Holiday Meetup : Programming Careers Panel Discussion

We invite our members and guests to come celebrate the holidays with us! We will start the evening with Panel discussion on Computer Programming Careers. Some our members who are working in different areas of software development will be available to talk about their education & work experiences and also answer your questions. After the panel discussion we will have refreshments and time to network with each other. We look forward to seeing old friends and new faces!

Here are bios on just some of the women who offered to be on our panel.

Ellie :

Ellie became a software developer last year by attending Galvanize’s 6 month gSchool program. Previously, she studied Applied Mathematics at Columbia University in New York City and then worked as a Product Analyst at the New York Stock Exchange for 4 years. While at the NYSE, Ellie craved the problem solving that she had been exposed to in college and consequently decided to change careers toward software development. She is thrilled to be working as a developer at Active Junky( http://activejunky.com/ ) as it compliments her passion for the outdoors and enjoyment of solving complex problems. Ellie is also leading up the Women Who Code Fort Collins chapter ( https://www.meetup.com/Women-Who-Code-Fort-Collins/ ).

Sharon :

Sharon is a self-taught developer who discovered programming in 2014. Since then, she has become a Chapter Leader for Girl Develop It and works part-time as a teaching assistant for SkillCrush (http://skillcrush.com), an online programming education platform. She helps students with a variety of programming languages and also helps teach classes with Girl Develop It.

Alexis :

Alexis Stackhouse holds the position of Account Recruiting Manager with TEKsystems in Fort Collins, CO. TEKsystems is the leading provider of IT staffing, IT talent management and IT services. Every year TEKsystems deploys over 80,000 IT professionals at 6,000 client sites across North America, Europe and Asia. Locally, TEKsystems has offices in Colorado Springs, Denver Tech Center, Westminster, and Fort Collins. Alexis has been focused in servicing technical professionals in the Greater Denver area, Northern Colorado and into Cheyenne, Wyoming. Within TEKsystems, Alexis has been ranked within the top 5 Account Recruiting Managers in the country over the last 3 years and has placed the more technical professionals in new positions than any other recruiter in Colorado.

Rae:

Rae graduated with a Computer Science degree from CSU. She has been working as a developer at HP for about 6 months. She is also one of our GDI Organizers and is planning a Python course for us this Winter.

Amber:

Amber is a web developer who owns an online marketing business in Fort Collins. Prior to opening Au Coeur Design in June 2010, Amber was the Director of Recruiting for Bard College’s MAT Program, overseeing marketing and recruiting for three campuses across the country. While in these positions, she worked extensively with online marketing, especially focusing on social media, and began learning HTML. After leaving Bard to spend more time with her daughter, Amber began blogging and offered to help a friend set-up her blog. One website led to another, and what started as a hobby has now developed into a thriving business with staff in addition to herself (one W-2 employee and three freelancers). Not long after Amber started working with small business owners and new businesses who were in the early stages of building their identity, she expanded her services to include logo design and other graphic design work. Amber is self-taught in HTML, PHP, JS, and CSS, and loves the flexibility and creative control that comes from owning her own business.