Cara Jo Miller. Lead Designer, Simple Energy Co-Founder, Girl Develop It Boulder

Transcription

1 Cara Jo Miller Lead Designer, Simple Energy Co-Founder, Girl Develop It Boulder * Thank you all for having me tonight. * I m Cara Jo Miller - Lead Designer at Simple Energy & Co-Founder of Girl Develop It Boulder. * It s great to be here in front of so many inspirational young women. Like some of the other stories you ve heard tonight, I also had a nontraditional path to where I am today. * I started out being a super nerdy kid in Junior High»

2 * Look at that computer! * I actually built my first computer with my dad from spare parts he had just laying around! * My mom was into making robots and taught me how to solder broken components back onto mother boards. * Despite my obvious love for computers - I actually wanted to be a geologist when I grew up.»!!

3 * Actually, I still really love rocks. In fact, this photo was taken just yesterday. * Even though I was really into rocks, I was still very much a creative person. And so people would call me things like: * Art Nerd»

4 ART NERD * Photo Nerd»

5 PHOTO NERD * And Computer Nerd»

6 COMPUTER NERD

7 ! NERD * Who here has been called a nerd, or a geek or something along those lines? * When you hear nerd Is this something like the image that comes to mind?»

8 * How about this?»

9 * How about these guys?»

10 * What about these ladies?»

11 * I mean, that s a Lisa Frank poster that someone is holding up - so that s kind of nerdy.»

12 ! NERD * After all those years of being called a nerd, what I really learned was that it really wasn t a bad thing»

13 ! NERD * Being called a nerd is really just another way of saying that you re»

14 ! PASSIONATE * Passionate about something that you really love. * And In junior high, you know what I was passionate about? * Drawing Pokemon»

15 * So much so, that I wanted to share them with people. * I figured the one place I could share them that everyone could access, was the internet. * I wanted to make a website for them, so I learned how to write HTML,»

16 * From Lissa. * I learned all sorts of cool things, like how to change the color of your scroll bar and how to make the chu-chu train follow your cursor around.

17 * I also learned more useful things like how to build a website. * Then I published this website on Geocities In

18 * That s roughly 18 years ago! * My first website is older than most of you ladies here tonight!

19 * The cool thing about building your own website is that you re the instant cool kid. * I mean, who builds their own websites in the 7th grade? * Everyone was asking me how to make websites. They d ask me for tips on HTML & CSS and I d go home,

20 * And put HTML files on floppy discs. They d have these little code snippets, and they were basically just

21 1.44 MB OF AWESOME * 1.44 MEGS OF AWESOME! * It was the 1996 version of GitHub! * I really loved making web sites, so I decided to try and major in Web Design in college. * I ended up receiving a Fine Arts degree in Photography and Web Design.

22 * I even took enough credits for a minor in blacksmithing! Because why not. * After College, I decided to find a job in Web Design. I really liked building web interfaces and solving problems, so that every day challenge sounded exciting. Plus, I found out that web design / development jobs were quite lucrative. * I moved to Detroit, Michigan,

23 * where I worked as the Senior Designer at the Detroit Free Press a newspaper for the city. And a few startups as well. * While I was living in Detroit, I slowly started getting involved in the local tech community. * I was on various groups leadership teams, and it was through that community - that I was able to meet Erika & Michelle. * Together the 3 of us started a local chapter of Girl Develop It.

24 * Being involved with Girl Develop It has increased my confidence 10 fold, I m a better person, developer, and designer because of it. * As you know, Girl Develop It a non-profit that provides low cost classes for women to learn computer programming. * I had always wanted to teach, but never had something I was passionate enough about to teach - until Girl Develop It.

25 * My experiences with Girl Develop It Detroit taught me that having the support of like minded people in your industry - is really crucial to your own, and others success. * I learned that with a little bit of positive support, which a lot of these women didn t have before, goes a long way.

26 * A little over a year ago - the love of my life broke up with me. * I hated my job. * And Detroit, as awesome a city as it is, was starting to wear on me. * I just wanted out. * So I decided to do something about it. * I decided move somewhere I had never been before.

27 * I was having coffee with a good friend of mine, who sometime offered very sound advice. * When I told this friend Hey, I think i m going to move to Boulder, they said do you think you re actually good enough to get a job in Boulder? * At first, I thought oh my gosh, maybe they re right - I ve only had a few jobs, I m

28 I M

29 I M NOT!

30 I M NOT THAT

31 I M NOT THAT GREAT * After my experiences with Girl Develop It, I learned to not put myself down, and I decided to turn that negativity into something positive. * I knew I was better than my friend thought I was, and all I had to do was prove it to myself. So I sent my resume to a friend, for feedback. Well, apparently it was good because he sent it to David Cohen, and because of him I was out here a week later at an interview.

32 I M NOT THAT GREAT * I guess I am that great. * Because I got the job on the spot. * Two weeks later, I got off the plane and started as Lead Designer at Simple Energy,

33 Photo of Cojo + SE * Right here in Downtown Boulder. * As Lead Designer at Simple Energy, I have seriously the coolest job. * Not only do I get to design beautiful interfaces everyday, but I also work with our engineering team to implement the design, and they re brilliant. * In addition to the things in my official job description, I got to help design our new logo

34 * And then put it on all of things like t-shirts..»

35 * hoodies, jackets, stickers and even these custom beer labels»

36 * We also have an in-house brewmaster that makes custom beer for the company * I know none of you can appreciate this yet - but in the startup world, that makes us the cool kids on the block.»

37 * A lot of tech companies these days offer perks like that, free lunches, breakfasts, company outings, ping pong tables, nap areas, and lots of cool perks that I couldn t find in any other industry. * Trust me, I looked. * My favorite ones that Simple Energy offers, they pay for me to run road races»

38 * I really like running marathons * They also support my adventurous tendencies.»

39 * And my favorite: * They are also a huge supporter of Girl Develop It Boulder»

40 * As you know, Kate and I started a little over a year ago. * And in that time we ve grown to over 450 ladies,»

41 450+ LADIES * Taught ~280 students to code»

42 280 STUDENTS * with over 30 classes.»

43 30+ CLASSES * Some of our first students, are now teaching their own classes.»

44 * One of the students in the very first HTML class didn t know how to write a single line of code. Now she s up there teaching our intro to programming concepts class. A class which she wrote. * And that s just the beginning.»

45 * Because of nation wide support of girl develop it and other organizations like it, now is a great time to be in tech. * And as you ve seen with me and the rest of the women you ve heard from tonight there are many ways to express your creativity through technology and you don t have to be this»

46 * to achieve this»

47

48 Thank You Cara