[alexschiller]

- Why did you get into the field? What did you focus on at first?

I liked playing with data in R and saw there was potential to do cool things if I learned more code during my PhD in Cognitive Psychology.

- What are you doing at your job? Is it everything you dreamed of and more?

Mostly front-end work at Amazon. I love it. I get to feel productive in ways I never experienced in academia.

- How did you break that first-job barrier?

I knew some people at a science focused non-profit. Interned while in grad school and signed on full time for 2 years before moving to my current role.

- What were you doing before this? Grad school in psych.

- Any tips for the rest of us? Keep grinding on projects you find interesting. It takes time to get good at writing code quickly. Review your own code as though it were someone else's.