Some of us have dedicated our careers to the cancer field, some of us have dedicated our careers to helping people use technology to improve their lives and some of us just like helping people. We’re really proud of our work and our team here at Navigating Cancer.
Meet one of our Sr. Software Development Engineers, Ethel Evans:
Briefly describe your role:
As a Sr. Software Development Engineer in Test, I think about technical risk – bugs and degraded experiences (like a slow web site). I design and code tests to detect bugs and help us understand those risks, so we can provide patients and providers with new features while also supporting our existing features well.
Where do you find inspiration?
Navigating Cancer is an inspiring place to work. I want patients and providers to be able to focus on achieving the best quality of life available, and that means making sure the tools we provide are informative and frustration-free. For inspiration on how to do this, I have ten years of experience to draw upon plus our amazing PMs, who work hard to understand what our products need to be. Since starting here, I find that my work inspires me in the other areas of my life.
What’s your favorite technology and why?
I like Ruby, a programming language that we use a lot at Navigating Cancer, because of the community and philosophy. Ruby programmers see code as a way for developers to communicate with each other, as well as a way to communicate with the computer. This focus on the human element of creating software has resulted in some great tools and best practices.
What’s your favorite app and why?
There’s a tool called “Balance Forecasting App” that I love, for simple home financial planning. This software simply takes your expected expenses – most of which are on a repeating schedule and can be easily predicted – and your expected income, and projects them out and calls attention to anywhere where your balance runs negative. It’s easy to use and, since it’s not rounding or approximating, you can rely on it (as long as you keep it up to date).
Star Trek or Star Wars?
I used to be more about Trek, since they specifically address interesting social and philosophical questions in many episodes and I love that stuff. But my kids love Star Wars, especially Clone Wars. They dressed as Anakin, Ahsoka Tano, Padme, and Yoda for Halloween one year. Seeing Star Wars through their eyes has given it the higher spot in my heart these days <3
What’s your favorite thing to do when you’re not at work?
Play video games with my husband and children (we have three daughters and a son). We like to play Guild Wars 2 together, and run dungeons sometimes on the weekends.
Little-known fact about you that would surprise people?
I homeschool my school-age children on the evenings and weekends. Mostly because it’s a ton of fun, and a great way to spend lots of quality time with my kids.