Barbara Gilman started her career as a Systems Engineer at IBM in 1962. She first wired control panels on IBM accounting machines, such as the 407, then moved on to programming 1401 computers. She first coded in machine language, then used Autocoder and others, including Assembly language on the IBM 360/370. After leaving IBM, Barbara worked as an independent software developer, working on many small and mid-range systems, from PCs to 1440s to AS400s, for a wide range of companies. She ended her career working for The Coca-Cola Company.