Interview by Dan Selman, CTO Clause Inc.
Jolene, you are Fullstack Engineer at Clause. What attracted you to Clause?
There are a few different reasons I was attracted to Clause. First and foremost for me is the team and their experience. I’m interested in working with a team which has a wide array of backgrounds and expertise. Because I started here so soon, there is a lot of exposure I might not be able to get in a larger institution, and I look forward to see the company grow. Also, the tech stack is quite progressive and the ability to be involved with Accord Project open source development is a wonderful opportunity. There aren’t always opportunities to become involved in defining specifications for a new industry and working with an entirely new templating system and programming language.
You are a graduate of the Grace Hopper Program at Fullstack Academy. How did the program prepare you for your role at Clause?
It’s true! The program provided me with tools and built on top of experiences I already had in order to prepare me for a role such as the one at Clause. Tools came in the form of a full stack approach to coding with Javascript (Node and React, specifically). Conveniently, this is primarily what Clause is built on — and many people feel that it has a powerful future and has become extremely robust in the past handful of years. Moreover, there was a focus on computer science fundamentals that provided a solid framework for understanding concepts from which to easily continue learning. As far as what was built on top of past experiences, the program instilled a very systematic and thorough approach to understanding and addressing challenges.
At Clause you’ve been contributing lots of code to the Accord Project. Can you tell us what you’ve been working on and about any challenges juggling commercial and Open Source development?
It’s also true! The Accord Project work takes a huge role in shaping my goals, as it informs the work we are doing with Clause. Currently, we are piecing out smaller sections of the Template Studio to be components which may be easily imported into anyone’s web app. This requires me to maintain a perspective of an outside developer as well as Clause’s mission. I think the main challenge is understanding which development will provide support for the other, and to progress accordingly.
What do you like to do when you aren’t programming?
I live a quite quiet life of improv, bouldering, pole dancing, unicycling, and culinary.
