Reading books as a child encouraged Angela Chuang to follow her dream of becoming a software engineer

As a young girl, Angela Chuang accompanied her father to the bookstore where they would browse books on software engineering together. He started his own business in software engineering and served as an inspiration to her. Later, she followed in his footsteps and became a software engineer herself. 

“I admire his self-motivation and diligence, which make him a role model in my eyes,” she says.

Now, Angela is a senior software engineer on the security solutions team at Elastic®. 

“I collaborate with designers to implement user interfaces, engage in discussions with engineers to delve into technical intricacies, and leverage Elastic queries to develop compelling data visualizations,” she says. 

“Then, we can gather more visualizations and make it into a dashboard, or add more interactions to the visualization so it could interact with apps in Kibana,” she says. 

Before joining Elastic, she studied information management in Taiwan. For postgraduate studies, she went to the UK and focused on design and digital media. Upon completion, she returned to Taiwan where she worked on various tech teams and was first introduced to the Elasticstack. 

I used the Elasticstack in my previous job and I was amazed by how much it could do, she says.

“I like that it's an open source and community resource, I was curious about how it works behind the scenes to operate these stacks. So when I saw a job opening, I decided to apply.

Angela then found herself back in the UK on a "working holiday" where she joined the BBC and further honed her skills before joining the Elastic team in 2019. 

Despite Elastic’s distributed by design set up, Angela says it’s easy to collaborate with colleagues. 

“I appreciate the emphasis on mutual trust and individual discipline within your team,” she says. “Despite primarily interacting online, everyone maintains a genuine willingness to offer assistance and support.”

“I have come to value the diversity-centric culture and the respectful environment that encourages everyone to embrace their unique backgrounds and perspectives.”

Angela’s team at Elastic has a balanced representation of men and women, she says. 

“There are two men and two women, including myself and my area lead, along with the women occupying the positions of team lead and tech lead,” she says. “Their responsiveness and accessibility ensure that the distributed nature of our work doesn't hinder productivity or create obstacles.”

In fact, Angela has found working from home to be beneficial for her. She is able to choose where she lives, get rid of her commute, and still do the work she loves, she says. 

“Working from home has instilled a sense of discipline within me,” Angela says. “While it took some time to adjust and establish a routine, I eventually found a schedule that works best for me. This newfound discipline has contributed to my overall productivity and work-life balance.”

Angela also finds time to continually learn and upskill in her field. She uses the learning platforms Elastic provides, like LinkedIn Learning, and also takes advantage of the training budget her team receives to enroll in additional courses or attend seminars, she says. In addition, Angela reads documents released by major software publishers. 

“I find that reading the documents released by software publishers is the most common and effective way for me to acquire new knowledge,” she says. “I can stay up to date with the latest information and advancements in the field.”

Her advice for women joining the tech industry? “Go for it!”

Interested in a career in tech? Check out open roles. 

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