Women of Geckoboard: Eggya
To celebrate International Women’s Day this year, we sit down with a few of the incredible women who work at Geckoboard and share their stories and advice for other women interested in joining a tech-startup.
Today, we catch up with Eggya Chiquita — one of the Backend Engineers behind Geckoboard and a familiar face in the Go community, Eggya is also one of the Women Who Go meetup organisers in London.
Eggya, tell us a little about what you do, what does a day at work look like?
I’m a Backend Software Engineer within team Platform here at Geckoboard, and I’m working remotely. Our team is responsible for some of the most critical services within Geckoboard’s ecosystem, porting over legacy features to our newer platform, continuously enhancing our tooling, and improving developer experience.
Typically my day starts with a standup meeting. There we also decide if we will be pairing for the day.
At the moment we’re wrapping up a project to improve our Customer Success tooling. It helps Geckoboard’s staff inspect and manage customer accounts. So right now, my day may involve adding new RPC endpoints needed by the tool, introducing a new authorisation ruleset to our services or asynchronously designing upcoming work with the team.
Did you have an early interest in tech?
Unfortunately, not. It was an aptitude test result that brought me into software engineering, and it took some time to realise that it was what I wanted to do.
Almost immediately after getting my degree, I landed a developer role. It was at an agency; the work hours were long, and the deadlines were tight. Today, many would’ve guessed that I would burnout — which I did. I decided to pause on tech and took a different role altogether for a couple of years. However, I missed coding so much! So I brushed up my CV and got myself another developer role at an organisation that championed learning. I haven’t looked back since. Working on the things that I like, is great!
What is your experience of being a woman in the tech industry?
At the beginning of my career in the UK, it was a bit lonely; there was a time when I was the only female developer within the organisation. I also had the experience of working for a company where most discussions happened outside work, usually at a pub; it was tough to get my voice heard, amongst other things. I also felt like I had to work harder to get appreciated — as in the standard was held differently. Likeability penalty was another thing that got in the way, especially when combined with performance bias in places where the career progression is not very clear.
It wasn’t exactly smooth sailing.
I then discovered Bridge Foundry and WWG London meetup, and I started to have more conversations on the subject. Having that safe space to share our struggles does help us recognise the issues and find ways to move forward. Often, a little nudge from people who believe in you can go a long way.
The community also helps me understand better what to look for when searching for a new role, and that’s how I found Geckoboard!
Have any women inspired you along the way?
To start with, my mum. She raised my sister and me on her own while maintaining her brilliant career as a scientist; she’s also an awesome home-maker, a regional table tennis champion, a pillar in the community, basically a superwoman.
From an early age, she taught me the importance of being self-organised, continuously learning, and putting myself in other people’s shoes.
Fast forward to early adulthood, she involved me in one of her social projects, teaching a practical skills to less-fortunate single mothers to help them build income and provide for their families.
Although she’s still my source of inspiration today, there is a long list of other women who have inspired me along the way.
Finally, do you have advice for women who want to join the industry or get into Go?
There’s always something new, there’s still something else to unfold, but that’s one of the beauties of the tech industry. Keep learning; don’t be afraid to ask questions and believe in yourself a little bit more.
If you are getting into Go, there are many good resources out there, but the tour of Go is an excellent place to start. As a side note, WWG London meetup runs a series of monthly online workshops on the introduction of Go — I hope to see you there!
We’re also hiring Backend Go Engineers, so if you’d to learn more about life at Geckoboard or the role head to www.geckoboard.com/careers and get in touch!
