From Director to Intern: Changing Careers as a Single Mom

RailsConf 2016

by Teresa Martyny

In her talk "From Director to Intern: Changing Careers as a Single Mom" presented at RailsConf 2016, Teresa Martyny shares her personal journey of transitioning from a well-established career in the non-profit sector to pursuing a career in software engineering. She emphasizes themes of humility and audacity, discussing the challenges she faced as a single mother navigating a significant career change. Teresa's background includes a degree in anthropology and early work in technology, which eventually led her to volunteer work and a leadership role in the non-profit sector. Despite the difficulties, including feelings of imposter syndrome and the daunting prospect of education and employment in tech, she decided to enroll in a coding boot camp.

Key Points:
- Background in Non-Profit: Teresa shares how she started her career in tech, then shifted to non-profit work, helping to modernize the technological infrastructure of organizations focused on domestic violence.
- Career Change Decision: After a decade and a half in non-profits, she felt the need to return to programming, leading to her enrollment in Dev Bootcamp.
- Family Challenges: As a single mom, she had to balance her responsibilities with the rigorous demands of boot camp.
- Mentorship and Community: Throughout her journey, she found community support essential. She mentored others and emphasized the importance of asking questions to foster a learning environment.
- Internship Experience: After completing the boot camp, she secured an internship at Omada Health, which aligned with her values and provided a supportive workplace environment.
- Overcoming Obstacles: Teresa highlighted the importance of celebrating failures as learning experiences and maintaining self-care during her challenging journey.
- Final Reflections: She concludes with a reminder for others to embrace challenges, understand that setbacks are part of the learning process, and to support one another in their journeys.

The main takeaway from Teresa's talk is the encouragement for individuals to take risks, be humble in asking questions, and recognize that support systems play a crucial role in personal and professional growth. Her story exemplifies the idea that success is a journey filled with challenges but also opportunities for learning and connection with others.

00:00:10.490 Thanks for coming to the last talk on the second day. I'm sure you guys are totally ready to go out and enjoy the rest of the evening, but I appreciate you taking the time to come tonight. I'm Teresa Martyny, and the title of my talk is 'From Director to Intern: Changing Careers as a Single Mom.' But really, the core of what I'll be talking about is humility and audacity in facing things in our lives that feel impossible.

00:00:31.529 So let's get started. I work with Omada Health, where we support people in preventing chronic diseases. The majority of our participants are in situations where they're pre-diabetic or have heart disease, and we provide programs to assist them. But before I got to this stage in my life, this talk is not a tech talk or a how-to guide; it's more of a story about the journey I've been on for quite some time.

00:01:11.730 I’ll start at the beginning when I was a Florida Gator. Are there any Gator fans in the audience? No? Okay, so I was a Gator, but I didn't study engineering there; I got a degree in anthropology. The truth is, you can't really get much of a job with an aspiring degree in anthropology. So, I ended up working at the Northeast Regional Data Center on campus and began learning HTML back when it was called 'Wilbur.' It was HTML 3.2 back in 1997. Websites looked like this. And this was the good stuff.

00:01:51.080 I started my career then, and over the next couple of years, I learned SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language). In 1999, I began learning ColdFusion back when it was still a lyrical fusion. I learned it by kind of poking over somebody's shoulder on another team, fascinated by what they were doing. It seemed way better than what we were doing with those static HTML templates, and they welcomed me to join them. I moved my way up from there.

00:02:41.520 For a couple of years, I worked with ColdFusion and Spectra and began transitioning into Java. Then, in 2001, the tech bubble burst, and mind you, during that entire time, I kept thinking, 'Why are these people paying me so much money to do this? I don’t have a degree in IT; it’s not my background.' Imposter syndrome set in deeply. I was always the only woman on my team and had never met another woman engineer before.

00:03:05.220 When the bubble burst, I witnessed countless senior engineers who knew Java but couldn't find work because jobs were so scarce. I thought to myself, ‘Well, until things pick up again, I’m going to volunteer with a domestic violence agency in San Francisco.’ I started volunteering, and they quickly asked me if I could fill a position, assuring me they knew this wasn’t my career path. It felt like glorified volunteering because that’s about how much I got paid.

00:03:58.439 However, working in the nonprofit sector opened my eyes. The technology capacity was agonizingly outdated; their shelter only had a dial-up modem on a single computer for the entire organization. Social workers had no computers with which to track data for clients—all records were kept on paper. They had someone driving a van between various locations to collect these binders! It was overwhelmingly painful to realize how bad things were.

00:04:38.760 I wrote grants to secure funding for new computers, built them a VPN, set up a server, and created a website available in three languages to cater to clients who spoke diverse languages. I felt like I was truly making a difference, and I started getting paid. I adopted my son in June 2008, and that experience taught me so much through my work, which made me a better mom. My son became an integral part of my life, often accompanying me to work.

00:05:35.080 As a single mother, I carried him during events like the Walk Against Rape because I worked for Women Against Rape. Over time, as I settled into motherhood, I knew deep down that I wanted to return to programming eventually. I kept thinking, 'Just not yet.' But once things calmed down, I began contemplating furthering my education, maybe attending grad school to solidify my programming skills.

00:06:10.720 I continued to volunteer on the side and built websites for various nonprofits, but I wasn’t really doing engineering work. I was only able to create static HTML pages, teaching them how to maintain them independently. When I had my daughter in 2011, the financial implications of being a single mom became a reality, and I realized that I needed to make a change.

00:06:50.060 Thirteen years later, I was having dinner with a friend who mentioned boot camps. He said, 'There are boot camps where you can learn to be a software engineer in 18 weeks, and then get hired right after.' Some people were making decent salaries, and at first, this idea seemed a bit crazy to me. I knew as a single parent, committing 12-hour days would be impossible. I started to look at the costs and felt like it was just not achievable.

00:08:02.130 But I'm really stubborn, and I wondered what it would be like to sit with that sense of impossibility. What if I tried to figure this out, maybe find the community and resources to make it work? So, I decided to quit my job in December 2014. I applied to Dev Bootcamp and got accepted in January. I knew I couldn't balance working part-time and going full-time with the program but was determined to make it work.

00:08:39.090 I committed to a period called 'Phase 0' for nine weeks, where most participants worked full-time jobs, but I knew I couldn’t do that. I had to leave every day to take care of my kids. I was aware of the risks involved: I couldn’t guarantee a job offer after the program, and returning to my previous career as a director with a gap in my resume raised concerns about my commitment.

00:09:58.740 Self-care became critical during this process. I had to set boundaries—like going home at 6 PM to read bedtime stories to my kids—and I wasn't going to stay up all night coding, because tired coding yields poor results. I asked countless questions because I knew that pretending to know would lead me nowhere. I’d expose my ignorance a million times a day, and that approach allowed me to make progress.

00:11:12.160 I also felt it was essential to mentor others, even though I knew little. At every phase of the boot camp, I was mentoring someone else. After completing boot camp, I became a mentor at a hackathon and taught classes at Women Who Code, continually fostering a spirit of teaching and sharing knowledge.

00:11:50.240 One effective strategy during the boot camp that helped me succeed was focusing on the hardest coding challenges rather than trying to complete everything in sequence. I dove deep into those challenges, which kept me connected to the joy of coding and prevented it from becoming a painful experience.

00:12:39.780 Celebrating my failures was also key. When I encountered difficulties or couldn't get a test to pass, I recognized those moments as crucial learning opportunities. I would celebrate failures among peers, highlighting that it was okay to struggle and championing our journey together.

00:13:38.230 I finished the boot camp in June 2015. Interestingly, that same weekend, the Supreme Court decision for gay marriage rights was handed down. It was a time of celebration! Interviewing in tech was another challenge, as the landscape had shifted dramatically since earlier in my career where hiring was considerably less formal.

00:14:25.860 During interviews, the pressure was immense, as I carried the weight of providing for my family with me. Basic questions felt daunting, and there were instances when the interviewer would overwhelm me with rapid questions, making it hard to adequately express my knowledge. I faced a situation where an interviewer praised my skills, but ultimately didn't hire me, which started to warp my perception of reality.

00:15:45.000 As I dealt with the interview pressure, the weight of providing for my children grew heavier, and I turned back to my cohort for support. We had weekly check-ins, and they were essential for my emotional well-being during this challenging time. Soon after, I landed an interview with Omada, which turned out to be a delightful experience.

00:16:55.580 The interview was incredibly engaging, and I was paired on a story that went into production the same day. I felt a deep connection while coding with the Omada team.Regardless of the job outcome, that experience reaffirmed my love for coding. I began my internship with them in September 2015.

00:18:00.440 I took risks, turning down full-time offers from other companies because I believed that the mentorship and guidance offered at Omada would serve my development better than those other positions. I continued asking questions throughout this internship, seeking to understand processes deeply.

00:19:03.290 I wanted to grasp the fundamental aspects of the code and how to solve issues that arose. I steered clear of expecting to write the most scalable code but instead focused on learning and growing through my failures. Being told that I asked the best question of any intern was the highest form of praise for me.

00:20:04.870 During my internship, I also worked on a solo project. This space created a feeling of isolation and disconnection initially, driving me to find creative ways to connect with my team. I learned so much during this month.

00:20:55.320 Returning to pairing sessions was challenging as a junior developer because it was easy to let others take charge. However, my coworker suggested giving toys to my pairing partners to keep them engaged while I took the lead, which worked beautifully.

00:21:54.810 My incredible team deserves recognition. I was hired on permanently as a software engineer at Omada in January 2016. This journey was something hard-won and immensely fulfilling.

00:23:05.639 I realized how fortunate I was to be part of a supportive team, and my kids celebrated this milestone with me. When I asked my son how to describe my career change journey, he said, 'You were really stressed out, mom.' And this sentiment resonated deeply with me. My mind still sometimes blanked, and I continuously faced my ignorance.

00:24:22.340 I urge you to embrace challenges. A quote I cherish comes from Ms. Frizzle from the Magic School Bus: 'Take chances, make mistakes, and get messy!'"

00:25:35.210 I also want to express my deep appreciation for the flexibility offered by Omada and how it significantly impacted my career. They allow me to adjust my hours to suit my needs as a parent, which has made my work-life balance infinitely better, especially compared to previous experiences.

00:26:37.630 The supportive environment at Omada allows me to have open conversations about the challenges surrounding parenthood. We foster empathy and openly support one another as parents; it's uplifting. Alongside that, the health benefits for my children are affordable, in stark contrast to my previous experiences in the nonprofit sector.

00:27:55.130 Throughout my career, I have faced imposter syndrome and felt unfair pressure during interviews, but it’s important to recognize that anyone can experience setbacks while learning new things. No one expects perfection. Learning to ask questions about problems is pivotal to ongoing development.

00:29:14.600 The process is what matters—the effective learning of how to troubleshoot issues not only enhances technical skills but also strengthens overall problem-solving abilities. It's crucial to be patient with yourself, to recognize that improvement takes time, and celebrate those incremental successes.

00:30:31.080 In short, I used to feel like an imposter, but eventually, I learned that taking chances opened avenues for growth. Learning to be humble, to ask questions, and to be supportive to others contributed significantly to my journey.

00:31:41.115 As I continue in my engineering career, giving specific feedback and encouraging positive relationships remain my guiding principles. They serve me well, helping to build a cohesive and productive team.

00:32:40.580 Thank you for joining me on this journey. If you’re ever feeling overwhelmed, remember: it’s completely okay to take a step back, reassess your situation, and reach out for support. You are not alone.

00:34:00.950 Please feel free to share any questions or thoughts on my journey, as I would be happy to engage in discussion.