Author: Michelle Rollberg

My friend, who’s always been there for me through so many ups and downs, the person who got me into computer science in the first place, once told me, “Get comfortable not knowing how to do something. Just get your hands dirty. But do it now.” And that advice has stuck with me, especially while working on my Travel Planner app.

This friend of mine became a mobile engineer after graduating from UCLA, and when I asked him how he did it, he said, “I didn’t have a teacher. I just sat down, studied, and figured it out. I got my hands dirty.”

When I got assigned the recommendation engine for our app, my first thought was, “I have no idea how to do this.” And my instinct was to reach out to him and ask, “How do I even start?” But then I remembered what he’d said “Just get your hands dirty. If you need help, I’m here.” So, I decided to try to figure it out myself.

I knew enough about databases, and once I stopped freaking out about them, I realized they’re not that complicated, they just take time. I also knew the basics of algorithms, so I found one that might work and watched a bunch of YouTube videos to understand it better. Then I just made a plan: here’s what the algorithm needs to do, these are the stages it’ll go through, and this is the result I want.

Do I know how to use all the technologies I’m supposed to? Not at all. Have I ever worked with Pandas? Nope. Have I ever taken a machine learning class? Not yet. But I’m learning. I’m getting my hands dirty, and I’m lucky to have mentors, professors, and peers who are there to help when I get stuck.

I’m getting more used to that feeling of not knowing what I’m doing at first, but just figuring it out as I go. I’m excited and a little bit scared to actually do this, but I won’t stop until it’s done.

Hola a todos! This is Michelle, and I’m from Colombia. I live in Lake Elsinore, California. I’m glad I have the chance to talk about what got me into software because it was all a mix of trying and failing at everything I thought I was good at, and I ended up doing something I thought I couldn’t do but discovered I was capable of.

This might not be typical because most people in the industry are obsessed with technology and computers, but I wasn’t. I was passionate about painting, dancing, and hiking with my dad on the weekends. He always said to me, “Try everything you can until you find something that will bring you happiness,” so I did. I tried a lot of different things, but I never truly enjoyed any of them until I came to America and started taking coding classes to fulfill my science prerequisites. I would rather take C++ than any biology class!

I switched my degree from history to computer science, and now I’m excited to say that I would like to be a mobile engineer and build apps that help others. One app I would love to work on is a LiDAR to 3D Sound App for the Visually Impaired because it has a social aspect, would be a mobile app, and includes principles of GIS, such as 3D mapping of surfaces. It seems very challenging, but I think it’s a fantastic idea that checks all the boxes for something I would feel passionate about.

I enjoy software engineering, and what better way to use my skills than to build something that improves people’s lives? I know this might sound naive, but my optimistic view of the world led me to this new country, and it continues to guide me to places where I feel proud to work and be. So, that’s a little bit about me. How about you? Do you know what you’re passionate about and what skills you could use to explore that?

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