Learning, Community, and DjangoCon with Yumiko Siewenie

Speaker 1: Hey everybody, we are here at JangCon US 2025 in Chicago, Illinois, and I'm here with a special guest that we're gonna have a nice candid conversation with. Please introduce yourself.

Speaker 2: Hi, I'm Yumiko Sweeney. I am a senior software engineer at Rhythm Energy Incorporated.

Speaker 1: Nice, Yumiko. It's really great to meet you. So is this your first time in DjangoCon?

Speaker 2: Yes it is.

Speaker 1: It is. Nice. What brought you to DjangoCon?

Speaker 2: Um I've been working with Django for about seven years now and I was just interested to learn more about Django in general and to meet other people that work with it as well.

Speaker 1: Nice. Is there anything in particular you've learned at the conference that you want to take? uh moving forward?

Speaker 2: Um I mean I've learned a lot. The best part about it has honestly been just getting to see the ORM I use every day and have for years. Uh in a bunch of different discussions with a bunch of people across different industries. I uh I really appreciate the different kinds of insights and um use cases that everyone brings to the table. It's just nice to be amongst peers and get to talk about it candidly.

Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree. I feel like you learn so much at these conferences. But one of the highlights to me is always the people. How have you found the Django community? It's welcomed you.

Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it's just really nice in general to see the diversity specifically as um a woman in engineering. I'm used to being one, uh, if not the only, uh female engineer on the team, so it's been really great to get to hear experts in the field and see so many people across. I don't know, different industries, different countries, different experiences, backgrounds, education, et cetera, and be able to have something so easy and uh something that's a part of my daily life as uh a meeting point to discuss.

Speaker 1: Awesome So I've seen you uh by the registration desk working on puzzles every day, some really big puzzles. Tell me about that. Like what made you like work on that? Um

Speaker 2: well puzzles are actually my favorite hobby. I every day after work um I play puzzle to wind down. Um and it's been really cool to be able to bond with other people. It's been a very easy way to make friends and make connections, which I appreciate because it's something I usually do on my own, just like programming.

Speaker 1: So, um to wrap up, if someone's watching this and they've never been to a Django Con and they're thinking, you know, maybe next year I want to come through, what advice would you give them about getting started and like coming to the conference

Speaker 2: Hmm, I guess like most things it's better to just dive in and try it out, see see if it's a good fit than decide that before you even get the opportunity to come here that it's not for you. Just like you know, many things in life just as like somebody who's more self-taught than uh, you know, formally educationally taught in programming. It's always great to talk to other people and learn from others' experience and just I don't know, it's good to be around peers and there's really nothing that's better than a conference to do that.

Speaker 1: Yeah, agree 100%. Yimiko, thank you so much for sitting with us and chatting. My pleasure. And enjoy the rest of the conference.

Speaker 2: Thank you.