Great work comes when we feel confident — so remember: you do belong.
Q&A with Devin Nicholson
Decades of career experience are not necessary to get valuable advice and insights into the world of computer science. Devin Nicholson is only a year out of undergrad from Cal Poly, but has already been on quite a journey to where she is now — in a field where she feels meant to be. High School and College are both more competitive than ever, and it’s a lot of pressure to be tasked with figuring out what you want to do with your life after school. Pushing through fear and standing her ground were important aspects of her career path. Make sure to read her advice for women who want to work in tech to find out her secret to confidence.
Kelsi: When were you first exposed to the tech industry?
Devin: I grew up with four brothers. The oldest went into nuclear engineering, and we were just always into computer science, hacking, etc, as young kids. We would create programs and video games together as young as eight years old. I got into UI/UX stuff as a kid, had my own tumblr, would make layouts, then starting doing random coding things, like writing scripts.
In high school, I had an awesome teacher who encouraged and empowered me to take the AP test for computer science. That’s where my yearning to go into tech started, although not exactly the deciding factor to join the field. I ended up falling in love with San Luis Obispo [Cal Poly’s location] since I wanted to be near a beach, and they had a great engineering department, so it worked out.
Kelsi: And the rest is history?
Devin: Not exactly. I didn’t even go to Cal Poly for computer science in the beginning, I applied for biomedical engineering. There was a weird part of me that felt like I would fit in better as a woman if I went into biology. I felt I might not fit in with the computer science people. But I didn’t love biomedical… I ended up having a side project with a teacher doing bioinstrumentation (a subfield) that revolved around computer engineering. I started writing scripts and realized I missed computer science, so I switched to software engineering.
Kelsi: Did you gain any field experience before you graduated?
Devin: I had an internship with Boeing to do automation, QA, the more developer side of things. It felt like I was meant to be there. I was able to be a part of a team and talk to people who have been in the field for a while. It was so natural to talk to them about my interests and what I was feeling and what I was programming. I asked a ton of questions, and felt like I had a path in front of me. It was a different feeling than in biomedical, a lot more natural.
Kelsi: Any other key experiences that shaped this path you were on?
Devin: Yes, and it wasn’t always smooth. I had a freak out my sophomore year about being in this field. Cal Poly is more men than women in the first place, and within engineering it’s an even bigger disparity. So I already felt outnumbered. Then a particular class, Systems Engineering, really got to me. It was so hard and I thought I would never be good at it. People in the class didn’t talk to each other, so I didn’t know other people felt the same way. A mentor of mine talked me through that everyone is feeling that way and everyone knows it’s a scary class. When I stuck with it and passed the class, my confidence shot to the top. I went on to take hard electives since I felt so empowered from that class.
Kelsi: What does your current role entail and how did you find yourself at your current company?
Devin: MarkLogic [where I work now] has an intern program, so I started here while I was still in college and turned full-time as a Performance Engineer once I graduated. If a product has an issue, I will go in and try to figure out where the bottleneck lies. I catch them in our system and work out where the issue is and how to improve it. I also work with UI performance testing, so I write scripts to act as a user to make sure the user has the best product experience.
Kelsi: what do you value most about your colleagues and team surrounding you right now?
Devin: We communicate and everyone knows what everyone is doing. My boss is great, I can ask any question, there are no dumb questions. It’s good to have that relationship with your boss and team. Admitting you don’t know everything and feeling comfortable with that within your team is important. You don’t go to college for performance, there’s no performance engineering class. So it’s not something you can be taught, you have to go into the industry and learn for yourself. I like how supportive every one at my company is, even outside of performance engineering, when it comes to that. You have to be in a company where people actually care about one another to have that.
Kelsi: What else do you look for in a company/job role?
Devin: I look for a company and teams that value diversity. Everyone comes from different backgrounds and it all comes together to create something great. Having different skillsets are really important. When you’re part of a diverse team, people can bring to the table what they have learned from previous experiences.
Kelsi: As someone who is just embarking on (but already succeeding!) her career in tech, what advice do you have for women who want to work in tech?
Devin: First, stand your ground. Your best work comes when you are feeling confident. So as I underlined the importance of diversity just now, you have to remember that you do belong. Everything requires a diverse mindset and no matter what, you are going to be different than the person working next to you. Realize that by default, that means you have something to bring to the table. Embrace that.
Second, if you have to means to go to a conference or talk on a topic like women in tech or diversity in tech, go. Grace Hopper is a good example — it was the most inspiring event I’ve been to. It’s the biggest of its kind, but not the only one, so there are other options. It helps to hear other voices hit on the same thing you may be feeling off about.
Know someone who should be interviewed? Have feedback? Find me on LinkedIn and let’s chat/connect.
