Tell us about yourself and what you do? Talofa, my name is Pou Dimitrijevich I am a Product Designer, living and working in the epicenter of tech: San Francisco, CA. I was born in Pago Pago, American Samoa, but grew up in Southern California. As a woman of color and as a first-generation Samoan woman, where I would go ‘next’–after high school or post-college–wasn’t always so perspicuous. I never thought I’d end up in Tech. I was raised by a single mother, in a two-bedroom apartment with seven siblings and
This is part two of our new series Fashion Meets Tech [see part one here], in tandem with onchek Jordan, a software designer at Etsy and formerly Twitter, is one to talk about music, art, and design. As a creative, who currently shares his creativity through software, he can easily go in depth on fashion and poetry as well. In his world, creativity is fluid. It can can take any form. “I’m glad to be here,” he said as he walked in. “I’ve never really done this before, but let’s
Tell us a bit about yourself and what you do? My name is Jennifer Cao. I’m a Service and Interaction Designer at Fjord. We help clients create digital services and products. It’s a great intersection of design research, strategy, and product creation. Every project a different dynamic and ask, so there is always a lot to learn. How and why did you get involved in tech? I had an interest in the arts growing up, but my parents were refugees and encouraged me towards a pragmatic and stable career path.
How and why did you get involved in tech Most of my studies from elementary school to college focused on the arts, specifically painting. I made the switch to graphic design during my latter years in college where I took courses around typography, photography and design theory. Unrelated to that, I also studied economics to gain a more balance education. It gave me the chance to train both my creative and critical thinking. My first gig was at a boutique design agency where I got exposed to many different skill
Tell us a bit about yourself and what you do? I am a product designer at Netflix. I’ve been there for about two years. I work on the studio engineering team which means that I build apps and software to help manage our Netflix productions more efficiently, like Stranger Things, etc. How does that work? It’s software that helps the production team with the whole process of making the show? There’s a little bit of everything. Netflix is a studio — we’re trying to be the biggest studio. So what
Tell us a bit about yourself and what you do. I’m the founder of a company called Girls’ Night In. We make things that help women celebrate self-care and build better connections with one another. For example have a weekly newsletter that reaches over 20,000 women across the globe that provides smart reads and recommendations on what to watch, listen to, or do during your night in. We also host monthly book club meetups in cities across the U.S., which has been such a lovely way for women to connect
What made you decide to work in tech? Working in tech happened pretty organically, and was born from several interests I had as a child. Science fiction and video games were popular family pastimes and cultivated my interest in technology early on. My grandmother was the first in the family to get a computer, and whenever we visited, I would lock myself in her bedroom to draw characters in Microsoft Paint based on the stories I wrote in WordPerfect. Once I left New York City and went away to school,
Writing code is not the only way to break into Tech. However, you can get paid to write in Tech. I work with engineers daily and trust me, if it wasn’t for us tech writers, a lot of the websites and apps you use every day would be a tad difficult to use and understand. So you may be asking, what does a tech writer do anyway? So glad you asked. The short version – we write instructions. The slightly more interesting version, we tell people what to do. Ok,
How would you describe your job to somebody who is outside of the design and tech world? I help guide the brand identity team. We build the standards, rules, and creative brand expression for our team to breathe life and souls into our brands at Vox How long have you been there at Vox? I started August 2016. I was a speaker at one of their company retreats in 2015 where I spoke about work-life balance. I’ve very familiar with the company and their brands; I loved SB Nation and
Tell us a bit about yourself and what you do? My name is Karla Mickens, and I’m a product designer at Facebook. Originally born and raised in North Carolina, and went to college at Virginia Commonwealth University. After that, I moved to New York where I pretty much started my career in design. I gradually got into more of the tech side of it, and haven’t a looked back since, now for six-seven years I think, maybe more. How would you describe your job to someone who doesn’t know what
