Your Django Story: Meet Stephanie Sydorko

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

A brief biography, two to three sentences, about who you are, where you’re from, and the work you do.

I am a Python developer at Artemis Consulting, an IT services consulting firm in Washington, DC. I switched careers from conference management to programming in 2014. For the last three and a half years I have been on a contract at the Library of Congress, where I develop RESTful APIs and ETL processes using Python, Django, and Django Rest Framework.

How did your story with code start?

I organized conferences and tradeshows in my previous role. My job involved many repetitive manual tasks on the computer, such as cleaning attendee lists for badge printing, and downloading and parsing data to create spreadsheets and reports. I had a friend show me how to do some simple automation using Greasemonkey for web forms, and VBA and Python for Excel and Access. I was hooked! I loved the idea of automating tedious work. I did some self-study and online courses, then decided to return to George Mason University to pursue an MSCS. Once I completed my degree, I began applying for IT positions.

What did you do before becoming a programmer?

I have always been interested in science and math. I graduated with a BS in Physics, started graduate school in Atmospheric Science, and then dropped out because the program wasn’t a good fit. After that I worked as a secretary and in conference management before I decided to switch careers and go back to school for Computer Science. I think my previous jobs help me as a developer because I have great time management and organizational skills, learned to be a good listener, and have experience working with diverse groups of people.

What do you love the most about coding?

I love logic and problem solving, and I still get excited when I find a bug or figure out a tricky bit of code.

Why Django?

I switched from Java and Spring MVC to Python and Django. Django has fantastic documentation and is a full-featured framework with serious thought behind its design. I learned Django on the job using the official tutorial, the Django Girls tutorial, and a great book called Test-Driven Development with Python. It’s a great web framework because I can use vanilla Django to build a full-stack dynamic website, or add any number of open-source packages to extend its functionality for more complicated projects. The online community is active and helpful. My favorites are the Django ORM and Django Rest Framework, which is a package that extends Django for API development.

What are you the most proud of?

I am very proud of becoming a female developer in my mid-thirties. It was a hard transition that took a few years, and I wanted to give up many times during the process. I had some seriously misguided people tell me I wouldn’t be able to do it because of my age and gender. I also met some great cheerleaders along the way who believed in me even when I didn’t believe in myself. I pushed through the challenges with planning, persistence, and hard work. I teared up when I received my first IT job offer because I felt like I had finally accomplished what I set out to do.

What are you curious about?

How do we change the STEM education pipeline and the IT industry so that inclusivity and diversity are the norm? I get that not everyone wants to be in IT, but people should be able to say “no” to the field because they want to do something else - not because it makes them uncomfortable.

I believe this is a complicated, multi-faceted issue that will take the time and effort of many to resolve. On the plus side, there is so much to do that individuals can pick a project or organization that interests them, and start contributing to make a difference right now. I’m curious to see how the industry will look in a decade. I hope we’ll see a positive trend.

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

I like to volunteer. One of my New Year’s resolutions for 2018 was to get involved in organizations that encourage women to pursue programming. I have been volunteering with Hear Me Code, Women Who Code DC, and have signed up to help with this year’s Django Girls DC workshop. It’s been incredibly rewarding to help women get started on their programming adventure!

I love knitting and participating in community art projects. I’ve collaborated on giant donuts and done some chalk art for neighborhood festivals.

I also try to rock climb. I’m terrible, but it’s still fun.

Do you have any advice/tips for programming beginners?

Learning to program is hard, and that’s OK! Be tenacious and practice, practice, practice.

Also, programming is for everyone! Don’t listen to negative people who think you aren’t good enough or the right gender, age, personality, background, or fill-in-the-blank to write code. The only requirement is that you are interested and willing to put in the effort.

- How did attending (organizing, or coaching!) a Django Girls workshop influence your life/career? What did you get out of attending (organizing, or coaching) a Django Girls workshop?

I will help coach my first Django Girls workshop in September. The program for the day looks awesome. I am very excited to get involved with Django Girls DC.