Software Engineer & Maker: Estefannie

This week I interviewed Estefannie and she explains all her programming beginnings to me! 

1. What was the first thing that peaked your interest in programming?

Pixar. I grew up watching their films and I knew that I wanted to create anything in my imagination with just a computer. Many years later, I watched a documentary about Pixar and found that the people behind the films were computer scientists. This is how I found the degree I was looking for. A few years later, I graduated with a Bachelor's in Computer Science and a Mathematics minor.

2. What was the first language you wrote in and what did you write?

Mine is simple, on my first day of my first programming class. It was in C++ and all it did was print 'Hello World' in the terminal.

3. Who is your biggest inspiration in programming?

​My 'programming' inspiration comes from people who I work with. I cannot say I am inspired by someone I haven't programed with because I need to see how they approach a problem, not just the code. Everyone is different at approaching problems, and when you find someone who works like you but thinks differently enough to complement each other, then you've found the person you should be learning from.

4. Any advice for women wishing to get into the field?

A good way to stand out in a male dominated field, is to not stand out as a female software engineer but as a good software engineer. This is for any gender. Just be a good software engineer. Become a leader, be knowledgeable, and take ownership of your project to gain credibility.

5. In your opinion, what makes a great programmer?

A great ‘programmer’ is someone who likes solving problems and learns and improves themselves constantly by being adaptable to new tech and ideas.
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A great 'programmer' is also someone who is patient. It doesn’t matter how much you’ve studied or how long you’ve been programming, at some point you will find yourself not knowing what to do. Some problems will take minutes, hours, several days, or more than a week. Just keep trying and know you will find a solution in the end.

Follow Estefannie on Twitter, Instagram and YouTube for her amazing maker videos and helpful computer science tutorials.