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Isis Anchalee
Isis Anchalee
01:11

Isis Anchalee

Hustle

San Francisco, CA USA

"Be able to put yourself out there and to find a community of people that you can resonate with."

Career Roadmap

Isis's work combines: Technology, Engineering, and Learning / Being Challenged

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Day In The Life

Software Engineer

I build software to empower political campaigns & organizations to communicate with their audiences.

01:52

Day In The Life Of A Software Engineer

My Day to Day

Solving bugs, building new features, laughing with coworkers, eating lunch and enjoying matcha tea with boba.

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

Click to expand

  • 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.