Endless fascination by technology
Charlyn Gond is a backend software engineer at Uber Eats. Interview by Anda Asere Dienas Bizness.
Charlyn Gond is a software engineer by training and currently, a backend software engineer at Uber Eats. Her passion project is to build the Internet Of Things products, which include circuits, hardware, art, as well as 3D printed items while learning these skills from scratch.
Anda: If we look at the statistics, there is male domination in the IT industry. How do you see this? Is it true, that there are few women in tech or is the reality not so bad?
Charlyn: I think that in the US, the discussion about it is very mature in terms of how women should be involved in the technology community. There are a lot of community groups that help underrepresented people (not only by gender but also by age, race, backgrounds, etc.) come into the industry. I think we have a really good base and foundation to make things better, but we are not there yet. There is a need to inspire a lot more people to get in this industry and recognize the importance of diversity of thoughts and backgrounds.
Anda: Do you see a problem that the number of women involved in the technology industry is small? There are different opinions about it; especially it differs when you are talking with men or women. So — is there a problem in your opinion?
Charlyn: I think that the main issue is people’s internal biases. And I don’t think the goal is to get equal representation of diverse groups in every company and be done with it then. It is just the starting point. I believe that the end goal is for people to be so casual about diversity that we are not even thinking about it. The vision is that everybody is equal no matter who they are.
I think that at this point in time, the issue is more about underrepresented groups of people that are not equal. The starting point is getting to higher representation levels and having this concept of equality become normal. If you are surrounded with a bunch of different people who look, talk and are different, then you might let go of your internal biases on what it looks like to be smart, engineer, competent, etc. Representation is just the first step.
Anda: What are the reasons behind it?
Charlyn: I’m not an expert or a historian, but I didn’t grow up thinking that IT is a carrier that I could pursue. I came upon it by accident. My high school started a computer science program and I got to try it just because everybody had to learn about computers and programming. And I found that I was kind of good at it.
Anda: Was it a surprise?
Charlyn: Yes, it was a surprise. At the end of the year, they introduced it and I was even able to help my classmates to understand the subject. I guess that if my school didn’t decide to make computer science a subject they would teach their students, I don’t think I would figure out that it is something that I could do as a career choice. And I’m sure I’m not the only one in this situation.
I’m sure there are girls today who don’t know their potential at technologies because they never even tried it.
If they don’t have computer science at their school, they could probably still be journalists, scientists or mathematicians, but if they never do programming, they can’t know their potential. There is a need for actions for maximizing the potential of girls.
Anda: How to empower other schools to take the same steps your school took?
Charlyn: I’m sure it would help if organizations focused on teaching kids and especially girls about technologies and coding. Especially in the past and I’m sure it is still happening now as well — a lot of people used to think that computers are kind of boys’ toys and dolls are girls’ toys. I think it is probably different in various countries and in every country there are different toys kids play with, but it’s good there are organizations like Riga TechGirls that show an example how you can learn skills at a very young age. Hopefully, this inspires schools to teach computer sciences as well.
Anda: Do you have some idea what your carrier would be without computer lessons? What was your childhood dream?
Charlyn: I remember that when I was a kid, I thought that there were only a handful of carriers you could go into, like to be a doctor, a lawyer, a firefighter, a telephone operator. These were four professions I thought existed in the world. But when I was trying to choose my major in college, my top choices were literature and English.
Anda: One of the aims of Riga TechGirls is to inspire girls to come into the tech industry. What is your explanation — why technologies are a cool space to make a career?
Charlyn: Well, the thing I love about being in the technology industry is the fact you can be very creative with your problem-solving abilities. Code is a little bit magical because you can type some words on the screen and either make a car move halfway across the country or make physical things react to the thing you are typing. It is a very fascinating tool to solve problems with, but ultimately, I think that the technology industry, in general, is a great place to be if you are the person who enjoys being imaginative, creative and able to look at problems and try to solve them.
I think that every person needs to try it because you never know until you try it. It’s very cliché, but it is just one of these experiences we need to go through before saying if you like it or not. And it’s totally OK if you don’t, but I think there are a lot of interesting things in tech that doesn’t necessarily need the ability to code.
Anda: What are your thoughts about such initiatives as Riga TechGirls and other girls empowering organizations?
Charlyn: I think it’s totally cool. If we are empowering our younger generation to learn how to code and operate in this technology space, it’s a way of maximizing its potential.
Anda: Sometimes I have heard comments from men that little boys need role models as well and it’s not very fair to concentrate only on girls.
Charlyn: If we are teaching girls how to code, it doesn’t mean we can’t teach boys how to code as well. It just means that statistically there are a lot fewer girls who are very interested in it. One of the core problems, organizations like Riga TechGirls are solving, is that there isn’t a lot of role models for girls to look up to. Until today this issue remains, that’s why these organizations put a lot of focus on empowering girls. It’s easier to look at the tech scene and see Steve Jobs or Bill Gates.
Anda: Or Mark Zuckerberg.
Charlyn: Oh, there are so many. There is a very prominent speaker in America, but I’m not sure how prominent she is internationally — Sandi Metz. She used to program for a really long time and then she found that she thinks about code at a deeper level, like either architecturally or philosophically. She does a lot of conference talks about how to make your code better. She has this luxury of thinking about code in a different way, like in a way you wouldn’t get to think about it unless you were executing it every day. She has a lot of these very insightful, very smart talks. I think I have been a better programmer and a better technologist because she was able to talk in front of everyone and help them be better at our craft. It’s very inspiring. We need more people talking about how you can solve problems across technology and how you can make a world a better place that way.
A lot of my role models are those who are closer to me. I have a lot of mentors at work, who are very generous with their time and knowledge.
Anda: What’re your future ambitions?
Charlyn: Oh, man — my ambitions! It’s a very existential question. I’m excited by technology that augments reality. That’s why I’m so excited about my current company Uber Eats because we’re really augmenting the way people live. What excites me about my projects is that I’m not trying to get you to stay on your phone for hours and hours. What I’m trying to do sort of add these bits of technology to either help you be more delighted about the world around you or help you spend time with people in a better way, to make your reality a little more delightful. And I’m hoping that I get to continue to work in this space and continue to augment physical reality with a digital one.
Anda: How did you end up at Uber Eats? How long have you been working for this company and what was your career choice before this position?
Charlyn: I studied computer science at UC Davis and after college; I worked for a couple of software companies as a software engineer. But my experience at Uber was a little bit out of the ordinary. Do you know what a developer advocate is?
Anda: To be honest, I haven’t heard about it.
Charlyn: It’s OK, I hadn’t heard about it either. So, a developer advocate is a person who is kind of software engineer on the one side and a public speaker and event planner on the other side. It’s a person who speaks on stage and talks about technology, what their team is building and how developers can use it. It’s a bridge between developers who build products and developers, who are using it.
I happened to meet friends, who created a boot camp for developer advocates to learn how to do public speaking and things like that. And I thought that these are the skills that I have foundations for, but I really wanted to improve, so I joined a few friends of mine to learn how to be a developer evangelist. I just happened to go to a networking event for Uber and they were looking for a developer advocate with software engineer background I had. It was kind of a carrier shift and I was a little bit afraid of what it would mean for my carrier as a software engineer. After a year I was missing the coding part of my work and being a full-time software engineer so I decided to go to Uber Eats and be a software engineer again.
Anda: How often are you doing public speaking?
Charlyn: Actually, it’s not a part of my professional work. Technically I’m on vacation now (Riga TechGirls met Charlyn Gonda at TechChill, where she was giving a speech on “How hard is building hardware that works and Code you can hold: Making your first IoT wearable”), but it is something I like to do as a passion project, especially because I like to tell people that they can make all these hardware prototypes themselves, especially if they have a little bit of coding knowledge. You can do a lot pretty easily if you have the right tools at your disposal.
Anda: What are your core values if we are looking in a broader perspective?
Charlyn: I guess if we are talking very abstract, then kindness is a value that I appreciate a lot. I know it sounds very basic, but I feel that there are a lot of people who take it for granted. If you add kindness to all the relationships you create with people you meet, then the world just becomes an easier and better place to live and you form more friendships that way. There is just no reason to be mean to each other.
Another thing I value a lot is open-mindedness. There are a lot of different perspectives and backgrounds people come from. When I talk to people, I always try to be very open-minded about where they are coming from and what we are talking about, because you learn a lot more things that way about each other and you feel more connected that way.
Anda: Why do you want to stay in this field? Why you are not a telephone operator as was your childhood perception?
Charlyn: It’s never too late to be fluid with your career decisions, but I think I will be endlessly fascinated by technology. I think I will always be working with industries that revolve around technology, but for now, I’m very focused on honing my craft and being the best engineer that I could be. All engineers need to have a big responsibility.
Anda: Where did you grow up?
Charlyn: I grew up in the Philippines and lived there for most of my life until I was 17 and my mom and I moved to California and I continued my college education there. I studied computer science for a year at the University of the Philippines but then had to transfer. First, I studied computer science in community college and then at UC Davis. In total, I was studying computer science for six years.
Anda: You have experience of moving. How did it change you?
Charlyn: It broadened my horizons. Moving to a different country really helped me get to know myself a little better and be exposed to all of these different cultures because California, in particular, is a melting pot of a bunch of different cultures. I feel like I know more about the world now if I compare it with the period when I was in my bubble in the Philippines. Moving took me out of my comfort zone and ultimately made me a better person.
