Isis Anchalee
Hustle
San Francisco, CA USA
"Being able to put yourself out there and to find a community of people that you can resonate with, it makes going through the challenging bits a lot nicer."
Career Roadmap
Isis's work combines: Technology, Engineering, and Learning / Being Challenged
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Day In The Life
Skills &
Education
Advice for getting started
I struggled to pay for community college and I just wasn't willing to spend even more money and go into debt studying something that I wasn't really passionate about. I decided to continue taking classes at my community college until I figured out what I liked. Once I found software engineering, I realized I liked it and that I could get a good job without having to go to school.
Here's the path I took:
High School
Certification
Computer Software Engineering
AppAcademy
Life & Career Milestones
My path in life took a while to figure out
1.
Born and raised in Fresno, CA.
2.
Growing up, she spent a lot of time playing video games, coding, and reverse engineering her Neopets Guild websites, but she had no idea that software engineering was an actual career choice.
3.
As the youngest child in her family, there was a lot of pressure on her to go to medical school and become a doctor like all of her cousins.
4.
Started taking science classes at her local community college but struggled with figuring out what she was interested in and the financial burdens of going to college.
5.
Inspired by a friend who had taught himself to code, she dropped out of college and spent the next year teaching herself how to code.
6.
Attended a 12-week software engineering bootcamp from App Academy that enabled her to land her first job as a Platform Engineer at OneLogin, Inc.
7.
After appearing in a company ad campaign for OneLogin, she was the target of sexist comments for “being too pretty to be an engineer”—this led her to start the viral #ILookLikeAnEngineer campaign.
8.
She has since worked at Uber and Hustle as a Software Engineer—jokingly refers to these challenging experiences as the equivalent to the 4-year computer science degree she never received.
Defining Moments
How I responded to discouragement
THE NOISE
Messages from Family:
If you don't know what to do with your life, then just be a doctor like the rest of your family.
How I responded:
I struggled to pay for community college and I just wasn't willing to spend even more money and go into debt studying something that I wasn't really passionate about. I decided to continue taking classes at my community college until I figured out what I liked. Once I found software engineering, I realized I liked it and that I could get a good job without having to go to school.
Experiences and challenges that shaped me
I couldn't afford college, so I started off by going to community college. I even struggled to afford that.
I was the target of very sexist comments after appearing in an ad campaign for OneLogin. People just didn't believe that I was an engineer because I was "too pretty".
I was raised by a single mother. I watched her struggle, but she taught me the value of hard work.
I had no idea that software engineering and coding were even job possibilities for me. Once I discovered it, I dropped out of college and taught myself how to code. It's been challenging learning things in an informal way.