I recently spoke to Ivana Veliskova, a Front-End Engineer at Guru Technologies. Ivana is such a vibrant young woman, a dancer turned engineer, an active member of the Girl Develop It community and a woman with an intense bias to action. Read her story here.
Tell us a little about yourself and about how you became a developer?
My name is Ivana Veliskova,I am a front-end engineer at Guru Technologies, where I have been for a little over a year. I wasn’t always a developer, in fact, I used to be a professional ballroom dancer for several years after college. While it was fun, I didn’t enjoy dancing professionally as much as I thought I would, so I decided to become a developer.
Throughout my life, I’ve always been interested in computers, because of my dad, who also was very interested in computers specifically and in math generally. When I got to college, I started out in computer engineering but it wasn’t a good environment. The field was male dominated, I didn’t have the support system that I envisioned or needed and realized that it wasn’t exactly what I wanted to do at the time, so I switched to international relations and worked in dance thereafter.
In most of my life, I did the same thing as my sister with whom I am very close. We both danced in college, she studied history and I studied international relations, very closely related topics, and when she moved to Philadelphia to fulfill her internship as a UX designer, she invited me over. At the time, she had also taken several classes through the local chapter of Girl Develop It, and thought that I might enjoy the classes as well. So, this was her pitch to me: “you don’t like your job as a dancer, maybe you’ll like being a developer, come visit me and take the class, the worst that could happen is that you might lose$50, at least it won’t be $50,000 like in college.”
Naturally, I came over, stayed with her and took the class. The class was a great experience overall, everyone was nice and supportive, answered all of my questions and helped me out whenever I messed up. This experience was exactly what I needed and had been wanting, to be part of a community where I am encouraged to learn and where I can encourage and help other people, especially women. I wanted to show them that if I can do it, they can do it too!
What was you most fulfilling project?
This one is really tough to answer because when it comes to professional projects, I very much enjoy what I do as part of a team and as part of the job but I never quite have the feeling that any project I work on is inspiring, per se. However, I think that personal projects are the best, especially when I have a crazy idea and I try to code it.
I would have to say that the most inspiring project was building my very first and very own personal website using html, CSS, and a little bit of java script. This website was super basic,was hard to maintain, but still, I was incredibly proud of it.
I actually had a job interview after building this website, and when I was rejected, I was very upset. So, of course, I set myself a goal to learn a new technology to create anew website. I learned Sass and Jekyll and rebuilt my whole website using Jekyll. Interestingly enough, the company that rejected me earlier, called me up and asked if I am still interested in the position.
During my interview, I mentioned the new technologies that I learned and demonstrated that I have this desire to continue learning. The company thought that that was great, and said that they’re willing to teach me and to hire me! This period between the first website and the second website was the most challenging but also the most fulfilling.
Girl Develop It was exactly what I needed and had been wanting, to be part of a community where I am encouraged to learn and where I can encourage and help other people, especially women. I wanted to show them that if I can do it, they can do it too!
What was the greatest bit of professional advice that you received? And what do others say is the greatest advice you’ve given?
When I was first starting out, I received some advice that I felt helped me so much, so I feel that I have to tell everyone the same thing. The advice is this: You should never advertise yourself as an “aspiring” anything, either you are that which you want to be or you aren’t. Whether you want to be a writer, a developer or a data scientist, this is a black or white thing, you have to be confident in your abilities and that you are able to fulfill that role. Saying that you are “aspiring”,could potentially translate to you not being able to fulfill the role and damage your chances of getting that role. After removing any such language from my professional documents, I felt more confident in my abilities.
I shared this piece of advice with another woman who was asking for guidance because she was looking to switch careers from writer to developer. When she removed that language and had that slight mental and psychological shift, it helped her believe more in her own abilities.
We as women need to take a step back, and start with checking off at most 90% of the job posting requirements, that can open up a whole new world of possibilities.
Do you find that women are often a minority in the industry? If so, what actionable steps would you recommend to actively combat this issue?
Yes, I definitely think that women are a minority in the industry. It is a two-way street, women have to be conscious of that reality and employers have to make a conscious effort to hire more women. As hard as that can be, because you always want to be hired for your own abilities, I think that making an effort to hire more women is very much worthwhile.
I got lucky when I was applying, because my company used some data science research specifically designed to understand how job posting language can be used to attract more women to apply. It was so cool that they were using that, because I instinctually felt that I was checking off all the boxes, even if it was kind of a half check. For example, in one line, they would say, apply if you know react (java script framework) OR Sass (CSS preprocessor). This language and the use of the word‘OR’ was very welcoming and made me feel better about checking that box and others, even if I only knew one of the mentioned requirements.
Although I didn’t know anyone in the company to give me a referral, I got lucky and was hired as their first woman developer, because of that smart and purposefully inclusive job posting. Now, we have grown from 3 front end-developers to 8 and hopefully 10 soon, with many more women on the team and it has been really great.
This is why I think employers have to be really cautious and proactive in encouraging women to work for them.Additionally, we as women need to be less harsh on ourselves, I know a lot of women who try to check off all the boxes before applying. We as women need to take a step back, and recognize that fitting a job post 100% will inevitably limit the number of jobs we apply for and the number of chances we might have. So, start with checking off at most 90%, that can open up a whole new world of possibilities.
A crucial skill is to have the basics down of whatever position you’re not going to be, but will be working with closely.
What is one skill that you’d like to learn? And what skill do you consider crucial and would recommend learning?
I think that a good crucial skill is to have the basics down of whatever position you’re not going to be, but will be working with closely. For example, if you are a UX designer, you’l lbe constantly working with developers and designing for developers, so It’s always nice when a UX designer knows at least the basics of, for example, html and CSS, as well as when they know the limits of what can actually be done with those tools. Everyone at Guru knows these basics and it really makes for a much better and more cohesive environment.
Actually, I recently taught an intermediate Girl Develop it class, when I spoke about those skills and how they will translate. One of my colleagues from our customer success team,joined us in the class to better understand how the front-end engineering actually works and how for example does the extension where the font changes on another website works. Her goal was to better communicate with our engineers. By having this basic knowledge, she could leverage her skills to communicate more directly. Knowing the basics will always be useful, because better understanding leads to clearer communication and better results.
For me personally, I want to be better about processing what others are saying to me or talking to me about,especially in lecture settings or big meeting settings. I would like to be able to engage in a discussion more fluidly. In fact, at Guru, whenever we’re in the middle of a discussion, they always take the time to ask me if I have something to say or add. Although sometimes, I struggle with that, it is always very nice when they ask and I am very appreciative that they care whether I have something to say and that they give us all the chance to voice our opinions. I want to have that confidence so that I can fluidly go along or interject during a conversation whenever needed.
In the future, I’m looking forward to becoming a senior developer, a leadership role as a front-end engineer
What are you excited about in your professional future and where do you see yourself going?
I am excited about where I am now, I want to stay here for the time being. There are so many opportunities for growth, and so much support for it too. I meet with the CTO every other week where he helps me achieve my professional advancement goals, by guiding me through what can be worked on now, what I need to focus on and what can be postponed into the future.
In the future, I’m looking forward to becoming a senior developer, a leadership role as a front-end engineer. At Guru, we have a culture of promoting from within first, so I’m super excited about the upcoming opportunities for growth within the company.
You will have to keep pushing forward, many will try to discourage you and even be mean to you.That’s why you need to surround yourself with a community.
Do you have any advice for young women excited to enter the field?
I’d say stick with it, there will be many tough times and many rejections. You will apply to a job that you really want, you won’t get it and it’s going to suck, I won’t sugar coat it,but you should also think that you may have been lucky and dodged a bullet. This is the case with many jobs, you’ll be happy that you were not there!
I once applied for a job that rejected me, and then a couple of months later, they had a huge layoff.This showed me that you have to keep pushing and that you can’t put your eggs in one basket. I’m guilty of having been emotionally attached to job postings that rejected me, but I would often take one day to be upset about and then keep pushing forward.
You will also have to keep pushing forward, many will try to discourage you and even be mean to you.That’s why you need to surround yourself with a community, my community was Girl Develop It, my family and my sister. They always asked about how I’m doing and checked in, they were always super encouraging and it always made me feel that I had a great support system behind me. Stick with it and always keep going forward.
You should never advertise yourself as an “aspiring” anything, either you are or you aren’t.
