Adjusting to growth can be challenging and change can be hard for some people, but Gretchen Dickie, Senior Quality Assurance Engineer makes it look easy. From major career moves to the frequent and fast-paced changes in technology, Gretchen has been able to identify and seize opportunities that have helped her move forward as a one of many #womenthatcode.
As part of our International Women’s Day series, we invite you to get to know a bit more about the women at Quiq who are helping to move technology forward. We’re proud of the talent we have at Quiq and are excited to share the stories of the women that are helping to make this company a leading software for text messaging for business.
Q: Tell us a bit about yourself, and when you discovered a love of tech
The elegant logic of science and math has always fascinated me and led me to BS degrees in Medical Technology and Microbiology. It also led to a cross-country move from Wisconsin to a job as a Clinical Laboratory Scientist in a small hospital in the mountains of Montana. After being lucky enough to take some time away from my career to spend the early years of my son’s & daughter’s lives at home with them, I decided to return to school to pursue a new career path.
Technology professions were barely on anyone’s radar the first time I was in college but now offered seemingly endless possibilities. An MS in Computer Science exposed me to a new world of software design, theory, programming and problem-solving, and bonus – I got to take more math classes! After finishing my Master’s I joined RightNow Technologies (later acquired by Oracle), and held positions of Support Specialist, Business Systems Analyst, and Quality Assurance Engineer.
I’m now Sr. QA Engineer with Quiq, where I’m continuing to pursue my passion for contributing to the creation of software that can actually make people’s lives a little less frustrating.
Q: What do you love about technology and what developments are you most excited about?
What do I love about technology? Each day brings new challenges & opportunities that allow me to continue learning – no matter what your age is, there’s something new to learn every day. I enjoy everything that goes into releasing software – witnessing the innovation and ideas the team comes up with every day, contributing to design decisions, implementation, testing, and seeing the outcome of all the hard work in the product we release to our customers. Things move fast here and are always changing – tech careers are never boring!
Q: What are the skills or career paths that may be exciting prospects for women now and in the future?
My path to a technology career was a long journey with lots of turns, but it’s proof that the possibilities are endless if you decide to take that path – and the exciting thing is, even after you get to your destination, there may be surprises. After getting a CS degree I fully expected to pursue a career as a software engineer, but along the way, I discovered that I loved other aspects of this profession more than coding.
There are so many options available in this industry that no one should limit themselves to a narrow view of what technology professions look like.
