Your Django Story: Marisa Reyes
This is a post in our Your Django Story series where we highlight awesome ladies who work with Django. Read more about it here.
Marisa Reyes is a developer at BeDjango, where she has been developing in Django since joining the team in October 2016. BeDjango is a Django Agency for medium and large Web & Mobile projects. Marisa started in BeDjango as a QA test automator, and is currently working as a web developer on several international projects. Although she does backend and frontend work, she is considered a Django developer. Do you want to know why she started programming in Django? We talked to her and she told us! Read on!
How did your story with code start?
Well, I started when I decided to do the degree of IT Engineering of Software since I always liked technology so it was clear to me that I wanted to do something related with that, I was debating whether to do telecommunications or computer science and I decided on computer science, and I regret nothing! So, my first contact with the world of programming was in the first year of the degree.
Why Django?
This I owe to a professor of the University of Seville, in an option of the fourth year he recommended using a framework called Django and we made a small web application, from that moment I started to be interested since it is very easy to use and at the same time very powerful. Also, I did a job for a subject using python and this helped me to gain confidence with this programming language and start making applications with Django.
Before Django, I used Java and its Sprint framework, which is the language and framework that I have used over the years in my computing degree, so I made all web applications with this framework. I have also programmed Android applications whose programming language is also Java, so, what I have previously used is summarized in Java.
Above all I love Django for its simplicity, it is true that being accustomed to programming in Java for many years, starting with Django was a little tedious, especially since python is not a typed language and a little different from Java, but once you become familiar with it you discover how many things you can do with Django and how simple it is.
What’s the hardest part of programming?
In itself it does not require any effort, as I said it is a fairly simple framework to understand, what I am in the process of getting to know are all the generic classes and methods that this framework implements, since knowing this is very beneficial when Programming since you can do really interesting things in a short time, so I am in the process of becoming familiar with Django and its methods.
What do you think of the Django Girls community?
I think it’s great! I think there are many women who do not dare to get started in the programming world because they believe it is “a man’s job” or because, as in previous studies they do not usually see anything about programming, they think they won’t be able to understand what programming is in itself, so it seems to me a very good idea that a community has been created to make these women see that we can all begin in this world, whether we have seen something of programming before or not, we are all capable!
Do you think this opens a space in which to claim that women can also program and do the same or better than men?
I would not define it as claiming, but simply letting us get to know the technological world, which many women are interested in, that although we are still few I hope that we will gradually grow and that we are clearly … we are better than men! Hahaha I’m joking … men and women in this world are the same, there will be women who program much better than some men and vice versa.
Have you participated in the Django Girls community?
For now I have not actively participated in the forums of Django Girls but I have consulted their tutorials and forums to learn Django, the truth is that the tutorials are great, they explain everything in a very detailed way, perfect for people who are starting in programming and in the forums I have found the answers to many of my doubts. In the future, if I need information on any Django theme, I will not hesitate to use such forums, so people with the same problem can find the solution quickly.
Why do you think spaces for female programmers are necessary?
I think it can help many female programmers who still do not dare to take the step and with these communities can see that there are many of us and we can cope with everything, whether Django or other frameworks, we can!
If you had the chance, would you participate in a community event?
As I mentioned before, I’m still starting in the Django world, but once I have enough knowledge and confidence (hopefully in no time), of course! I would not mind participating in an event where I could help to show other women what Django is all about and how to get the most out of it, so we help this community to grow, and the number of female programmers as well.
Thank you so much, Marisa!
If you would like to suggest someone is featured in the Your Django Story series (or would like to nominate yourself!), please email us at story@djangogirls.org!