• (4:40) “It’s definitely a testament to the DC tech community, and especially the underrepresented groups within the larger DC tech scene. I put it out there very quickly that I was looking again, and a lot of opportunities opened up for me. Especially with COVID and quarantine and everything, a lot more remote opportunities opened up too.”

• (7:33) “Until about 2018 -- when there was an opening for a developer role with the [International Quidditch Association]. I’d seen all these problems with the organization from a global perspective, and I thought that my expertise as a software engineer, especially building products for users, web developer, could really help modernize the organization and make it more efficient. So that all of these volunteers could spend more time actually improving the sport and getting more people to play. Getting people active. And supporting our values in terms of gender diversity and inclusion, all these great things.”

• (12:40) “I just felt like I was plateauing. And I couldn’t really go anywhere or do anything that I wanted to do, or be the person that I wanted to be. As a Lyft driver, I picked up some passengers that were bootcamp students and they were talking about a project. I asked them about it and they told me about the program, and that’s what got me into wanting to code.”

• (18:45) “I say all of that to demonstrate how astronomically hard it is to get that first job. Once you get your first job, and you maintain good relationships with people that you work with and people within your larger network and community, getting the next job is, I don’t want to say easy, but it’s easier.”

• (49:45) “I’d said both in the article and in other comments that it’s not that the word [master] itself is racist. It’s that the context within American culture, especially with you using “slave” in conjunction with that term, is a call to a racist system. And on top of that, it doesn’t even accurately describe the thing that you’re doing or using.”

• (54:40) “I would say that everybody should be thinking about every user at all times. We have to be intersectional in our beliefs and how we build our systems. Accessibility isn’t just an afterthought. We should all be ensuring that our applications are accessible to as many people as possible. It’s good business. It’s good for humanity overall. And it’s just necessary.”

Bio

Alexis is a Software Engineer(III) at Morning Consult where she works on both sides of the stack to scale products that are changing the industry of public opinion data. Before becoming a software engineer, via bootcamp, she was a lighting designer in the midwest and collector of odd jobs like barista, Lyft driver, and dog walker. In her spare time Alexis is the IT Director for the International Quidditch Association (https://www.iqasport.com/) where she builds products that make the organization and its constituents better at coordinating logistics in the sport. When she isn't coding Alexis enjoys spending time with her wife and dog, watching/analyzing Disney movies, and cooking.

Mentioned in the episode:

• International Quidditch Association

• Byte Back

• Medium — “My Time as a Black Woman Engineer at Capital One”