#9 – Roo Harrigan, Software Engineer at Slack

Roo Harrigan is a Software Engineer at Slack & formerly a Project Manager in HealthTech.
Selected Topics: Becoming a learner instead of a knower, finding a job as a coding bootcamp grad, the advantages of problems, and unconscious bias.
About Roo: Raised in New Jersey, Roo studied anthropology and pre-med at the College of William and Mary, where she was involved in student health initiatives on-campus. This led to an early career as a Project Manager at Epic, a healthcare technology company. After attending Hackbright Academy, a women’s coding bootcamp in San Francisco, she became a software engineer at Slack in early 2016. Find her on LinkedIn, Medium and Twitter.
Books Roo  RecommendS
Check out her 2016 Reading List here
All Over but the Shoutin’ by Rick Bragg (Mentioned by Tammy)
Between the World & Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance
My Life on the Road by Gloria Steinem
The Sellout: A Novel by Paul Beatty
Swingtime by Zadie Smith
 
True Roo-isms

“The best teacher is the problem”
“I’m ethically aligned with the mission of this company”
“Nothing I study on my own is going to teach me as much as having a job”
“When my style of work changed, my style of living changed”
“I’m creative. I’m clever. And I can learn. And I know these things to be true because of what I have made.”
“If you don’t know what you want to do, stop looking for a job and start looking for a company.”

 
Transcription
Note: The text below reflects constructive editing of the published audio for clarity and flow. Time stamps indicate a change of topic.
Erin Allard: In today’s episode of WITtalks we’re with Roo Harrigan, Software Engineer at Slack, in San Francisco. Don’t miss this episode if you’re interested in becoming a learner rather than a knower, how to shine in technical interviews as a new developer, the advantage of problems, and becoming aware of unconscious bias
Welcome to another episode of the WITtalks podcast, I’m Erin Allard your producer and co-host.
Tammy Sanders: I’m Tammy Sanders, your co-host.
Erin: And we’re here with Roo Harrigan, who is a Software Engineer at Slack.
Roo Harrigan: Hello.
Tammy: Hi, Roo! Welcome to the podcast.
Erin: To set the scene a little bit, Roo has reserved us a cavernous meeting room in Slack, with sofas all around, a humongous table, and free sodas. So we’re pumped and ready.
Roo: La Croix…this is important.
Tammy: We’re very excited.
Erin: Awesome.
Tammy: Thanks for having us at Slack.
Roo: Heck yeah.
[01:22] Erin: So why did you say yes to being on our podcast?
Roo: I know that this podcast came out of the desire to record these one-on-one conversations that women were having about pursuing careers in tech. I frequently get approached for one-on-one opportunities to have coffee, or discuss, or a quick phone chat with women who are trying to enter the industry through the bootcamp route,...