Profession Spotlight

In case you missed it, over the last few weeks we have been sharing interviews with our team on our social channels because we were curious about how our employees got into their profession. Everyone has their own story and journey on how they go to where they are today, and we are excited to share a little glimpse of their adventures with you. Follow along to hear from our Designers, Developers and Product Managers.

Dan, Software Developer

How did you get into your profession?
The short answer is that I was traveling and needed a hobby. Maybe a better answer is that programming had always been an interest and the stars aligned — I was at a point where a career change made sense and I had free time to learn.

What do you enjoy about your current profession?
Puzzles, puzzles, puzzles! I feel like I’m solving puzzles and have control over the puzzle all at the same time. On a good day, I make the puzzle easier and solve it at the same time. On a bad day, I make the puzzle a little more challenging for myself. Great job security.

What are you excited to see in the future of your profession?
Technology is changing at an insane pace. I think what excites me (and frightens me!) about the future is making sure that I’m on the “right side” of tech. I want to make sure that what I’m contributing is moving humanity forward.

Amelie, Product Manager

How did you get into your profession?
Becoming a product manager has been a long game. About six years ago, one of my colleagues dragged me to my first Creative Mornings event, and I became enamored with the tech and design industry. While I was quite young in my career, I spent a lot of after-hours time attending events to meet people and learn about what they did. A couple years later, I found myself managing The Factory, a coworking community filled with creatives. After a few months of conversations with Aaron, we worked out how I could transfer into Elevator Up, and I’ve been here ever since.

What do you enjoy about your current profession?
My favorite thing about my current position is the ability to work with various teams. Working directly with clients and our internal team to help them align on and deliver solutions is an absolute joy. I feel like I’m learning something new every day, which gets me excited. I also love coaching a team, watching people stretch and grow, and communicating information. Es casi similar a hablar un lenguaje diferente. Y eso, a mi me gusta. :D

What are you excited to see in the future of your profession?
I’m excited to continue to learn more about how product managers can help guide customers and teams to deliver quality solutions. Beyond reading books around leadership, I enjoy keeping up on industry trends and applications pertaining to design and technology. Beyond anything, I’m excited to grow in my career and sink my teeth into making progress on a goal.

Amanda, Designer

How did you get into your profession?
I’ve always enjoyed doing creative activities growing up; whether it was learning about photography, making hand-made cards, or creating MySpace backgrounds, I loved creating. It was an easy choice to decide to continue creating while learning design at Ferris State University.

What do you enjoy about your current profession?
As a designer, I love all the different hats and roles I play while creating a digital product — researcher, interviewer, problem solver, architect, designer, and overall creator. Being involved throughout the whole process keeps my days interesting and fun.

What are you excited to see in the future of your profession?
Designers have always been able to adapt and change to meet new demands, so I’m looking forward to what new techniques and skills I will be learning in the upcoming years!

Thomas, Software Developer

How did you get into your profession?
I got into computers as a kid, starting out doing a lot of gaming. In high school, a group of friends all built gaming computers and had LAN parties. Going into college, I started to get more into Digital media and video production. After that, though I decided to join the Navy as an IT specialist after my brother was deployed to Afghanistan with the Army. I just wanted to contribute and experience what he was experiencing. Once I got out of the military, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do, so I applied to a lot of jobs in the IT field. The one that I landed happened to be as a web developer, and I’ve been hooked on coding ever since.

What do you enjoy about your current profession?
I enjoy the opportunity to constantly be learning new things and to get to build things that bring joy or utility to people.

What are you excited to see in the future of your profession?
I’m excited to one day get to a spot where I can lead and mentor a team to contribute to a product that affects real change in the world.

Jen, Designer

How did you get into your profession?
I started as your typical creative. I was always recognized as an ‘artist’ and try to involve myself with any creative course or activity growing up. But when it came to selecting a college major, I swayed myself to choose the medical field because everyone always said, “that’s the best way to go and to make good money.” It wasn’t until one summer day, a few years into college, that I changed my mind. A close friend reminded me of my creative passion and urged me to check into a Design program that her cousin graduated from and loved. So here I am, graduated from the program and pursuing my passion! I got quite lucky.

What do you enjoy about your current profession?
I always said I could never do the same job every day. This profession offers me variety and the ability to be still learning something new! I also love the problem solving that comes with it (90% of the job). There is no better feeling than providing creative, intentional solutions, for a client that goes above and beyond their expectations: a lot of effort, but an even better reward.

What are you excited to see in the future of your profession?
I’m excited to see new and fascinating ways to aid in creative problem-solving. IoT, VR, and AR to name a few. Although the increased use of technology raises some concerns for me, and the worry of it going too far, I feel that it can significantly improve areas of our life. With new technologies come new areas to grow in design. The creative realm is ever changing!

Joshua, Software Developer

How did you get into your profession?
Through a gradual migration from IT audit to data analysis to a full-time developer. Even back to my internships while working on mechanical engineering and accounting degrees, I turned to writing code to solve problems. Eventually, I figured out that what I liked most about my work was building software. I worked for years to acquire, practice, and demonstrate those skills to the point where I could convince a company to hire me as a developer.

What do you enjoy about your current profession?
The constant and comprehensive challenge of figuring out how to build, deliver, and support useful digital machines.

What are you excited to see in the future of your profession?
A higher degree of professionalism, and a self-enforcing system of credentialing. Neither the public nor many developers know how to judge whether a developer actually has the skills and knowledge required to build things competently. It’s like the state of medicine in the early 20th century, where competent technicians, brilliant but impractical academics, and outright quacks are all mixed together, and few people outside the profession can tell the difference.

Alecia, Front-end Developer

How did you get into your profession?
Learning some code in high school. It was 2004, a lot has changed!

What do you enjoy about your current profession?
It never gets boring. There are always new clients, new challenges and new things to learn.

What are you excited to see in the future of your profession?
More Wix sites! Just kidding. Better user experiences across all devices! More interaction that makes the web a little more friendly.

We hope you’ve enjoyed reading our team’s journey into doing what they love. We invite you to share your stories on what inspired you to get into your profession in the comments below; we look forward to reading them!

Are you looking for a new position in these areas? We’re hiring! Check out our open positions here.