Julieta Campos Guzmán – Front-End Developer at etventure

Julieta Campos Guzmán is a Front-End engineer in love with design and beautiful UIs and working at etventure. She is a big advocate for mental health in tech, diversity and equality and always looking to strengthen her team and empower the people around her. With Experience in working in cross-functional, international and gender diverse teams, hailing from Mexico and based in Berlin, Julieta is the perfect gal to talk with about tech.  

In a Nutshell: Tell us a bit about your job and what role technology plays in it?

I am a Front-End Engineer, which means that I write code all day. My main responsibilities include transforming UI and UX into code and making sure that a user can do the desired actions within an app. I use a variety of frameworks, libraries and tools based on JS that, together with HTML and CSS, create the applications that you see whenever you surf the internet.

Where did your professional journey start and how did you get to where you are now?

I always knew that I would work with computers, ever since I started gaming on Linux and writing my first lines of HTML at age 11. I went to university to study Systems Engineering and then I started freelancing and working at ad agencies in Mexico City. After a while I got tired of it and worked at a phone company in their marketing department, but that was too boring. I ended up moving cities to Guadalajara where I learned Angular 2, which then helped me land my first job in Berlin and I have been here for more than 2 and a half years now.

Please continue this sentence: I have failed in …. and these were my learnings…(Either talk about a major challenge in your career & how you overcame it)?

I have failed in understanding the real magnitude of a project and these were my learnings: Make sure you share a common language with the stakeholders. In my case, I thought a project was an MVP when it was supposed to be a fully-fledged enterprise solution. This happened only because the stakeholders and the dev team never developed a common language and our whole relationship suffered from it.

We always hear there are not enough women working in Tech. What needs to happen to change that?

I think it starts from when girls are very young. At least in my culture, tech is not a normal female path. However, I was fortunate enough to attend an all-girls school during my formative years where I was surrounded by strong women who always said that I could do whatever I wanted to. My parents also always encouraged me to do tech, even when my cousins said that computers weren’t for girls. In my graduating class at university we were 8 people and I was the only woman, and that remained throughout my career until my first team in Berlin where we were 4 female front-end engineers.

When you think about ‘women’ and ‘technology’ what comes to your mind first?

Sandy Lerner, Sara Soueidan, Sara Drasner, Rachel Andrew, Jen Simmons… and an infinite list of women who have done and are still doing amazing things with tech. Tech used to be a very female-driven industry in the 80’s, so it’s incredible that we are struggling so much to be included in it now.

What skills do you need for a career in tech (aside from the actual tech skills)?

Communication, curiosity, and patience. Communication to be able to say what you mean and mean what you say. It goes both ways, you need to be able to express yourself and to listen to others. Curiosity to ask all questions. No matter how dumb it might seem, asking questions and being inquisitive can help understand problems better and solve them in more effective ways. My biggest failures have come from not questioning enough and following blindly when I wasn’t sure of things. Patience with yourself and with others. No one knows everything, not even the Twitstar developers who seem to have all answers on their Twitter feeds. Learning is a process that demands consistency and time, and you’ll get better with it. 

What and who were the influencers of who you are today?

My dad mainly because he always encouraged me to follow my dreams and do what I wanted to do even when no one else would. My junior high Computer Science teacher because she showed me that you can be girly and be a kickass figure skater, meaning you can be whatever you want to be. My female developer colleagues because they keep opening ground in a male-dominated industry. My boyfriend, for showing me what real passion for your work is and how much you need to do to achieve things.

If you could go back in time, what advice would you give your 17-year-old self?

Don’t doubt yourself, you don’t need the people who are holding you back, and you will make your dreams come true.

Julieta Campos Guzmán is a Front-End engineer in love with design and beautiful UIs and working at etventure. She is a big advocate for mental health in tech, diversity and equality and always looking to strengthen her team and empower the people around her. With Experience in working in cross-functional, international and gender diverse teams, hailing from Mexico and based in Berlin, Julieta is the perfect gal to talk with about tech.