Gina was wrong about wanting to be an English professor, but she didn't figure that out until she'd already earned her MA. She completed a web development bootcamp, started working in tech support, and made her way to DevOps Engineer at SOCi. She loves learning, teaching, and solving complex problems - preferably with a Bash script. She occasionally emerges from the shell to go hiking, play video games, and volunteer at a local horse rescue.

Presentations

23x

Check Your Own Boxes: How I Used My Blog To Land My First Job In Tech

Whether you're a fresh graduate or a career transitioner, breaking into tech can feel like getting stuck in an infinite loop: 
while need_job:
   if not have_experience:
       need_job = True 

In this talk, I’ll share how I demonstrated my value to potential employers - and got noticed - by transforming my personal blog into a living portfolio that showcased more than just my burgeoning technical skills.

Attendees will learn how to check their own boxes by showing off transferable skills, creating visible proof of competence, and highlighting how their learning process can be a strength rather than a limitation. I’ll discuss the practical steps I used to craft my blog to meet my needs as a career transitioner and how I positioned my seemingly-unrelated skills - like copywriting and photography - as useful and relevant to my development as a programmer. My blog got me noticed at networking events, served as a talking point in interviews, and bolstered my confidence. I’ll give attendees the tools to develop their own strategy to break the cycle and land their first job in tech.

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23x

Give ‘Em Shell: Joyful Automation For The Busy Programmer

It all started with a hacker. Years ago, a legendary build engineer wrote a collection of scripts so ingenious - and hilarious - that they lit a fire in my soul and changed my entire career trajectory.

In this talk we’ll explore how automation is a life hack that can transform daily drudgery into opportunities to learn, play, and make our lives more efficient. By using scripts to automate repetitive tasks we free our minds and to-do lists to tackle the complex challenges that attracted us to programming as both craft and career. I’ll share some of my favorite scripts, including a daily digest tool that integrates with AWS and Datadog, and imhungy.sh, a command-line tool that uses data, APIs, and a dash of whimsy to answer the age-old question: what do you feel like for lunch?

Attendees will leave inspired to turn their own most tiresome tasks into projects that spark joy. Whether you’re a sysadmin, developer, or hobbyist, you’ll walk away with fresh ideas and a new appreciation for the humble yet mighty Bash script.
 

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