17.2.3. Briceida Mariscal¶
"I love learning about new technologies and trying them out. I know that if I keep digging at them, it will click, and I will learn them. Just knowing that I know that I can learn helps make me love the field."
How did she get into computing?
“In 2016, I was working as a security guard at Jack in the Box. During that time, I met my boyfriend. He was the one that encouraged me to go into tech, because a friend of his told him that, hey, you can just self-study. It was very hard for me. But he kept pushing me and telling me, ‘Yeah, I think you can do it. You’re very smart. You can do it. You can definitely do it.’”
How does she view CS?
“I was an anthropology major. I was always trying to figure out how the world worked and how humans interact. As a software engineer, I get to see the part of life as a member of that society. I previously read books about how tech impacts society, but being inside this field gives me another perspective.”
Coming from an anthropology background, Briceida views CS in an interdisplinary manner, where she highlights the anthropological aspects of it. That gives her a unique perspective.
Who does she look up to?
“A role model for me was my previous tech lead. He was a white man. I admired him because he was humble. He was not arrogant. He treated me like an equal. He explained things to me like an equal. I consider him a role model, because that’s something that I want to achieve once I become a tech lead.”
What subfield is she interested in?
“During the bootcamp was when I decided that I wanted to be a back-end developer. I did not want to do front end, because it’s a different kind of programming where you’re gluing things together. I just didn’t find it interesting.”
Briceida does back-end developing, where she builds and maintains the server-side components of web services.