Hi! My name is Vivian and I am a software developer and PhD candidate! To tell you the truth I was confused when I was younger as to what path I was going to follow in my adult life. I knew that it would probably have something to do with STEM because these were the classes that I was good at. Also, all my family has something to do with the STEM field so growing up I was already familiar with some career choices that had to do with it.
Shout out to WiFi, coffee, and ambition.
Two things though had the most impact to make me choose a career in Software Engineering. The first one is that my father had always been into computers and technology in general. From the moment I was born we always had a computer or tech related stuff for me to play around with in the house. He taught me the basics of computers from a young age and I had my own computer very early in life.
The second thing that made my decision final was a programming class we had in high school. It was the first time I ever wrote an algorithm in a computer that had an input and an output. I fell in love with it right away. Writing code came to me so naturally that made me question why we weren't taught about that in school sooner.
So, I chose to study Informatics & Telecommunications Engineering in the University of Western Macedonia. At my first lesson about C programming I knew I made the right decision because I just felt happy and in the right place.
Any girl and woman who does her best to pursue a career in STEM is my role model. From Marie Curie to the girl next door who gets rejected from this field but doesn't give up and keeps trying. We have so much to learn from each other. Everyone has had their own experiences and if we share that we can be each other’s role models and heroes.
Work hard and stick to your goals. It's harder for women to progress in STEM, they must prove themselves every single day which is exhausting. But don't give up! Trust me your hard work will pay off and it will be worth it.