Natasha DeCoste
Natasha is a wonderful soul and a curious foodie. She got into tech by seeing coding as a problem-solving challenge – which is the best way to describe it, I think! Follow this awesome girl to get a regular dose of her humour and positivity.
Follow Natasha on social media and learn about her story below!
About Natasha
I’m Natasha and I’m from Toronto. I like yoga, reading, cartoons and craft beer. I LOVE coffee, kale caesar salads and basically everything else food-related. I’ve grown up exposed to frequent travelling and I don’t think it could ever not be a part of my life. I fantasize about getting a job illustrating craft beer cans or being the person who styles the food for flat lays… maybe one day as freelance work!
How did you get into tech?
I started out with ambitions of becoming a graphic designer but ended up in a multimedia program. For two year I had exposure to film, animation, game development and a small amount of coding. I found coding to be frustrating and a very great challenge indeed. I was addicted and switched my degree to computer science (having to repent for all the lost and forgotten math). Some parts of my computer science program were really painful but some parts gave me the challenge I wanted or the foundations for something I’ve later needed. I tried to keep using my design skills throughout my computer science degree because I still felt the visual aspects were engaging to me but I wasn’t sure how it could fit into my new career direction. My internship landed me in a role as a front end developer at IBM’s software development lab (also Canada’s biggest development lab). Everything about web development was exciting to learn and perfectly combined the design activity I was missing. I went back to school thinking my perfect job is a front end web developer/UX designer and I’ve done everything I can to pursue that ever since.
What languages/technologies do you have the most experience in?
Javascript, ReactJS, SCSS, node.js, Typescript
What are you currently learning/practising?
I’m currently trying to exercise my design muscles with some animation, prototyping and illustration. I like to be able to create lots of amazing assets to use on web applications. For work, I am currently working with data visualisation using D3.js which has been quite exciting. For me, data visualisation, in general, feels simple and hard at the same time, which is quite strange.
What are your favourite resources to learn/stay updated on tech?
I use panda extension with many many feeds! Design feeds, developer feeds etc! Also, dev.to is pretty alright.
What would people learn about by following you?
I use my social media handles to post the fun side of tech and my personal life (you can’t code every day y’all). On my linked in, I like to share my experiences at tech events, workshops, STEM kids initiatives and with cool technology.
What inspired you to start sharing your experiences on social media?
I love sharing the fun evolution and innovation of tech and I really want to share that with people who have misconceptions about tech/programming. I’ve had so many friends comment that it seems boring to program or that they couldn’t look at code all day. I find it rewarding to surprise people by how simple it can be (sometimes) to do really cool things with technology.
How can we get in touch with you?
Send me a message on Instagram or LinkedIn
Lightning round
iPhone or Android?
iPhone
Dogs or cats?
Bird!
What’s your favourite ice cream flavour?
Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
What’s the next place you want to travel to?
Thailand
How many hours of sleep do you need to get to feel like yourself?
9
What is your superpower?
Carving pumpkins (if you’re thinking it’s useless you’re right).
Hahaha that’s a very random, but a fun superpower!
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