Your Django Story: Meet Andrea Gonzalez
This is a post in our Your Django Story series where we highlight awesome ladies who work with Django. Read more about it here.
Andy is a turtle. She is also a web developer, time traveler, and photography hobbyist. Andy organized Django Girls Tijuana and Django Girls Ensenada. You can follow her on Twitter at @andiosuna.
How did your story with code start?
It started when I got discouraged by my father to pursue a career in science then decided to become a videogame programmer. A terrible programing class in the local community then discouraged me from pursuing that path and I got into 3D animation. Towards the end of the mandatory Associate’s in Graphic Design I then had a class called Intro to Web and I just fell in love with it and changed my major.
What did you do before becoming a programmer?
During and after I finished school, I worked as a Web Designer, Front End Developer, Web Developer and eventually I ended up where I am now, as a Python Developer.
What do you love the most about coding?
I love typing stuff that makes the computer do things. As silly as it sounds, I’ve talked to fellow programmers and this is quite common, apparently.
Why Django?
Because I was tired of PHP and looking for a more versatile language. Python seemed like the most reasonable choice, and well, Django is practically married to it.
What cool projects are you working on at the moment/planning on working on in the near future?
Personally I have two projects in different stages of development, but there aren’t enough hours in the day to make progress on either. In my job I am doing a full fledged administrative system. Lots of learning and hard work.
What are you the most proud of?
Getting a job as a Django developer with about three months of experience in tutorials! Also, feeling confident enough to contribute to open source projects.
What are you curious about?
Python in science.
What do you like doing in your free time? What’s your hobby?
I have many many hobbies! I am a karateka, I like photography, I watch tv series and movies, I play some string instruments, and I also enjoy reading.
Do you have any advice/tips for programming beginners?
It’s okay to feel overwhelmed, but don’t let that discourage you!
Thanks Andy! :)