Meet The Directors: Megan Cole
A closer look at Women Who Code DFW’s Directors
How did you get into the industry?
Originally, I started out as an Art major in college and wanted to be a graphic designer. Upon completion of my first year, I realized I did not know what I wanted to do and switched my major to Business. In the middle of my Associate’s degree I had picked up coding again by creating basic HTML and CSS pages. Zoning out for a full day coding a webpage reminded me of my passion for front end development. After receiving my Associate’s degree in Business, I continued on to get my Bachelor’s in Computer Science.
During my last three years in college, I landed a job as a receptionist at a small company where I informed the team there of my passions to move into I.T. and pursue development. Four months later, an opportunity arose to transfer to their I.T. department as a Business Analyst/Data Processor. I applied for the position and ended up getting the offer, transitioning into my new role a couple months later.
While in my B.A./Data Processor role, I kept learning and studying HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Java, and eventually SQL. After about two years, our project manager was let go and our I.T. manager asked me to take on her role. I stayed in Project Management for about a year and then was offered a role as a Junior Developer.
Now I am a Developer IA at a company that writes and maintains healthcare related software!
What did you struggle with most when getting into the industry?
There were three major things that I struggled with:
The first was the ability to be gentle with myself — learning how to code isn’t easy. It’s not much different than learning a new spoken language (like German or Spanish) with the exception that these days an individual is usually learning multiple new programming languages, frameworks, libraries, and tools at once. You can’t just read or write something and then understand it, you have to take time to practice and perfect your grasp on it.
The second thing was being intimidated and uncomfortable with the fact that there weren’t many women in this industry. At my first I.T. job, there were originally only 3 women in the department (including me). When I began this journey (and even after I graduated in 2016) I wasn’t aware that there were women tech groups out there. I just knew that the stats were astoundingly low and we were underrepresented.
The last thing, kind of related to the second, is that I had to overcome being afraid to ask for help from the senior developers (that were all men) around me. I worked in that I.T. department for the majority of the time I was revving back up, the only thing holding me back from asking for help was me. Once I started asking questions and being vulnerable, I was fortunate enough that every man I worked with was more than happy to help, didn’t treat my questions like they were stupid, and took the time to explain things to me in more than 1 way.
How did you get involved in Women Who Code?
I met Johanna in June or July of 2018 I think? At the time, I was on the last leg to becoming a chapter leader for Girl Develop It Fort Worth. Johanna and India had reached out to Leslie (my then GDI leader) and I for a possible partnership to enhance Fort Worth’s tech scene. I had heard of WWCode before I met her but I had not researched it and since the meetups were far from me, I had not attended any events. Johanna and India introduced us to WWCode and I started working with Johanna since we met. Around the end of 2018, GDI had many D&I issues from upper levels all the way down to various chapters. I did not want to help that organization make a profit when they couldn’t practice what they preached, so I stepped down and Johanna offered me the chance to use my leadership and planning skills to help out with WWCode Fort Worth.
Why Women Who Code?
Entering this industry is kind of terrifying without people who can help you navigate it along the way — whether that be learning languages, figuring out how to use various tools, or even just coming up with a path or set of goals. If I hadn’t had the supportive group of co-workers I did during my journey, I would most definitely not be here today. Unfortunately, I know not everyone encounters such groups of people and I want to do my best to be as helpful and supportive as possible. No woman should have to feel alone or helpless because they want to pursue a male dominated industry.
How has Women Who Code helped you in your career?
Funny enough, right when I started to get involved with WWCode I got laid off from the job I mentioned above. I worked there for four years but during that last year, I knew things were going downhill. It didn’t come as much of a surprise to me but it was very hard emotionally and mentally. I went through a couple of weeks of panicking if I was smart or good enough at development to get another job — imposter syndrome on steroids, I guess. Johanna was one of the first people I told and she gave me a pep talk, brought my spirits up, hooked me up with one of her recruiters, and helped me feel motivated to keep going. The whole community on Slack was super encouraging and offered any help they could provide.
When I got an interview, the Slack community sent me helpful tips and suggestions on whiteboarding since it was going to be my first one. I actually ended up landing that job and it’s where I work now!
What is something you wished you would have known when you started your first dev job?
Quite a few things, but I suppose the number one that comes to mind is how to setup your IDE’s to test locally in your “dev” and “qa” environments. This was not something I had ever been introduced to before I started learning C# at my first job. How they setup the configurations to where you could run specific environments in Visual Studio was a mystery to me. It took me a few coaching sessions to understand what was going on.
I also wish someone had mentioned that it isn’t as easy to apply what you’ve practiced or learned to real world applications. When you go into a new job, it can take time to get familiar with their general business practices and an understanding of what their applications do. It takes a whole other amount of time to familiarize yourself with their code bases, project structures, tools, environment setup, build processes, and all the other tidbits of tech.
What is something that motivates you?
The need to be better at what I’m doing so that I can pass on what I learn and help the people around me. At work, I don’t like not being able to help my peers if they run into issues with setting up their machine and/or debugging or writing code. Outside of work, I want to make sure that I can be a reliable resource for those who need one, and I don’t feel like I can do that without doing my best at moving forward and learning to the best of my abilities.
Tell me about a time you made a mistake. What did you learn?
Towards the end of my last job, I was the lead of data processing and came to learn that the person who took over the process on a day-to-day basis made a big mistake with one of the files. At the time, I thought it was something I understood well enough to fix so I attempted to handle the issue. Unfortunately, there were steps I didn’t know of that I missed that caused serious billing errors the next day. When I told my boss about the issue and what I did to try to fix it, he was pretty upset that I didn’t inform him of it the second it happened.
I learned that day that sometimes when it comes to certain issues (like ones that can cause the company lots of money), it’s safer to inform the appropriate personnel ASAP and then work with the team to make sure all bases are covered instead of going in head on without all the information.
What’s next for you? What are some long-term goals of yours?
Career wise, in the next 2 years I would like to be a tech or development lead, double my current salary, and help our Fort Worth network for Women Who Code become more successful.
Personal life wise, in the next 2 years, my main goals are to be (mostly) debt free, have a house with a nice backyard for my dog, and be in a position where I can travel a little more for fun.
What’s something you’re really proud of?
I’m proud of myself for continuing to pursue the career path of development because I couldn’t possibly tell you how many times I thought about quitting along the way.
I regularly felt like I was not smart enough because it took me so long to understand what was going on. However, I learned to let myself have my breakdown moments and then find help so I could get back to work. I’m also proud of myself for pushing past a lot of the intimidation I felt when entering the industry, and honestly it’s still something I push past today (sometimes on a daily basis). All the gatekeepers out there can step-off because they can’t keep me out anymore!
Stay in touch with Megan by following her on Twitter!
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