Therese Gordon

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About Therese Gordon

  • Technical Interests
    Python, Ruby, and software engineering for research.
  • University/College Attended
    Master's Degree Columbia University; Bachelor's Degree Brown University
  • Degree Received
    MSW; BA
  • Hobbies/Interests
    Reading non-fiction and fiction, running.

Get to know Therese Gordon

What are you looking for in your next role?

In my next role, I am looking for opportunities to continue to build on what I have learned at Launch and to be challenged by new problems within a collaborative team.

Why did you decide to change career and/or educational paths? What was your prior path and how did you end up down that road initially?

I decided to change my career as I was excited about the many opportunities in a career in software development and because I found I really enjoyed coding. I originally entered the social services field to be a therapist. I thought that this field would be the best way to align my skills with making a positive impact. However, over time I found that the client-facing side of the work was not the part I liked the most. Instead I preferred problem-solving with colleagues, and keeping track of tasks and information. I knew I wanted to take my career in a new direction, but I was not sure right away how. This exploration eventually led me to consider software development.

Where have you been involved in the tech community (events attended, volunteer activities, etc.)?

I'm interested in the use of technology to improve individuals' lives and am interested in attending events with Code for Boston. Following my experience making a career change, I also would be interested in helping others explore software development as a career and possibly making the switch.

What has been the most fulfilling aspect of your journey towards becoming a web developer? What's been your biggest challenge and how have you overcome it?

The most fulfilling aspect so far of becoming a developer has been connecting with supportive and welcoming people in the field. The choice of making a career change from a very different industry seemed almost too far-fetched to me at first. However, from my earliest interactions with current developers, I was encouraged to give coding a try and offered resources and ideas for how to do that. These interactions suggested positive experiences working in the field, and also helped me take the chance to try something very new. My biggest technical challenge has been in learning to discuss code effectively since this has been very different from discussing issues in my prior work experiences. Over time, I have been able to learn terminology required to talk about coding and to learn the details or if context is needed to talk about a particular problem.

If you had an unlimited budget and resources, what would you build?

With an unlimited budget and resources I would want to build something that would address a societal issue, or one part of it, and directly make a difference for individuals. Whether through connecting people to information and resources, creating a new technology, or through research, I am most interested in working on projects that I think can help people in a tangible way.