WITI: An Interview with Rose Hemlock
Posted on WITI on June 18, 2018:
Rose Hemlock is the Director of Agile Coaching at WWT in St. Louis. In this interview, she shares how she got interested in information technology and what she currently does at this fast-growing IT consulting organization.
WITI: Tell us how you got your start working in the tech industry.
Rose Hemlock: In 1997, I was working nights in a Kinko's computer lab, when I happened upon a book entitled HTML For Dummies. This book led me to spend my spare time over the next few months building websites. I managed to learn more by viewing other people's code, pulling it apart, and experimenting to see what I could get it to do.
I started building company sites for free as a means of building up a small portfolio. Eventually, I moved into eCommerce technologies and started my own small company while still working my day job.
WITI: Have you always had an interest in technology? If so, when and how did your interest begin?
RH: I always felt drawn to technology, and much of that was due to growing up in the 1980s. Cutting-edge technology was part of youth-culture identity at the time. Movies where technically adept kids were depicted as heroes had a big impact on me.
Even our music was based on technology—I fell in love with electronic music and begged my parents for a synthesizer. In the 80s, nothing was cooler than the kid who had both a Commodore 64 and a Korg (I had neither, but I wanted them).
WITI: What about some of the other related fields such as math, engineering, and science? Did you take a lot of coursework in these areas during high school? If so, what specifically?
RH: Unfortunately, I did not. The way STEM was taught at the time was tedious, and there was still a gender bias that impacted how counselors advised students when choosing courses. From an early age, I was labeled "gifted," but in the stereotypically girl-appropriate areas.