Cool Job: I’m Duolingo’s Director of Engineering
The process of learning a programming language is often compared to learning a spoken language: there’s syntax, unfamiliar grammar, relentless practice, and rewarding a-ha moments. Vanessa Jameson, the Director of Engineering at the education app Duolingo, knows a thing or two about both domains. At Duolingo, Vanessa leads a team of engineers that focuses on…
Cool Job: I’m A Front-End Software Engineer at iHeartRadio
As a classically-trained pianist in Nashville, Sarah O'Keefe always imagined working in the music industry. After getting a degree in music business and enrolling in law school to become an entertainment lawyer, she discovered another passion: coding. “All the times when I probably should have had my nose in a law textbook, I was teaching…
Cool Job: I’m a Principal UX Designer at Twitch & Co-Founder of Hawaiians in...
Like so many millennials, Taylor Ho’s initial gateway to coding was customizing layouts for his MySpace profile as a teenager. Those early days of writing HTML/CSS purely for self-expression eventually led him to graphic design and web development. Now, he’s a Principal UX Designer at Twitch. “I’m a strong believer that each skill you pick…
Cool Job: I Code Easter Eggs & Games on Google Search
Every so often, when you search specific terms or topics on Google, you’ll find a delightfully surprising feature called an Easter egg. Search “puppy,” for instance, and you can click the paw icon in the right-hand panel to see a puppy paw reach across your screen and hear an adorable bark sound. When you search…
Cool Job: I Use C++ To Build Concerts In The Metaverse For Justin Bieber...
Brenda Chen was pretty much clueless about the possibilities of virtual and augmented reality until she tried on a VR headset for the first time in college. “It changed my whole trajectory,” she says.As an immersive extended reality (aka XR) artist and designer, Brenda found her niche designing virtual concerts. “A virtual concert is kind…
Cool Job: I’m a Software Engineer at LinkedIn & Orchestral Cellist
In many ways, a technical interview for a programming job can feel like an audition — your performance is being evaluated on the spot, it’s nerve-wracking, and there’s a potential job on the line. Though if you ask Zach Mansell, who was an orchestral cellist for a decade before learning to code, software interviews tend…
Cool Job: I Make AI Practices More Sustainable
When you interact with AI in your daily life, you probably don’t give much thought to the humans and machines that make it work behind the scenes — and that’s part of the technology’s allure. It’s thrilling to sit back and watch ChatGPT write a cover letter or listen to Siri read the weather. But…
Cool Job: I’m the NFL’s Football Operations Data Scientist
Monday morning watercooler chats after a big football Sunday look a little different for Tom Bliss, the National Football League’s Football Operations Data Science Manager. “The fun thing about our group is that we have both a robust data background as well as a football background,” Tom, who has worked at the NFL since 2020,…
Cool Job: I Recruit Pentesters for HackerOne
Witnessing a live HackerOne hacking event for the first time was “mind-blowing,” according to Ariel Garcia, who is now the Senior Manager of Technical Community Programs at HackerOne. At the time, he was working as a Senior Cybersecurity Analyst for an Argentinian financial company, but being in Las Vegas, surrounded by talented ethical hackers who…
Cool Job: I’m A Game Designer For “Kerbal Space Program 2”
Working in the gaming industry is not all fun and games, according to Sydney Adams, a Senior Game Designer in Seattle. “It has not been an easy process by any stretch of the imagination,” she says.Sydney, 29, got her start in gaming as an intern at Wizards of the Coast, where she worked on games…
