Your Django Story: Meet Jessica McKellar

This is a post in our Your Django Story series where we highlight awesome ladies who work with Django. Read more about it here.

Jessica is a startup founder, software engineer, and open source developer living in San Francisco, California. She enjoys the Internet, networking, low-level systems engineering, relational databases, tinkering on electronics projects, and contributing to and helping other people contribute to open source software. Jessica spends a lot of time volunteering, engaging technologists about education, and empowering effective people and initiatives in her capacity as a Director for the Python Software Foundation.

How did your story with code start? What did you do before becoming a programmer?

I always liked computers (there’s a famous family photo of me at age 2, holding a bottle in 1 hand and playing on an Apple IIci with the other). I took an introductory programming class in high school, but I have to admit that it didn’t really click with me – I didn’t have any friends who were into programming, and I was much more into the sciences; I was a Science Olympiad nerd, and I declared Chemistry as my first major in university.

While pursuing a Chemistry degree at MIT, many of my friends were pursuing Computer Science degrees. I liked Chemistry, but I was intrigued by the observation that my CS friends seemed to be learning a toolkit of tools for solving countless interdisciplinary problems in the world. That was powerful, and I wanted to see if I could do it too. I signed up for a few CS classes, loved them, and ended up getting bachelors and masters degrees in Computer Science.

 

What do you love the most about coding?

I love the ability it gives me to effect changes I want to see in the world. We can write software that makes people’s lives better, that connects people, that empowers people with data.

 

Why Django?

95% of the time, what I need is a database-backed website with administrator support, and Django lets me get up and running in just a few hours. It is batteries-included in the ways I most need it to be, just like Python.

 

What cool projects are you working on at the moment/planning on working on in the near future?

Recently, I’ve been prepping for a couple of PyCon talks and going through Capture the Flag challenges.

I’m grateful that I’ve been able to speak at PyCons around the world, which is a chance to meet and learn from the local Python and open source communities.

 

What do you like doing in your free time? What’s your hobby?

I spend a lot of my free time reading and writing. I’m also a Director for the Python Software Foundation (PSF) and co-chair of the PSF’s Outreach and Education Committee.

 

Do you have any advice/tips for programming beginners?

1. Everyone can become a good programmer. It takes time and practice to become fluent, just like with a foreign language, but you’ll get there!

2. Once you know the language basics, most people find that the best way to get better quickly is to practice through projects that they actually care about. Pick a project, and see what completing that project forces you to learn.

Thanks Jessica! :)

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