Women in Tech: “Focus on generalizable skills, the theory and philosophy behind...

devmio spotlights the achievements of women in the tech industry by highlighting inspirational women from around the world and giving them a chance to introduce themselves, share their stories, and help advise other aspiring women in the field.

Today, we would like you to meet Thana Paris, director of open source program at S44.

Thana Paris

Thana Paris has spent her career architecting features for some of the largest North American EV charging networks. As the director of open source program at S44, she helps guide the growth and community for CitrineOS, the world’s first open source charge management software.

What first got you interested in technology?

During college, I was eager to learn skills to help me pursue a career in academic research. Learning to code was an excellent way to distinguish myself. I ended up liking the coding more than the research!

Could you tell us about your career path? How did you end up at your current position?

I started my career working in the banking industry, but I needed to go on disability and eventually leave due to some health issues.

After three difficult years of recovery, I was ready to return to work just as the COVID pandemic began. S44 hired me as a software developer, and I became the leader of my team in three months, and now, two and a half years later, I’m the director of open source program developing CitrineOS.

What are you most proud of in your career?

I didn’t see myself becoming a leader when I returned to tech. I’m very proud of the personal growth that has enabled my ascent from a developer on a team within a large project to the head of a brand-new, open source project.

Much of that growth was due to increased self-confidence, which came to me due to overcoming difficult hurdles in my personal life. It’s all interconnected.

What does a typical day look like in your life?

It starts with coffee. I’m not a morning person, so I ramp up slowly, beginning my day by reviewing new emails and messages. I prepare for any meetings I may have and figure out my top priorities to work on.

I try to plan my day with as little context switching as possible. Working remotely allows me to be more flexible around my personal life commitments, which is invaluable. If I’m not careful, I’ll work more than I should–I like my work! But we do our best when we’re well rounded and well slept.

Who are some of your role models or people that inspire you?

I find myself more inspired by actions than by character. My coworkers’ achievements are an essential source of inspiration and learning for me. My friends, too–they mostly don’t work in tech. Nonetheless, we support each other wherever and however we can.

What are some essentials in your toolkit for success?

The new Google is ChatGPT and other LLMs. AI-written code is bad, but code written with AI guidance is the future–I always keep that in mind. Reading is vital–about new tech, my industry, and thought leaders in my field. This helps me stay relevant. For coffee, I'm quite particular. I use a Moccamaster and conical grinder with quality beans, like Larry's Coffee. I drink it black unless someone else makes it. Then, I may add half-and-half to improve the flavor. (Yes, I’m a bit of a coffee snob.)

How can the industry help support and retain women in tech?

This is an incredibly deep-set problem to tackle, but there are some easy policy wins for tech companies, especially in the US. New-child leave is a big one–making leave longer and equal among parents. Most of these policy changes are obvious but are taking time to spread.

It’s also important to fight this notion that successful people in tech lack interpersonal skills. If you emphasize hiring good learners, listeners, and communicators over long technical skills lists, you will not only have more successful engineers, but also hire many more women.

What was the biggest challenge you’ve faced in your professional career, and how did you overcome it?

Learning to take control of my time was difficult. If you try to solve every problem immediately, you’ll feel like a superhero but become less efficient. As a people-pleaser, I had trouble enforcing boundaries. But with support from my manager and coworkers, I worked on focusing on my own priorities to become more efficient (and less stressed)!

What tech topic would you like to learn more about?

So, so many things and so little time! At the beginning of this year, I focused on learning more about infrastructure-as-code, specifically Terraform with AWS. More recently, I’ve been ramping up my usage of LLMs, figuring out how to integrate them into my workflow.

Next, I’m not sure–it may be time to learn some new front-end frameworks or more about payment portals and PCI compliance.

What advice would you like to give women looking to start their careers in tech?

Focus on generalizable skills, the theory and philosophy behind tech, and the ability to learn. If you do it right, picking up new languages or tools will come naturally, and you can do that once you’ve mastered the fundamentals and know more about where you want to go in tech.

And have fun with it! Follow your passions–that drive propels learning!

What job did you want growing up? How does that compare to now?

As a kid, I wanted to be a novelist! Even though I’m not writing science fiction, those skills are still useful today.

In a way, a job in tech, especially coding, was a natural extension of that early interest. In college, I explored other paths–classics, pre-med, and computational biology, which introduced me to tech. But nothing fit as seamlessly as a career in technology. Maybe I’ll get back to creative writing as a hobby someday.