Career Chats: Naomi Quispe

You've probably heard the phrase "a career path is never a straight line." It can be scary to not know what you want to do, or know what you want but not how to get there. Career Chats is a series aimed towards tackling these uncertainties. The series highlights women in different roles across LinkedIn and the unique journey that led them to where they are today. We hope these stories will help you find your path to your dreams.

------------------

Career Chats with Naomi Quispe

Role:?Senior Software Engineer, Experimentation Platform team (TREX)

------------------

Q: Walk us through your career path so far.

I was born and raised in Peru and came to the US for my undergraduate studies. My parents believed that excelling in 3 key pillars (academics, sports, and arts) would lead to college admissions, so I worked very hard to swim at the national level and play violin in a local orchestra while also maintaining good grades. My parents encouraged me to apply to top US colleges for STEM degrees and I believed it was a difficult but feasible goal. However, a school counselor tried to discourage me from applying to MIT, and after I got in he implied that I must have been accepted because I am a minority.

I decided to study mathematics because it was a subject I was good at in high school and I believed having a strong base would prove useful for any engineering field in case I decided to switch. Unfortunately for me, although I went to an excellent school back home their focus was on liberal arts: I had gained great English skills but was woefully unprepared for the math and science levels at MIT. After dropping my first two major math classes my sophomore fall, I felt like a failure. I had been so good at this subject in the past and I could not make heads or tails of what I was learning in Real Analysis or Linear Algebra. “Maybe that counselor was right, I wasn’t meant to be here” - I thought to myself. However, I realized that due to my upbringing, I only did things I felt I “should” spend my time doing and not what I truly enjoyed. More importantly, I didn’t even know what I truly enjoyed doing, because I hadn’t given myself the chance to figure it out. With encouragement from a friend, I took a leap of faith and enrolled in an Introduction to CS class, where I realized that coding came much more naturally to me and was more fun than proving abstract concepts in my math classes. I ended up graduating from MIT with a degree in Computer Science.?

Before my senior year, I had the amazing opportunity of being an intern at LinkedIn with the TREX team (Targeting, Ramping, and EXperimentation), where I learned about full-stack development for our platform. I returned to the same team the following year as an entry-level offline infrastructure SWE and was promoted last year to Sr. SWE.?

Q: What do you enjoy most about your role?

I love working in offline infrastructure because it has challenged me to grow as an engineer. Building robust and scalable data pipelines is a field that is still evolving in the industry, so a lot of problems haven’t been solved yet. This has given me the opportunity to be creative with my technical designs and allowed me to progressively improve our existing pipelines.?

However, my job is not only technical design and implementation. We collaborate with many teams at LinkedIn, so I also facilitate communication in projects within the team and with external partners. In addition, I encourage inclusivity and belonging in my team, as I believe those are important traits for a good work environment. I enjoy this part of my work the most and would like to continue honing my skills to someday become a manager.

Q: What is the best advice you have gotten so far in your career?

The best advice I have received so far can be applied to both work and life: be comfortable and confident in who you are - confidence increases comfort, and comfort gives confidence. I have a habit of second-guessing myself, doubting my skill or the amount and quality of work I deliver. I realized that I would not be able to grow until I felt more confident in my abilities. This confidence has made me feel more comfortable in my role, and that in turn has given me the confidence to expand my scope and think about the steps to reach the next level.

Q: Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

As I mentioned earlier, over my time at LinkedIn I have noticed that I enjoy the communication and leadership aspects of my job the most, and those are skills that I hope to continue to improve. In 5 years, I see myself as the manager of a small team: a strong leader and advocate for my team members, and still working on my technical skills so I can interface well with ICs.

Q: What is something that is not on your LinkedIn Profile?

I love to dance! In college, I joined a club dedicated to teaching and performing Rueda de Casino (aka Cuban Salsa). In my senior year, I choreographed two routines and we performed at various venues in Boston. Not long after, I discovered Bachata, and I have been a part of performing teams in both Boston and the Bay Area (shoutout to InLak’ech Dance Academy and Inessence Dance Co.)!

Want to see more posts like this? Check out our past Career Chats here:

https://careerchatsseries.splashthat.com/