Guest Speaker Robyn Delk, Web Developer, ASP
ASP - Associated Systems Professionals
At our most recent WV Coding Club meeting we had great insights from a Web Developer at Associated Systems Professionals (ASP), Robyn Delk. She has worked for ASP for over four and a half years, but has been in web development for over 17 years. Robyn shared she was originally from Idaho, but moved to West Virginia. She did not have a straight path into Coding, Web Development, and UX/UI (User Experience / User Interface).
Her first exposure to computers was in Kindergarten with an Apple IIc computer where she used a program that allowed her to make decisions, which she found fascinating. Her fascination came when she could press some arrows on the keyboard and watch the computer respond to her responses. She shared that her Dad was also like that, an electrician, who would put wires together to get a desired outcome.
After high school Robyn went into the military, which also brought her to West Virginia. She has four children and when they were young, she was pursuing her Software Engineering degree. She was learning Java and had lots of challenges while also raising young children. Robyn seemed to hit a "brick wall" in completing one of her classes. She was upset and felt defeated, but she stuck with it and in the end was successful. It was very rewarding for her.
She attended Colorado Technical University, where she earned a Bachelor of Science Information Technology in Software Engineering, but it doesn’t directly apply to what she currently does for work. She describes that she stumbled into a Web Developer role when she saw a job posting looking for a year experience with a go getter attitude. Education provided a good foundation, but much was learned on the job. As part of her education, she completed a capstone project and developed a portfolio of work for interviews.
At her current job Robyn does Front-end Web Development and UX/UI (User Experience / User Interface) design.
She primarily uses HTML, CSS, some JavaScript, and jQuery in her work. Robyn is able to work from home, but her job didn't start out that way. However, she works in a team-oriented environment that is very beneficial to completing projects.
If you're a Web Developer, you can work on front-end, back-end, or both.
1. Front-end is what people see
2. Back-end is what people don’t see, data from outside sources, payment processors or databases
Advice from Robyn:
1. When you have a problem giving you fits, problem solving skills go a long way.
2. Use the "20 minute rule", look first yourself for resources, then ask for help. You can ask teammates or participate in online forums. No one should ever feel embarrassed to ask questions; you’ll never know it all. Collaboration is key.
3. Be curious, break it, learn.
4. When interviewing, your ability to collaborate is a key skill.
5. Coding is not for the faint of heart, but it isn't hard, it just requires perseverance. Don’t give up on yourself!
6. Go to school, learn all you can, but experience increases ability for compensation.
7. Once you learn logic and a coding language, then learning other languages becomes easier. At that point, it’s just a matter of learning the syntax.
With all the types of devices that can display a website, she helps to ensure that what she builds is a "responsive" website, which must be paid attention to when writing code. Many websites are built inside of a Content Management System (CMS) which helps to manage much of the website’s basic components, but developers should still know how to build websites outside of these systems.
In her current role, she doesn’t really use Artificial Intelligence (AI), yet, but it can be utilized to assist.
ASP is based in Charleston, West Virginia and is a Managed IT Services, Application Development, and Web Design Company, operating since 2004. They now support companies in practically every industry to include governmental agencies. They compete with out of state groups in their work, and several firms that do similar work in WV, so it is challenging, and they must stand out in a special way. Sometimes winning a project comes down to price and sometimes reputation. If you do great work and you provide great service, clients like that and will continue to work with you.
Robyn was asked how do you compete with AI for building websites?
There are a lot of things AI cannot do. AI does not know a company’s goals or recognize fully the needs of their project. It does not know how to prioritize what is important. It is still easy to make a living even with AI's potential.
How often do you use jQuery?
Daily either reading or writing it. jQuery is very embedded into the web development world. There are several languages and frameworks that can be used in web development and application development. Some of these we see frequently are Python, PHP, C# (C Sharp), and .NET.
Dan McElroy, President of the WV Coding Club said, "Thank you Robyn for your insights and sharing your story. It is great to see people and companies in West Virginia doing great in the IT industry. Our students learned a lot from your talk.”
Thank you, Robyn!
Keep coding!!
