Interview: Amalia Fergin, Frontend Web Developer & Content Creator

By Angela Tai

Can you tell us why you decided on the STEM field because you actually didn’t go to school for computer science, right? 

Yeah, I didn’t actually understand what coding was. If you could go back in time five years ago and have told me that I would be a computer programmer today, I wouldn’t have believed that for a second. But going into the real world, you realize how transferable these skills are. When I was still a student at my liberal arts college, I was bored doing work as an Admin Assistant and I would do the work so quickly and get even more bored because I have bad ADHD. At the time, I just needed to find a way to fill the time so I would read The Economist, Harry Potter fan fiction and a whole range of different things. I needed something to stimulate me intellectually so I picked up Calculus - it was hard for me to concentrate at first so I had to force myself to deep dive into the subject. I’ve been in the game for two and half years now! When you start off as a Junior Developer, it’s common to get internships for Front-End Dev jobs first and then once you build those skills, then you can move into other positions. 

Can you share some of your hobbies that may (or may not) have contributed to your STEM involvement?

I always really liked computers. I was a well-rounded child - I did everything. My parents were diplomats and we moved around a lot. One thing that was stable for me was video games, especially in different countries where I didn’t know anyone or the language. I gamed a lot - I didn’t game merely for the “oh, I’m a very tactful person, look at what I can do.” I have to say that being in Seattle (tech city capital) has helped me find like-minded people. Seattle has Airbnb, Microsoft, Boeing, Amazon and Google among so many others. You get influenced by those around you to look into the tech field; I’m a bit of a dummy but I always just didn’t want to look at my computer and/or phone as this magic entity. I truly wanted to understand how things are built. I read about the different types of careers in gaming and in web development. Now, different sections within the gaming industry have a horrible work/life balance so I knew to steer clear from that section. It’s cool - I get to enjoy games and develop features/apps as my job and I’ve met some awesome gaming devs. It’s kind of similar but what they’re doing is in a different program from mine, my friends made badges and they spent hours doing it so that’s one of the coolest things about the tech world - everything is interconnected. 

You’ve done an incredible job of building your own personal brand through your wide social media reach. What do you think companies do wrong when it comes to branding? 

There’s a couple of red flags, tech is an advanced industry yet it’s very left-learning. I watch either my coworkers or companies around me who are constantly leaving reviews or descriptions on glassdoor. There are so many platforms where you can look up how a job is, work/life balance, company culture, etc. I follow these topics through word-of-mouth and you can tell when a place is authentic vs. when you’re there just for the paycheck. I’ve been around some devs who have wanted to mentor me and you see the onion layers being pulled back and you’ll see that there are people in the tech industry who are sexist and don’t want inclusion - they do exist.  

What gave you the initial confidence to put yourself out there and when did you realize your messaging is being heard?

Mine was kind of twofold because I graduated from a boot camp. I actually had to take it twice because I didn’t understand it the first time around; I didn’t understand all the data. You know, it wasn't like I was actively trying to put myself out there in some way like “oh, I code and this is kind of fun.” I had no idea and so I didn’t necessarily think “oh, I just want to promote tech.” I’ve been on reality tv shows before and I was like, “I have no hobbies but I have two spoons so I’m going to try to make some music.” It just started to click for me. I kept getting messages after messages from so many people telling me that I seem so approachable and I am approachable. I’m not trying to sound like an asshole, there’s already enough devs who are arrogant. I believe coding is such an important skill to know, in a way, it gives you a lot of freedom and you have these transferable skills so you’re able to jump to different industries if you want. Coding is in every industry so you can’t just say, “I want to be a Software Developer” and that’s it. There’s thousands of them within one city alone. There have been lots of women who have asked me about the benefits of being a woman in the tech industry - it’s all about female empowerment and independence. I’ve been in a couple of bad relationships where my money/independence was gone and I was so reliant on the guy and I’d be so scared of messing up. When I learned how to code, that was on me. I can sit on any computer anywhere in the world and start using code editor. It’s free to go to Starbucks and ask for water and an internet password. Then, you can learn how to code! You can be a decent coder and you’ll be fine, it’s a scapegoat for me. In a workforce where women are paid significantly less, I think it’s imperative to make sure women are paid their worth and have decent opportunities. At the end of the day, a computer is a computer and it doesn’t care what gender or race you are and so that’s what I like about it. I am an extrovert but I don’t like people very much so that’s why I love computers. 

Over the past year you have been involved in CUT YouTube videos which have over 10 million subscribers. For somebody wanting to start their own channel, what advice would you give to help them create a popular channel with lots of subscribers?

What I have been noticing is that so many people have been messaging me to start their own YouTube channel and I honestly have no straightforward answers. I just sort of said to myself, I’ll start a channel now and will figure out the rest later. Just like tech or any other skill, you start to learn the basics and have to do it badly to get it off the ground. It doesn’t have to be the best thing you’ve ever created, I’ve been on shoots at CUT and I’m cringing after watching the footage of myself but it’s just trial and error. I’ve been involved with CUT for three years and now I come in and know exactly what they want and I ask which version of myself they need for that day. There’s always a niche for anything so before you can flourish: try, try again, fail, get up, rinse and repeat. 

Do you obsessively edit your content? 

I’ve kind of been not as active on my social channels as I want to be. Sometimes, I’ll edit my videos but I don’t use Photoshop. I think the content that I have is mismanaged and people see that and are like, “oh she’ll post whatever she wants, whenever she wants.” If anything, I’ll post about myself, tech and a lot of political satire but it just depends. I’ll admit that when I see women in tech who have these beautiful desks, I’m impressed because that is so not me but you figure out what is authentically you and mine is just good chaos. 

Has there been any point when you wanted to give up working in the tech field? What made you stay?

When I was going through my bootcamp, I cried everyday. I would go into the bathroom stall and cry; I would tell myself I wasted my money. I deal with terrible imposter syndrome everyday, it is so much easier to give up and there are times where I’m like, I’ve done the most that I can and your manager says great but my motto is to just fuck it and show up. There was a tweet today that came out, I’ll send you the link. It said something along the lines of, this guy got a 2.4 GPA during his first semester of college and now he helps engineers all over the world and he helped design the spacecraft that landed on the moon and on Mars. There’s this assumption that you have to be a genius to work in tech - my mentor is brilliant and he’s a coder and I’m also a coder, it just goes to show that we all come from different backgrounds. 

A lot of the women, especially women of color, in STEM talk about their experience of joining a field where they didn’t see a lot of people who look like them. Was that your experience when you went into the STEM field?

My personality has always been quite strong and one would call me a bulldozer but I’m not going to say that seeing a lack of representation didn’t bother me. I would go to these tech hackathons and meet-ups and as I was waiting for my boyfriend, people would come up to me and ask if I was the event planner/receptionist. I was shocked! When I do see women in tech struggling, I’m still like, “come here and I’ll protect you.” I want to make sure they feel comfortable and after a while, you only need a couple of people to make a safe group. It’s okay to be different and not fit the norm and then the group eventually expands. I’ve had guys who have told me that they want to do an informal coffee/job interview and I’m like, “what the hell?” There have been times where guys have taken off their wedding bands, it’s outrageous. I’ve had guys tell me that they can help me for free but I’m always worried that there’s some sort of exchange involved. There’s so much to go through and look through at times, I’m always worried that this kind of thing might come up. Even the huge companies have these crazy sexual harassment cases that are filed against them. As a woman of color, I’m trying to promote other women of color and disenfranchised groups, thank goodness for The Me Too Movement and holding people accountable for their actions. The best thing I could say when I’m encountering unpleasant people is to not engage with them and try to find the people that can be good allies. It’s a tough thing because they don’t make it easy, it’s frustrating for sure. 

You’re quite vocal on your social channels (especially Instagram) from women’s reproductive rights to some of your personal experiences at work. Are there any (YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, etc…) influencers out there who inspire you regularly? 

There’s a really really nice group on Instagram for women in tech, there’s these phenomenal chicks who absolutely annihilate aerospace engineering and they’ve showcased some of their work on AWS. Some women in this group build rockets and they’re just so inspirational. When I first started on Instagram, I followed random models and would feel incredibly depressed but I started following entrepreneurs/women in tech and it’s such a cool community. You know, pre-pandemic days, it wasn’t uncommon for a woman to fly to Seattle and there was a whole group of us meeting up for dinner and we’d talk about tech current events, partners, and life stuff. We’re incredibly normal people doing these jobs and having these careers; I feel a lot of people think that this isn’t attainable. It’s frustrating because you don’t have to code to be in the tech industry - those that inspire in tech are those that are real, curious, inquisitive, and capable of building their skills. That’s what really inspires me. I love meeting women in tech who aren’t docile and don’t want to be silenced. 

You posted a fascinating quote on your Instagram lately, it said: “Get used to being uncomfortable because we [have] a lot to unlearn.” That quote was a reference to Black History Month. How have you been celebrating this special month? 

I have tried to do a lot of work on myself and unlearning certain things like racial profiling. I lived overseas in Southeast Asia my whole life until I was 19 years old. Then, I moved to Oregon and started interacting with different people. I just had no idea about all the pain and suffering that black Americans go through on a daily basis. I got told by the embassy my whole life that the U.S. has the best opportunities in the world. It was just about unlearning the propaganda, regardless if I’m brown and have had a good experience so far. There is this amount of barriers/weight that people of color carry and they have to perform for this white culture. It’s absolutely exhausting and this year and last year have been incredibly tough. I think coming from an Asian American’s perspective, I do have different privileges that someone who is black wouldn’t have and I should use my privilege to be protective. I purposefully will stand in front of a black individual at a protest so the police won’t target them. It wasn’t long ago when blacks and whites had to use separate bathrooms. There are certain privileges that I have been given and they’re still not given them. It’s horrifying to think that the U.S. is full of opportunities and it’s a big melting pot but it’s not, we have so much work to do. It’s imperative for us to focus on those and help these people in any way that we can so they can really flourish one day. I don’t know what that entails or what that means - all I know is that we haven’t been doing enough. 

You were very vocal about your support for Biden/Harris this past election. In fact, you implored people to get out and vote, “vote like your life depends on it this election, because I don’t want my future to go up in flames.” As a woman of color, what was the significance of this historic presidential victory for you? 

I have to think about this before blurting it out, I think representation is a necessity to look beyond what has been traditionally for however many years. I do believe in all of Biden/Harris’ policies pushing forward but I also understand the importance of what she represents. I wish I had somebody like her to look up to when I was younger. I didn’t know that there could be a woman in power at that level because it wasn’t available back in the 90’s and I think that’s something that we should acknowledge. These policies aren’t superb but being in a sort of environment that is male-dominated. I like the squad AOC and the rest of them - these are the people that I have been learning towards. I like that kind of representation; I like the millennials coming in and saying, “I bought these clothes from goodwill” and they’re just understanding of what the average american is going through. BLM is interesting because I come from a pretty privileged background, I went to school with billionaires’ kids and these people will never have to think about how much their rent or health insurance is. It’s important to think about why we should reinvest in the community, let’s just transfer the money and at least give half to people in need. 

What inspirational message would you give young girls to inspire them to pursue STEM?

Don’t let imposter syndrome in your head tell you no or that you’ve wasted your time. It’s absolute bullshit and I didn’t know a lot of what programming was in stem or anything about medicine when I first entered the field but it’s a lot of repetition and takes a lot of practice. You won’t be good at it at the very beginning but for the love of god, don’t give up. I don’t even know how I’ve built some of the apps that I have but you start connecting the dots and it turns into something that the client wanted. For all my women in STEM/pursuing a career in STEM, you are needed, you are wanted, and there is still a spot for you. It’s important to be a little courageous everyday and don’t compare yourself to the person sitting next to you. There are times where I’m like, I’m getting fired and want to give up but then you come back a week later and there are so many new features to check out in tech. I would say to find a genuine group, you want a good group that will literally cheer you on and who’s not there for competitive reasons.