Isis Anchalee

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By Roadtrip Nation

Isis Anchalee

Highlight

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01:11

Isis Anchalee HighlightInterview Highlight

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08:21

InterviewThe Interview

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00:52

Advice For Women Wanting To Enter The Tech IndustryWeb Exclusive

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01:07

Advice For Women Wanting To Enter The Tech Industry - PROFANITYWeb Exclusive

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01:52

Day In The Life Of A Software EngineerWeb Exclusive

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01:32

Definition Of SuccessWeb Exclusive

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02:14

Gaining ConfidenceWeb Exclusive

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03:05

My Career PathInterview Excerpt

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02:56

Being A Female Software EngineerInterview Excerpt

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01:17

Your Environment Can Impact The Way You Live Your LifeInterview Excerpt

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01:04

Dealing With The Noise As A College DropoutInterview Excerpt

Milestones

My road in life took a while to figure out.

Born and raised in Fresno, CA.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Keep following my journey

Education

High School

Certification/License
Computer Software Engineering
AppAcademy

Career

Software Engineer

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

Career Roadmap

My work combines:

Technology

Engineering

Learning / Being Challenged

Day to Day

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

Skills & Qualities Beyond School

Good communication - be able to explain technical concepts to non-technical people, and write self-documenting code that is easy to read/follow/build on top of.

Advice for Getting Started

Here's the first step for high school students

Learn to code. Teach yourself, go to school, or do a bootcamp. Just make sure to do your research and find the right option that works for you. Start as early as you can!

Hurdles

The Noise I Shed

From Family:

"If you don't know what to do with your life, then just be a doctor like the rest of your family."

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.

Challenges I Overcame

Financial

I couldn't afford college, so I started off by going to community college. I even struggled to afford that.

Gender Discrimination

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".

Single Parent

I was raised by a single mother. I watched her struggle, but she taught me the value of hard work.