Our speaker, Kim Harbour is the Information Systems Manager at WV Department of Environmental Protection, State of West Virginia
Kim moved to West Virginia (Wayne County) at age 12. She was a good student and enjoyed and focused on art. She attended Marshall University and got her undergraduate in journalism. She's never had a formal coding class in college. Kim went on to earn a Masters in Art in New York.
She moved from New York to Los Angeles to work for Jim Henson's company when Microsoft was starting and Kim used her project management skills to take the Muppets online. At the time, Flash animation was the primary tool used to implement this project.
From there, Kim worked with the IdeaLab new business incubator in Pasadena, CA. Then, she went on to work for LA interactive marketing firms, managing consumer large web applications for General Motors, Honda and Acura.
Then she moved back to West Virginia and worked with the Charles Ryan Agency mainly focused on Search Engine Optimization (SAO). She then worked for WV Tourism and after that the State Central Information Technology office. Kim is currently the Information Systems Manager, managing technology projects at the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (WV DEP). Many of her projects in her various positions have required managing creative and technical staff. Over her years of experience, Kim can code in HTML and do a lot of testing and debugging.
With her work at WV DEP - Kim shared it is all about the data. Over time, Kim has hired many programmers. She has seen that with the people she hires, they do not necessarily need a four year degree. She talked about the opportunities in the WV Community College system.
Upon being asked, Kim shared some of her views of WV, since she has lived and worked in many parts of the United States. She highlighted a few points.
Generation WV - train our Workforce (NewForce) - retrain people - 18 month program via Community College system - Full Stack Development (Microsoft.net)
WV Solar Hollar - Training West Virginians to install Solar.
Broadband Improvement Needed
With the Pandemic there was a need for remote work. Many tools have been developed. Today, more people can stay in WV and work for a company outside of WV. Learning about technology and what is marketable while being able to stay in WV is a great asset for the State.
Kim's advice to our WV Coding Club Students:
Get involved in Robotics, Lego Robotics League, learn to code the robots.
Mechatronics / Automation
Find what you like, develop your skills
Learn to work with Teams
Develop Communication Skills (talk to different kinds of people)
Dan McElroy, President of the WV Coding Club, explained, "Kim helps to show the importance of project management and being able to work with creative and technology skilled people. Kim sharing her experiences and knowledge is greatly appreciated!"
Thank you Kim for speaking with our WV Coding Club students!
Keep Coding!