Graham Nessler

Front-End Software Developer

Sitting around the dinner table with a family in Ecuador and absorbing a language that was not his own, one may never have assumed that Graham would become a front-end software developer later in life. History, culture and languages surrounded him from an early age, only to become even stronger passions as he moved through early adulthood.

 

He had difficulty choosing his undergraduate major. History, geology, languages and even psychology all interested him, but he decided on history and came to love exploring the deep and rich culture of Latin America. Graham’s undergraduate studies drew upon his love for languages in particular, which also played an integral role in his decision to pursue a PhD in history. In this endeavour, Graham read through thousands of historical documents in French, Spanish, and even an early version of Haitian Creole.

 

Graham completed his PhD with a dissertation focused on the Haitian Revolution of 1789-1809, which led to the establishment of the independent nation of Haiti and transformed the politics of the Western hemisphere and beyond. He believes adamantly that he is a more careful and critical thinker for having chosen this route early on in life. Mindful of the ability for misinformation to spread so quickly, Graham will read things many times over and ask “is there more to this than I realise?”.

 

“Every case is different; you have to pay close attention to what your own interests are and what you want to do”

 

After completing his PhD and finding himself unable to obtain a full-time professorship, Graham shifted gears and entered the computing industry through a popular coding school, the Turing School of Software and Design. He landed an internship at a well-known pharmacy benefit manager and subsequently became a full-time employee. He held that job for four years and then this year moved into a new role as the principal front-end engineer at a small business.

 

“Every case is different; you have to pay close attention to what your own interests are and what you want to do” he emphasised, speaking to young people unsure of how they would like their own career path to develop. A great misconception he carried with him for a long time was that he was purely a “humanities person”. He struggled with mathematics in high school, and believes there were additional cultural currents which instilled into him a fear of this subject which took him a long time to shake.

 

Moving into a role where mathematical thinking was encouraged, he realised this was something he really could learn and continuously improve on, breaking down the barrier that programming was something purely for the “maths geniuses”. He encourages people to try many different things and avoid putting themselves in boxes. Even if you struggle with maths, you can still potentially excel in programming. He believes that this is how people can find those hidden talents they didn’t realise they had.

 

He has reflected markedly on the value that his early career decisions have given him. Years of going to conferences, interacting in classes and hallway conversations have all carried over into the team-based workflow of a developer’s daily routine. He often finds himself pairing with colleagues to solve problems and recognises the significant help that his earlier education and experience provide.

 

He emphasised that there are many unrecognised skills one takes with them when coming from non-traditional backgrounds. As an example, he found that there were interesting similarities between learning a programming language and a language such as Spanish or French that helped him significantly. Additionally, in his prior job, he served as a Spanish translator for his development team, key in the expansion of their software to other languages.

 

Most of Graham’s coworkers went through the traditional route of exploring programming from an early age, yet they value his input greatly due to his unique background and perspective. His background has made him acutely aware of how everyone can bring their own unique outlook to any given development problem. In particular, Graham tries to help to bring about the dissolution of traditional barriers to entry in the software industry—in particular, those of race, gender, and class—because everyone wins when all have a voice at the table.

 

It is clear that the historian, researcher and language lover in Graham is still a significant part of his life as a software developer. These early explorations have all played an interesting and unique role in his shift to a very different industry and bring far more to his current work life than one is led to traditionally believe in the computing industry.