Goodbye, deviantART!

My boyfriend at the time, Eric (mendozaaa), suggested I start job-hunting. I didn't know what I was looking for, but I figured I'd know it when I found it. I interviewed with a few companies, but none of them felt like a good fit for me. When I saw deviantART in a job listing one day, I was a little surprised. I had used this site off and on for a few years. It's how I met my friend Philip (takitus). And as I've told many, the reason I actually joined the site, nearly 10 years ago, was because of a guy I had a crush on in my vector calculus class in my sophomore year of college, forcewurks. But I started posting my art and quickly got drawn in by the photography community here after receiving a lot of good feedback from people like cubemb.

I ended up quickly in an interview with a few of the guys in dt. I believe it was  kouiskas, randomduck, kemayo, and a couple of other people. I was terrified, but in a good way. I was almost positive that, based on his accent, randomduck was actually the voice actor for Zangief from Street Fighter. I got off the call and told Eric, "That went terribly.  They asked me if I had made any contributions to open source projects... and well... I haven't. And maybe I should. Because whatever I'm doing now, it's not working for me. What am I doing with my life?" 

I couldn't believe it when, that same day, mhalpert, called me to let me know I had made it to the next step. 

And that's eventually how I ended up here. I was apparently the first lady to ever join dt, and continued to be the only lady dev until very recently when yumeruby joined and made me feel a little less lonely

My first day at deviantART was terrifying! After fixing one ticket, I came back to my computer from dinner, and I was told I was going to be doing a mini-project. I was thrown into a customer call the next day with pachunka, who I was definitely sure was on cocaine after hearing him talk.

I also was pretty sure that chris was actually a very intelligent, omnipresent cat based on his avatar. My first week on the job ended with me sitting at my desk in my apartment, head in my hands, thinking, "This is all so crazy, maybe I'm not cut out for this job" and picturing a reality where I ended up groveling back to my old job, pleading to be taken back, back to the simple life.

I learned. And I learned a lot. I grew more humble but more confident at the same time. Working for a site as old, big, and popular as deviantART will not just teach you but demand you to be a better developer, to be more resourceful, to be cautious, and to always watch your step. Given the age of dA, amongst other factors, we use a lot of technology that was built in-house and it has an inevitably steep learning curve because there's no way you could be familiar with it walking in, even if you are familiar with the principles driving that technology. Even if you don't agree with how those things are implemented or designed, they demand you to think about the architecture of things you build. And so working at deviantART has been a growing experience, given that. 

I constantly felt a heavy pressure on me to be better. But despite that, I was very happy! Unlike my previous job, deviantART felt like family in some way... some weird family where everyone is constantly talking about Game of Thrones and sharing Rule 34 Pokemon fan art. 

I've had every weird experience someone could have in their employment with deviantART. It's been, to some extent, much more than just a job. 

I've cried at multiple events. Because I'm that girl. Yet no one thought less of me for it. One time at a dt offsite in Marin Headlands, I cried because I was feeling like an outsider. And I was completely shocked when mudimba, DEVlANT, pachunka, and a couple of others made me feel better by telling me their own stories of times when they felt like outsiders, reminding me "We've all been there."

If not for deviantART, I'd never have gotten to know or met some of the people I work with who inspire me just by being the good, strong, awesome people they are: moonbeam13 (aka Wonder Woman), TheLaurenVerse who one time entertained a bunch of us on a bus by doing stand-up comedy about semen, zilla774 who is an amazing UI designer and has always impressed me with his work, kozispoon who I actually hate (but not really, at all, in any way) because I'm so jealous of her drawing skills, makepictures who always has the best stories to tell and I hope one day I'll have a story for every situation, and too many other people to list off, I suppose, but I easily could.