A Letter to DevX — From the ‘18–’19 EBoard
Ayush
This past year at DevX has been extremely rewarding both for professional growth as well as making new friendships. Ever since we three came on board we wanted to make the club more diverse and cohesive, and we made great strides towards it. We are starting to reap the benefits of this amazing community that always wants to help each other out, and I would encourage you to utilize it. In my opinion, it’s the most valued resource that the club offers.
My role as an external vice-president has been very thrilling and rewarding. I’ve been able to leverage the hard work that the entire club puts in to form external partnerships. This year we partnered with a UCLA alumnus who worked at my former company to bring out Quickey, brought in diverse speakers with experience building great products and leading companies, as well as partnered with other clubs. We are currently co-hosting a website workshop series with SWE (Society of Women Engineers) to introduce CS concepts to those with no experience. At the end of the day we want to provide the most value that we can offer, and in my opinion, strategic partnerships offer an amazing avenue to expand beyond what one club can do by itself.
Constant outreach and plugging DevX in every conversation has helped me transition into a much better communicator. There have been a lot of difficult decisions to take along the road and communicating that information within and out of the club has made me a much better leader.
To this day I meet folks who are pleasantly surprised by the extraordinary work that DevX does. In the past two years, I have been a product manager, recruiting director, product director, and an EVP. Honestly, the club has taught me more than any other activity that I have participated at UCLA, and I owe it to the club and the talented folks within it for providing me opportunities to learn and lead!
Going through the applications of Freshman quarter after quarter, I ask myself “Holy f**k, how did I get into this club?”. This is a testament to the highly talented individuals that the club attracts and the bright future that the club is headed towards!
Karen
Being a part of DevX has indubitably been one of the most formative experiences of my life. At the start, I was a freshman who possessed minimal knowledge of software development, much less product development. I became part of a very small team, known in its first quarter as Bruin Connections. Within four weeks, we launched UCLA’s first dating app and it was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. I continued working on Bruin Connections for about a year (by then, the name had changed to BruinMeet), learning what I could about frontend web development and product design. Even now, I attribute my professional success to the year I spent working on BruinMeet and the skills I gained.
But beyond granting me the opportunity to grow professionally, DevX provided a group of incredibly talented, well-rounded and very cool people. Shoutout to Dmitri, Jeffrey, Bibek, Ram, Ayush, Jahan, Cody, my team … I could go on naming everyone who I’ve gotten to know and who have helped me grow personally. I was completely drawn in, to the products and to the people.
When I became Internal VP last year, I wanted to ensure that everyone else in DevX could have the same experience I did, if not better. I wanted them to feel excited about learning something new, about building cool apps and most importantly, about meeting other DevX members. I focused a lot of my time and effort on building structure and organization as well as growing the community aspect of DevX, providing a space for self-growth through others. In the last year, we started Humans of DevX, a segment of our meetings during which DevX members can freely showcase their passions/interests. This past month, we had our first and very long-awaited club retreat. And to see the friendships and connections made through DevX makes the many meetings and planning all the more worthwhile.
Ram
When I joined DevX during the Spring of my freshman year, I never imagined that it would become the community and home that it has been for me. I joined DevX as an uninspired and timid freshman, and was gratefully given the opportunity to work as a junior dev in its first quarter as a club. In that quarter, I learned so many valuable skills that would help me accomplish the things that I have today. I met numerous motivated and talented people, and I knew that I wanted to be as involved and learn as much as possible.
Fast forward two years to my Spring quarter of junior year, and I am in awe in all that the club has achieved in the past two years. We’ve launched a bootcamp program to imbue necessary dev skills in our new members, created several new promising projects, and welcomed students from a diverse set of backgrounds and majors into the club. We’ve brought in several exciting and inspirational speakers, such as the founders of Tenzo Tea and Struct Club, to share their wealth of knowledge with the club.
When I accepted the role of President at the end of last year, one of my primary focuses was strengthening the bonds and relationships in the club. I saw the potential of lifelong friendships being formed through working together on these products, and I made it a priority to do all I could to see those friendships come to fruition. And looking back, I can say with confidence that we did a darn good job. This club has become a family and has provided so many opportunities for its members to form relationships, and that is undoubtedly what I am most proud of.
To the next DevX President: Don’t hesitate to dream big! This club attracts a wealth of talent every quarter, and you should not be afraid to take advantage of it. We had so many crazy ideas stored in the backlog this year, but we ran out of time to see many of them come to life. My advice to you is thus: you have less time than you think! Act fast and keep pushing the boundaries! Be the friend that everyone in the club can look to for advice, and bring a smile to everyone’s face in every meeting. I hope your heart grows as mine does when your fellow directors, managers, and members look at you with a smile on Demo Days and tell you how much fun the past quarter has been for them. I can’t wait to see where this ship goes.
