Your Django Story: Meet Patrycja Szabłowska

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

Patrycja is a Python developer who previously worked with Java. She is open ­minded and eager to learn about the next Python library or framework. Patrycja works at Grupa Wirtualna Polska and currently lives in the Warsaw area in Poland with her husband Wacław.

How did your story with code start?

It’s hard for me to tell when this actually started. Computers and technology were in my life as long as I can remember. My dad works in IT, but he’s a computer networks and electrical circuits specialist and he’s never been into programming.

I was about 12 years old, when I heard about extra IT classes at my school, so I decided – I’m definitely going. That’s when I learned the basics of HTML and when I first saw the internet.

Later on, at middle school and also at high school I had information technology classes with an awesome teacher. I had classes with her for 4 years in total and I owe her much. She was well educated in computer science and the IT class with her was involving. She wanted us to do advanced tasks with MS Excel, she showed us two programming languages - Logo and Pascal. I remember even her showing us some UML diagrams.

Around that time I had to pick a faculty for the rest of high school. I chose the math-physics one – with much hesitance, because it was considered the hardest one and at least two people had told me that I won’t make it, because my mind “isn’t scientific enough”.

But my mom told me - “You can choose whatever you want and be good at that”. So I did.

I went to university to study computer science. I discovered Java, which was the first programming language I really enjoyed. Then I took Python classes and I didn’t want to program in Java anymore ;).

 

What did you do before becoming a programmer?

After high school I studied computer science, so I’ve never done any other job.

 

What do you love the most about coding?

It gives us almost infinite power to bring ideas to life with just a few commands. You don’t need specialist equipment. Just a computer and the internet to google the problems.

 

Why Django?

I learned about Django 4 years ago and I really love the ORM and the admin. The other thing I like about it Django is the idea of having the logic separated. Everything has its own place – the templates, the views, the urls. I was already in love with Python and Django was the next great thing I discovered

 

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

I’m not doing any Django projects at the moment – I’m consumed by pure Python projects this year. I’ve been also learning a new language recently – Go, which is a nice alternative to Python for me. I’m a technical reviewer of a book about design patterns in Python. I was a coach at Django Girls Warsaw, which was awesome. I’m having much fun working with my colleagues at Grupa Wirtualna Polska.

 

What are you the most proud of?

I’m proud of the fact that despite all the difficulties along the way I managed to become a programmer. It wasn’t easy, I’m from a small town and getting past the first year of my studies was quite a pain. Even my friend had told me that I should accept the fact that I won’t pass my exams and that computer science isn’t meant for me.

Somehow I managed to push my life in the direction I want and I’m also thankful to my family and husband, who believed in me no matter what.

 

What are you curious about?

The world :). In general, improving myself in many ways. When it comes to IT – knowing how to become a better programmer or what new libraries I can use. How to write code which is more efficient, easier to maintain. Getting closer to the community helps a lot in self-improvement – you can learn about many technologies which you haven’t heard of.

 

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

It varies :). As I said I’m curious about many things, but I’m also a little lazy. I’m definitely a bookworm – my favorite books are Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, The Witcher, Jeżycjada. Other things I do (but not on regular basis) include cooking, baking, playing guitar, practicing yoga, exploring WWII history. I’m also a crazy cat lady with two cats.

 

Do you have any advice/tips for programming beginners?

You’ll be discouraged many times. Don’t give up. Nobody has become a programmer over night. Pick an objective and stick to it. Attend local meetups related to your field – it’ll help you grow and you’ll meet interesting people.

Thanks Patrycja! :)

---