10 Questions with Ana Medina
Software Engineer at Uber
Ana Medina is a software engineer at Uber. She began coding at 13 years old and has worked in various roles across the technology industry, including frontend/backend technologies, mobile development, cloud infrastructure, SRE and DevRel. Before joining Uber, Ana worked at Google, Quicken Loans, a local credit union, a startup, and has been doing freelance work since 2008. When she is not coding, Ana is advocating for diversity in tech, mental health, or having fun with makeup and taking photos as an aspiring travel photographer.
- When did you know you wanted to be in tech?
When I was 13 years old, I taught myself how to code and my curiosity started fueling this new passion. When I was 16, I got my first developer internship at a local credit union in Miami. During my time there, I asked myself if this type of “cubicle” job was the type of role that I would like to pursue and generally didn’t see a problem with it. Later, I moved to the more Silicon Valley-like tech companies and found myself asking “Cubicle? What’s a cubicle?”
2. Who’s been a role model you look up to?
When I was applying to colleges with a major in computer science, I knew that I wanted to make a difference in this male-dominated field. Sadly, at the time I only had one person — Marissa Mayer — to look up to as a female role model in the tech industry. In 2011, I wrote my application essay about how I admired the work that she had done at Google and the impact that she had on building the company. I was hopeful that someday I could join a great company early on and make as great of an impact as she did at Google in its early days.
3. Where is your hometown?
I was born in San Jose, Costa Rica (Pura Vida Mae!) and raised by Nicaraguan parents. My parents and I moved to Miami when I was 9 years old. Coming from Central America, I saw things from a very different perspective. I came from countries that endured extreme poverty, where people did not have many opportunities, and where some worked extremely hard to come to America for a chance to pursue the American Dream.
“I came from countries that endured extreme poverty, where people did not have many opportunities, and where some worked extremely hard to come to America for a chance to pursue the American Dream.”
Coming from a very hispanic family, my dad and mom taught me to surround myself with love and they were a huge example of making sacrifices for the family. The values that I learned from my parents have made me curious and creative, and have helped me to continue dreaming and growing. These values empowered me to pursue my dreams and to let go of the fear of failure. My dad always told me “You will never know if a door can open if you don’t knock on it.”
4. What’s a challenge you’ve faced in your career journey?
Interning at Uber was an interesting experience with various types of struggles. Without prior systems or infrastructure experience I ended up on the Site Reliability Team. This lead to me being on-call for a production service on my second or third week at the company. Getting paged in middle of the night and going through the runbooks trying to debug, while getting new pages, was extremely stressful. I remember struggling the first few days on call, just trying to figure out what I was doing and being hopeful that I wouldn’t make any big mistakes. Eventually, I was able to learn my way around that service and became more confident in my skills and the commands that I was executing.
5. Describe a time you were proud of yourself.
Moving from Miami to California for college was something I am really proud of. I packed my bags and moved across the country without any money, only a few loans, to pursue my California dreams. Prior to attending University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) I had actually gotten my admission rescinded from them and other schools because my community college had a hiccup with my college transcripts, so I had to file an appeal to be able to attend. UCSC wasn’t my top choice, as I had never visited the campus, nor did I know anyone at the school. However, I still thought it was going to a great experience and education.
Coming in as a transfer student mid-year definitely made it very lonely and hard to get used to at first. I didn’t make any friends in class and that made it extremely hard to be in school. I did 3 quarters there before I decided that dropping out was the best choice for me, and that decision on it own is something else that I’m immensely proud of.
6. What’s something that’s been on your mind a lot lately?
Mental health. I hate that in today’s society we don’t talk about it when it is incredibly important. I think the stigma around this topic is unhealthy, coupled with the inaccessibility of getting help for mental health issues. It’s easy for one to say that they broke a bone in their body, but it’s not easy to admit that there is something wrong with their inner self. I was recently hospitalized after extreme burnout with lots of physical symptoms. It was something that had I never had conversations about when I was growing up, or in college or with my friends. I think open conversations are needed to make progress on this issue. It should be 100% normal and acceptable to be able to say, “No, sorry, not today. I’m taking a Mental Health Day.” #MentalHealthIsRealYo
“It should be 100% normal and acceptable to be able to say, ‘No, sorry, not today. I’m taking a Mental Health Day.’”
7. Comfort food of choice?
Pupusas.
8. Mac or PC?
Mac.
9. If you could try another job for a day, what would it be?
Ever since I was little, I always wanted to be a firefighter. I used to run to the TV when the themesong of “Rescate 911” would come on.
10. If you could give your 18-year-old self a piece of advice, what would it be?
Slow down, life is long.
When I was 18, I was doing my junior and senior year of high school together and ended up taking 10+ classes at a time along with leading extra curricular groups & projects. I was also working as a freelance web developer and motion graphics designer. Looking back now, I wish I had taken my time in school and did more fun things outdoors with my friends and family. My career and studies will always be there but people and experiences will not.
