How did you get started with software engineering?
When I was 15 years old, we started our programming class.
The laboratory only had two computers. One was the teacher’s, and the other one was for all the students to gather around it. The teacher gave us two difficult problems, and I was the only one in my class that was able to solve them. The teacher told me, you should pursue this. And that's how I started programming.
My name is Nadia Dan. I'm from Romania and I work as a senior software engineer at Trilogy.
What are you doing at Trilogy?
Right now, I'm in the finance department, so my manager is the senior vice president of finance, so I have to find solutions on my own and refine them on my own. I'm actually trying to help them clarify their processes, their workflows. It's a lot like a detective. You have a problem, you have to find a solution. There's a bug, you have to find clues and fix it. And I always like challenges.
In the beginning, it was hard to work in the finance team because I was just an engineer with an engineering background, so they started discussing with me lots of finance terms I'd never used, I've never heard of.
I had to do a bit of research and ask them to explain to me like, I have no finance background at all. It's a bumpy road until you get to know everything better. It's an incremental process. Help me gain more knowledge.
Gradually, I understood much better all the terms they were using, all the systems they were using, and the processes, so I can better configure the engineering part. I have a hobby of drawing. It requires time. It requires repetition.
How do you perfect your skills?
Maybe doing it flawed the first time and then the second time it's a bit better. A third time, a bit better. The 100th time, it's okay. The 1000th time, it might be great. Many people do see something technical and art stuff as being two separate things. But I don't see them separate at all. This process requires time.
Patience and repetition can apply not only to drawing, but also to programming. I'm still incrementally improving because there are always new problems I need to deal with. There are always new requirements I need to fulfill.
Right now, I can say I'm much better than I was a year ago, and probably next year I'll say the same about this year.
My name is Nadia Dan, and I'm getting better and better every day thanks to Crossover.
