Your Django Story: Meet Päivi Suomela
This is a post in our Your Django Story series where we highlight awesome ladies who work with Django. Read more about it here.
Päivi Suomela is a junior full-stack developer at GWDevices, where she uses Django, Python, C# and JavaScript. Päivi attended a Django Girls workshop in March of 2015 and has been working as a developer since summer 2015. She helped to arrange a Django Girls workshop in Coventry in 2015 and is now organizing Django Girls Sheffield. She is originally from Finland but currently lives in Sheffield, UK.
How did your story with code start?
In my previous job I used Excel a lot and I taught myself to write some macros to speed things up. I noticed I enjoyed doing that, so I decided to try to learn more coding. I started to look for courses and tutorials online. One of the first things I learned was some Java in order to create simple Android apps for my phone. Then I heard about the first Django Girls workshop ever and applied to that, but I was not selected that time. I went through some Python tutorials on my own and was later accepted to the Django Girls workshop in London (March 2015). After that I spent a lot of time learning more and more programming, and about six months ago, I got my first ever developer job. It is a junior role in a small business and I love it!
What did you do before becoming a programmer?
I moved to England about 8 years ago and had been doing different customer service jobs, nothing too exciting.
What do you love the most about coding?
I love the feeling of making something work, especially something that I found difficult and then suddenly it all clicks together and just works! It gives me a great sense of accomplishment.
Why Django?
After coding with Java I found Python and Django to be lovely and simple. I also fell in love with the Django Girls movement – the workshop in London gave me the push I needed to start chasing programming as a career. I like Django as there are a lot of good tutorials out there, it is usually easy to find examples of something you want to build. I learn best by seeing an example and then mucking about with it, Django makes that easy as there are lots of good materials available for free. (Like the Django Girls tutorial.) I also really like the Django community and have met some awesome people, everyone is really supportive and friendly.
What cool projects are you working on at the moment/planning on working on in the near future?
I’ve just ordered myself a Pi Zero and I am hoping to use that to build something fun. I don’t know what yet, but I am hoping it will be something cool! I am also hosting a BBC Micro:Bit for a week and I am super excited about that. The website shows what other people have already made with Python and the Micro:bit and tracks 5 Micro:bits as they travel around the world. If anyone is interested in contributing to this project, the website has information on how to get involved.
What are you most proud of?
I am proud of having changed my career and becoming a developer. It still feels a bit unreal to me.
What are you curious about?
Lots of things!
What do you like doing in your free time? What’s your hobby?
I’m still spending time to learn more coding, I feel like I have a long way to go and lots of things to learn. I also like playing computer games, I am currently spending way too much time playing Heroes of the Storm! Board games are fun too when I can find people to play with me.
Do you have any advice/tips for programming beginners?
When I first started to program I was really intimidated by the number of different languages out there – everyone seemed to have a different opinion on which language is a good one to learn first and which ones should be avoided. My advice would be just to pick one and stick with it for a while, after understanding one it will be easier to pick up others. I’d also recommend anyone to go to their local meetups – I’ve met lots of interesting people by going to the Python and JavaScript groups in Sheffield. People are friendly and want to help, it doesn’t matter if you are a total beginner. Meetups are also a good place to hear about possible job opportunities!
How did attending a Django Girls workshop influence your life/career? What did you get out of attending a Django Girls workshop?
The Django Girls workshop I attended was just what I needed, it gave me more confidence. It was nice to hear stories of other women who had become developers despite not having studied CS at university, it made me realise that I could do it too. As I enjoyed the workshop so much, I decided I want to help arrange more of them to give other people a chance to learn programming. I helped to run the workshop in Coventry at PyCon UK 2015, and I am now planning a workshop in Sheffield for February this year. I have a feeling that this workshop won’t be the last…
I like how the Django Girls are so welcoming for new coders, I made my first pull requests ever to the Django Girls website. It is a nice and gentle way to get involved with an open source project and learn the basics without the fear of someone telling you off for having made a mistake, all the feedback is friendly and encouraging.
Thank you so much, Päivi!
If you would like to suggest someone to be featured in the Your Django Story series (or would like to nominate yourself!), please email us at story@djangogirls.org!
