{"id":1,"date":"2023-10-04T22:02:58","date_gmt":"2023-10-04T22:02:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/devmichelle\/?p=1"},"modified":"2023-10-04T22:45:31","modified_gmt":"2023-10-04T22:45:31","slug":"hello-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/devmichelle\/2023\/10\/04\/hello-world\/","title":{"rendered":"The Origin Story"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n

Hello there! My name is Michelle and I’m a designer\/creative based in the San Francisco Bay Area. I’m finishing up my computer science post-bacc degree from Oregon State University (I TA’d CS 340 for a few terms – you might recognize me from there \ud83d\udc4b\ud83c\udffb) and when I’m not busy being a student, I operate and perform in a Chicago-based non-profit contemporary music ensemble<\/a> that does educational outreach residencies with various universities and colleges in the US & Canada. Additionally, I run my own freelance design and photography studio, mainly working with small businesses and B2B clients. In my previous life, I was a marketing and graphic design manager at an OEM manufacturing company in mid-Michigan and hold another degree in Music Performance – Clarinet from Michigan State University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How did I transition into programming and software? Why?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’ve always considered myself a bit of a ‘jack-of-all-trades’ because I like learning a little bit about everything and learning enough to do some damage. I find it helpful with the constant changing and evolving technologies and programming languages. It’s always moving forward and in many different directions, and it’s a major part of what inspired me to pursue this field. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Art and design was the ‘gateway’ for me to pursue programming. When I was a kid in the early 2000s I found enjoyment from making and customizing Myspace layouts and learning CSS\/HTML. I revisited mark-up languages later on when I created my own blogs and websites for my music career, and then once more when I worked for the manufacturing company where I was tasked with maintaining it. I have a lot to thank my last job for that let me dip my toe in so many different projects, including the seminal ones that were a catalyst for my journey into programming. I had room and opportunity to learn Python to automate monotonous tasks, and pursue front-end projects in collaboration with the IT department. It was from here where I decided I wanted to be able to be more useful and learn more ways to be more efficient at my job and enrolled into OSU. I also found it really interesting how much I could customize and automate my work with a bit of code. I also loved that there was an endless amount of technology to learn – it’s hard to get bored.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, I’m at the tail end of my journey at OSU, and while I no longer work for my previous company that inspired me to begin (long story short- I got married and moved to the Bay Area where my husband’s job is located and had to leave the company as it was required on-site) I am grateful for the experience and opportunities it allowed me to have. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What’s Next?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’m hoping my next major gig will be in a smaller company where I can wear many hats. I think I thrive in smaller environments where I can see my impact more tangibly. I’m caught between not wanting to peg myself as a designer\/front-end only programmer and have been trying to pursue more back-end related projects, with special interest in database design and cloud infrastructure. But, as I’ve tried to run away from my identity an artist, I think it will always be at my very core.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hello there! My name is Michelle and I’m a designer\/creative based in the San Francisco Bay Area. I’m finishing up my computer science post-bacc degree from Oregon State University (I TA’d CS 340 for a few terms – you might recognize me from there \ud83d\udc4b\ud83c\udffb) and when I’m not busy being a student, I operate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13909,"featured_media":7,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/devmichelle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/devmichelle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/devmichelle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/devmichelle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13909"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/devmichelle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/devmichelle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/devmichelle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1\/revisions\/6"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/devmichelle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/devmichelle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/devmichelle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/devmichelle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}