GitLab URG Coach Videos, 20 Apr 2021

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From YouTube: Melissa Ushakov - Journey to Tech

Description

Short video describing how I got started in tech.

Recorded as part of : https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/www-gitlab-com/-/issues/11261

A

Hi, I'm melissa and I'm a product manager at get lab and what a product manager does is that we work with people across the entire companies uh to make changes that will make our customers more successful and by making our customers more successful. We increase usage and therefore increase revenue for the company. um So it's a cool job because we get to learn a lot about people and their jobs and what they do and um how they use our product.

A

I got started in tech when I was 15.. uh I grew up in mexico close to the border, and I took a programming class in school. um So for me I wouldn't say software development was love at first sight.

A

I didn't like it that much at first, but there was one particular assignment that changed my mind and made me look at things a little bit differently so, like I said, I grew up in the border, so something that I ran across every day is exchanging currencies so translating from pesos to dollars, one particular assignment in class was about building a small tool that would help you do that and it's fairly simple, but that kind of made me see how technology could help people solve everyday problems, and it could make things that run into uh that people run into a lot easier.

A

So that was sort of, I would say an aha moment for me um and what changed my mind. um Another thing that was uh really interesting for me was that I actually think software development is very creative.

A

uh It was fun to see uh my other friends that I took the class with we all solved the same problems, a slightly different way, put our unique touch to it, our unique creative touch, so that was uh really cool too, and I also really found that uh it was a very collaborative process as we got into group assignments and things like that, it was cool to work as a team uh to um solve problems together. So that's something that is definitely something I still enjoy to this day.

A

That tech is something that a lot of times takes a lot of people coming together to solve a problem, so it was from there after the class that I took. I continued my journey and uh went to school for computer science. My career has been centered mostly around people interacting with technology, so I've had various titles, consultant, project manager, program manager, product manager, but they're all centered around people and how people interact with technology, which is really what I'm I'm really passionate about.

A

So if you're watching this video I'll say that you're already links ahead of me, probably when I was your age, so you're way ahead of the game and um it's great that you're watching this and taking an interest in tech, and I wish you a lot of luck, there's a lot of cool problems to solve and cool things to learn. So I hope you're excited about everything. You're learning.