Bytes on Bytes: Identity at Byteboard

Meet Monica Yupa (She/Her) an Assessment Engineer on Byteboard’s Assessment Development team based in New York. Moni first joined the extended Byteboard team as a part-time Grader and transitioned to her current role seven months ago.

Moni is a New York-raised, dance-loving, educator, and creator who is passionate about access to tech.?Here, Moni shares more about her journey to Byteboard and how identity shapes her work.

Educator, Software Developer, New Yorker, Latina - there are many parts to an individual’s identity that impact how they show up in the workplace. For Moni, it’s important for everyone to be able to bring their identity to the work they are doing; she shared why this matters: “It’s important to bring your diverse interests and goals [to the workplace]; this is what the tech industry needs to be better and more inclusive."

Moni’s advice to anyone entering tech is to be unafraid to change what a traditional computer science pathway - and the tech industry itself - looks like; the entire industry and the communities it impacts will benefit from each unique voice shaping it. She shared about her decision to become a Computer Science teacher in Oakland following graduation from Stanford University in 2017, an unconventional path for a CS graduate. “I decided that I wanted to be a computer science teacher, and I felt this was aligned with my mission to increase representation in the computer science industry. I felt to do this I first really needed to understand [what was happening in the classroom] and be in the field.”

At Byteboard, Moni is continuing this work in increasing representation in the tech industry. Moni shared that being at Byteboard and working on the actual development of interviews [which Moni sees as a gate to the tech field] is actually an extension of her work as an educator. “The Byteboard interview should feel like something that is helping you grow versus keeping you out [of the tech sector] unnecessarily. Despite the outcome of the interview, you can still walk away having learned something and practiced your computer science skills further.”

Moni’s lived experience as a Latina makes her really pause and think about who are the voices that need to be included in conversations at Byteboard. “This is really important in my work as we are crafting questions [for interviews]. Who are the individuals [including those from non-traditional routes] we are serving?”

With all her experience, we had to ask: “How is life at Byteboard?” Moni shared more about her experience at Byteboard.

“Byteboard is super diverse in a ton of different ways, which is really powerful given the type of work we are doing. Diverse perspectives are important to building an inclusive product. Byteboard does a good job of allowing people to be themselves.”

At Byteboard employees have a shared Monday ritual of sharing a photo from their weekend, what they experienced, and who they are which is a personal favorite of Moni's.

Thanks to Moni for sitting down with us and sharing more about her journey to Byteboard. If you are interested in learning more about opportunities at Byteboard,?check out our careers page?and follow us on?LinkedIn,?Twitter, and?Instagram.