Anjali Viramgama
Featuring Anjali Viramgama for our Saturday Shoutout Initiative. Read on to hear her views on being a Pythonista, intern at Facebook, a woman in tech, and an incoming Software Engineer at Microsoft!
What domain are you interested in and why ?
I’m a software developer interested in full stack development as well as cybersecurity. I’ve always enjoyed solving puzzles and games and I believe software development at its core is just problem solving. What started out as a hobby soon became an obsession as I saw websites, apps and interesting concepts/projects come to life. I then wanted to dig further and got into web development, game development, data science and cybersecurity. I enjoyed cybersecurity the most so far, especially because of how interesting CTFs are, but I’m not done exploring. I’m currently trying to learn more in the fields of Machine Learning and AI, I just started a bioinformatics course (cause why not? I had no idea how easy it is to do cool stuff on DNA using classic string algorithms!) as well as Computer Vision. Pretty diverse, but this is why I love software development, it branches out into so many interesting fields.
When did you first use python and how was your experience?
I’ve always been a Java fan, and before that I used C++ so Python wasn’t really a part of any of my projects until I joined Facebook as a software developer intern and had to use it for my internship project. I felt it was extremely neat, but I was also a little disappointed by the total lines of code since I am so used to java. I worked for days on what would end up to be barely 100 lines of code, but it was pretty easy to switch.
What advice would you like to give to women who have just started their journey in tech?
To women who just joined the tech community, I’m so glad that you decided to pursue tech! You won’t be disappointed, there’s just so much to learn, the more you learn the more you’ll realize how much there is to learn! Don’t ever be intimidated by the male:female ratio in your classes or workplace, we need more women in tech and you are helping the cause by being in tech! My advice is pretty cliche : Work hard, be you, believe in yourself and lastly, consistency is key!
How would you describe your experience as an intern at Facebook?
Facebook was fun! The internship was remote, so it was a very different experience compared to my other work experiences, and I did miss out on living in California, but my team was amazing and supportive. Everyone I met was so smart and passionate, I got my daily dose of inspiration just by showing up to work. The project I built was also the most impactful project I’ve ever built, considering any changes you make touch the lives of 2 billion users of the platform.
What did you get to learn the most from your Cyber Security Project at Amazon?
The AWS project was building a secure data classification service. One thing unique about this project was we (a team of 4 students) were responsible for the project end to end, from building the design doc to testing. Designing is something that I don’t have a lot of experience, most projects I built on my own were much shorter (this was a 4 month project) or were assigned to me at an internship, with step by step plans and/or managers as well as software engineers to support me. Hence, I really enjoyed the design part, discussing the tradeoffs, messing some stuff up and then rectifying those mistakes etc. in the AWS project.
What is your main “drive” that helps you keep making progress?
Curiosity! Just stop and think about how much this world is affected by tech! Tech is everywhere, and there are so many problems to solve. I truly believe tech can make the world a better place, I cannot imagine how my parents lived without video calls, so if I can make a tiny little difference to ensure the next generation can teleport ( yes, far fetched, but why not?), I’d love to do so. And I can only do that if I understand what already exists, and if I polish my skills by building cool projects on the side for practice.
What do you think is the main problem for the low participation of women in tech? What according to you can be done to bridge the gap?
I believe that it can be intimidating to join a field dominated by men since years. I was lucky to have my parents’ full support but I can imagine several women not pursuing tech because of lack of support. The fear of sexism in colleges or workplaces and lack of role models also leads to a lower percent of women in tech. I believe we can tackle this issue from its root by getting rid of the stereotypes as well as sexism, and encouraging young girls to at least get a taste of what it is like to work in tech before they make up their minds to not pursue it because they gave into stereotypes.
What are your thoughts on the statement “Can women have it all?”
Of course! There are countless examples of successful women in all fields and all these passionate women didn’t really give up their families for the sake of an amazing career. All we need is to believe in ourselves and understand that we are genuinely capable of striking a balance and working at our own pace. We do not have to give in to anyone’s expectations or opinions, having it all simply means fulfillment in whatever we want out of life, be it a balance between work and family, or anything else. As long as we know what we want and are actively pursuing it for ourselves, we can do anything!
