chose coding because I enjoy the work, I believe that you have to rest to be your best. I'm also looking for a workplace that is welcoming to all and cares about diversity.

• Opportunity to learn: So far in my coding journey I've mostly been focused on learning how to do things, but not why. Now that I've solidified my knowledge of Javascript and learned how to do things one way, I think my next phase of learning should focus on why. Why choose one language or framework another? Why is this tech like this? (What problem was it trying to solve?) That's why in my next role I'd like to learn new tech/new ways of doing things so I can get an expanded sense of the possibilities out there and be better able to answer Why?

Portfolio
Notes on what I'm currently learning - DSA, Java
Current Project - Dynamic Playlists - A Spotify app to create dynamic playlists that autoupdate as you listen. React, Node, Express, Postgres