v0.0.7 - Keshia Coriolan

Keshia Coriolan is one amazing person: trilingual, traveler, latin dancing, Software Engineer / Technical Support Team Lead…what can’t she do?!

Her travels to Barcelona, Spain inspired a journey into learning the language of Catalan as well as a project she calls the Travel Diaries.

She’s also working to learn Rails! For the fall Keshia is organizing a Rails study group where they have varying skill levels and will work on projects with some accountability and camaraderie. Message her if you want in on that action!

Keshia started as a junior developer and almost didn’t stick with it. She’s since spent time working closely with customers and learning to dig into their issues to surface the “real” problem at hand and building up her communication skills.

Now, she’s seeking opportunities to get back into full-throttle engineering! The managerial path isn’t always the end goal for some folks. Sometimes they just want to solve puzzles!

Most importantly, though, Keshia shared her own experience navigating tech as a woman and minority in tech. It’s imperative we talk about it and help break the glass - even just a little - wherever we can.

In this episode, we’ll talk about language and traveling, Keshia’s Travel Diaries project, learning Rails + a study group, her experience in technical support and as a team lead, customer communication and problem solving, prepping for new roles, and being a woman and minority in tech - plus ways to become role models for the next generation.

Your call to action? → You belong here. Don’t be afraid. Sometimes you have to create your own support, but keep persevering! You still belong here.

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Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Keshia Coriolan

06:33 The Birth of Travel Diaries App

12:34 Insights from Technical Support Engineering

18:26 Balancing Management and Technical Work

25:21 Navigating Customer Support Challenges

31:54 Transitioning Back to Engineering

49:28 Empowerment and Belonging in Tech

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All the Good Stuff - Links & More

• LinkedIn

• Travel Diaries Loom overview

• John Crickett’s Spotify client coding challenge

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Thanks & Gratitude 🙏

🎵 The background music in this episode was created by the amazing Sarah Garlock. You can also find Sarah @sarg_makes_beats on Instagram and TikTok!

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Let’s Connect!

🎧 You can find this podcast episode and more at wip-podcast.com or wherever you enjoy your favorite podcasts.

👩‍💻 I also write a Substack newsletter about things I’m learning at codeOutLoud. You can find me on LinkedIn, YouTube, or take a peek at what I’m up to at mindi.omg.lol.

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Want to be - or recommend - a guest for the show?

Fill out or send this short Notion form to a friend to be considered for an upcoming episode! I’m looking for interesting people working ALL across the tech world! 😁