About Rachel Ober
Hey there!
I started coding when I was 15 years old, not because I thought I had a knack for it, but because I was interested in displaying some of my art on the Internet. One day, I realized that I was having a lot more fun building relational databases than puttering around in Adobe Photoshop and decided to go to college to study this thing called “Computer Science”.
After completing a five-year program at Northeastern University’s College of Computer and Information Science (now known as Khoury College of Computer Sciences), I landed in New York City. My dual degree in Computer Science & Cognitive Psychology helps bring a unique, holistic experience to my work in web development.
When working on a software engineering team, I specialize in Front End and Ruby on Rails. I focus on Usability, User Experience, and User Testing in my work as well as fostering a learning and sharing environment with my coworkers.
I spend a lot of time learning new things and sharing that knowledge with others. Someone once described me as “a true renaissance woman,” as I have a wide and varied interest in many topics ranging from my craft in software engineering to my passion for creating handmade cards and scrapbooking pages.
I am passionate about encouraging people to own their expertise and in 2013 helped found the non-profit organization Write/Speak/Code with other women in the software engineering field. Write/Speak/Code hosts a yearly conference for women and non-binary people to gain the skills necessary to excel in their careers as well as sponsors local Meetup chapters around the United States to support members on a monthly basis.
In 2013 I founded a local chapter of the non-profit workshop RailsBridge in New York City. RailsBridge teaches free Ruby on Rails classes that aspire to lower barriers to access programming education by offering free meals and childcare. Since it’s beginning, I have built the New York City chapter to ve vibrant, active, and supportive to all our students and volunteers. As of early 2019, we have run over 35 workshops which include the free workshops to learn Ruby on Rails as well as sessions aimed at software engineers who are interested in learning how to teach programming to new students.
In 2018, I founded Developer Recipes, Inc. to concentrate on working on missions that are close to my heart. I divide my time between software development and coaching software engineers to help encourage healthy career development into a full life.
