Learning and growing: from my first programming experience to the present

Remembering back to college, when I was first being taught how to program computers with HTML, my teacher demonstrated a web application he had made to calculate electricity expenses by entering the previous and current months’ electric meter numbers.  That moment was so amazing, and I looked at the demo without blinking.  I almost forgot to breathe as he said, “We were about to be able to do the same thing by the end of the day."  That was how engaging my first day as a software developer was for me.

After I graduated, I worked for a private software company for 2 years before joining InSTEDD, where I learned almost everything I know. From the basic Object-Oriented Programming to software Design Patterns and best practices; from Pair Programming and Test-Driven development to Agile software development; from creating desktop applications; and websites to building mobile andcloud-based applications; from rich web-based interfaces to minimalist SMS interactions; from working solo to working in a team; I learned all of these things during my time at InSTEDD.

For example, over the course of the last 6 months I have been working on creating an application that interacts with SMS to receive tuberculosis examination forms and send lab result alerts to doctors.  Now, I am involved in creating a voice-based application.  It is really a great environment to learn and grow.

At the iLab, we learn and grow with principles we believe in:

·         Building Capacity within communities to foster a local culture of innovation

·         Creating Tools to support social collaboration for the social good

·         Collaborating With End Users through a human-centric design & development

·         Ensuring Impact through research and evaluation

This is what keeps me happy and motivated.  What motivates you in your current job, and what do you believe in?