What is your name and location?
Georgi Knox, an Aussie now living in Manhattan and loving it, especially now winter is over....
What's your background?
Ive been a software engineer for around 8 years now. I came to NYC to attend Hacker School and kinda just didn't leave...
What inspired you to become a software engineer?
I was one of the first kids in my school to get a computer. I was always tinkering with it, installing things (linux!) and playing games. I broke my computer so often that I must have drove my mom crazy. I remember "hacking" my friends computers back in the days of ICQ (when they displayed everyone's IP address) and doing things like popping their CD drive out. When I was 16 I built my own computer, saving up for parts from my after school job. There was no doubt I was going to study computer science at university but at the time I wasn't convinced I would be a software engineer, the classes were very theoretical and algorithms were so boring! But when I got a job as a software engineer I loved it - it was so creative and challenging and nothing like the classes I took at university. I still love it today :)
Please walk me through your day, what do you do at your company?
I work in the back-end engineering team at Bitly where we mainly use Go and Python. The best thing about working at Bitly is that the back-end systems are actually pretty complex - we have a micro-service architecture and lots of distributed databases. During the day I will work on building new features for the Bitly paid product.
Can you see yourself in ten years doing the same thing you do now?
In 10 years I'd love to be CTO of a successful startup. Id also like to be a role model for younger women entering the field - this is one thing our industry is really lacking is women role models.
What is the best advice you ever received?
"Wherever you go, there you are". Always rang true for me.
What is the most important thing you’ve learned in the last year?
I've learned to be more confident and to believe in my own abilities.
And what are your plans for the future?
To speak at lots of technical conferences! I love living here in NYC but at some point I can see the pull to San Francisco being too strong to resist any longer so I might move to the west coast and then probably eventually back to Sydney. The job opportunities here in America are world class, such exciting technical problems to solve and I feel really lucky to be here.
If you could do one thing differently, what would it be?
I wish I moved here sooner!
Any advice for your local/global Geekettes?
Be brave and aim high - if you fail then just try again. There are so few women in this industry that we all need to pull each other up and be supportive. Find a mentor and ask their advice and then when you are more established become a mentor yourself.
