The Women Behind AngeLink: Interview with Mia, Senior Full Stack Developer
“I started with just front-end development but quickly discovered that I can do and be more.”
Tech’s corrosive gender gap is a topic that should not be ignored. Today, we continue our Meet the Angels series by telling the stories of strong, powerful women who challenge the status quo.
Meet Mia, our newest addition to the team of web developers that work on the AngeLink’s website. She is a full-stack web developer, meaning that she can develop both the client-facing and server-side parts of a web application.
Hi Mia! Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
Sure! My name is Mia, I’m 26 years old, and I’m a full-stack web developer. Recently, I started to work as a front-end React developer at AngeLink.
Why AngeLink?
I love to be a part of a female-owned company and to work with like-minded females. I was also interested in fundraising, so when I read the job description, I knew I had to apply. So far, I really enjoy it! AngeLink is a unique and innovative company to work for.
Can you share a little bit about what it is that you do and what a typical day for you is like?
I live in Istanbul, Turkey, so I work fully remotely. I begin my day around 9 and 10 am my time. Usually, I start work by opening JIRA and checking all the tasks assigned to me. After I review them with my manager and my team, I ask all the necessary questions and then start working on my tasks. Sometimes, I have meetings with Gerry or our QA team members from India. In the evening, I’ve got daily standups and every week or so, we have weekly grooming and demo sessions that really help us understand where we are now and what the next steps are. We are an international team, so I get to talk to people from all over the world!
What parts of the AngeLink’s website are you working on? You mentioned React…what are other tools and technologies you use?
I started with dashboards and then slowly moved to other parts of our web application. I mostly use React and TypeScript while developing and when I need to test API calls, my tool of choice is Postman. It’s a simple yet powerful software for API testing and development that I really enjoy working with. For my state management, I use Redux, which is a popular open-source JavaScript library for managing application state.
What is it like to be a woman working in technology for you?
Well…it’s challenging and rewarding at the same time! I started with just front-end development but quickly discovered that I can do and be more. At that time, I was working on a project where I was the only female developer and one day, my boss told me that they were going to replace me with a male full-stack developer. This is when I realized that as a woman, I need to work harder than men to keep my job or to be promoted. Since then, I have always tried to learn new things and stay on top of industry trends.