Prior to pivoting to tech, Molly, a graduate of Elon University, worked for the Museum of Life and Science in Durham. She shifted from role to role, driven by her desire to keep learning.
But while her work at the Museum was fulfilling, Molly found that after six years, it really lacked a fundamental motivating factor for her— as she jumped into new roles in hopes of continuing to grow her skills, the space for her learning was limited. Sooner or later, she would figure it all out, and work, in whatever role she inhabited, would become mechanical again.
That’s when she realized she wanted to make a career change.
“My wife was in the Iron Yard’s first cohort in Durham,” she tells us, “So I had a very close experience with what it’s like living through [code school], but also what the outcome is like. The flexibility [that] is offered in the career is really what attracted me. [The thing about software development is if] you get a job and you don’t like it anymore, there’s so much flexibility. Maybe you don’t like it because you don’t find [the] particular technology [you’re working with] interesting. [Then, you can just work] in a different technology. Or maybe you don’t like it because you’re not identifying with the main purpose or mission of the business [you’re working for]. You could find another opportunity to write software in something that motivates you mission-wise.”

I think coming from a place where I was feeling kind of stuck and with few options, I was really attracted to [a career in tech].
Software Engineer
Now, Molly is a Software Engineer for Spreedly, a payments API where she works primarily with Ruby on Rails and Ruby, and is involved with considerations for security and handling secure data. “[In my current role,] I think really hard all day,” she says, “So it’s very stimulating and really satisfying at the end of each day, [knowing that] even if I made small amounts of progress, I learned something new, whether about the technology I’m using or about our particular codebase, or a tool that I’m using. I’m always growing [my] knowledge. [Which is great for me, because that’s] what I am motivated the most by.”
Go from potential to professional with us
For Molly, Momentum gave the opportunity not just to jump-start her tech career, but also, to begin a process of continual learning for the rest of her life. “What I came out [of Momentum] with and what, I think, is the most important thing I practice, is learning how to figure things out, and learning how to research something, how to test something, how to investigate something. [I learned] specifically how to answer questions and how to solve problems that come at me in technological spaces.”
For that, she’s grateful. Looking forward, she says, “I’m most excited that I’ll never stop learning and growing. There’s so much opportunity for me to continue to grow skills and to learn new things.” It’s a bright outlook, and we couldn’t be happier for her.