Selin Gungor

This role opens up new horizons for me, new chances to learn and grow

Being not only a skilled technical engineer, but also a real communicator and team player, Selin felt she was a great fit for the role of Chapter Lead. “I had ideas about how to improve communication and collaboration within our chapter, and in my new role I am now able to execute them.”

Besides her role as a chapter lead, Selin works as an engineer in the Digital & Customer Interactions tribe. She started at ING as a machine learning engineer and progressed through several functions and squads. “From programming to testing to deploying software, I’ve had the opportunity to constantly expand my technical experience and to work with the latest technologies. I still love the purely tech part of my work, but I am also very much enjoying my new role. It opens up new horizons for me, new chances to learn and grow.”

An amazing experience

“In our chapter, our major goal is to set the software development standard in our field in order to give our customers an amazing experience. One important aspect of my role is to facilitate the development and growth of ‘my’ nine engineers and keep them motivated and happy in their work, so that they can thrive together. While that coaching aspect of my job is really enjoyable and interesting, it’s also an area in which I still have to mature and gain confidence, so I’m in a learning phase too.”

'I wanted to bring people together again'

Being an engineer herself, Selin understood early on what needed to be improved in her chapter: “Collaboration, communication and knowledge sharing – all those things that had become less easy when we worked from home during the pandemic. I wanted to bring people together again, let them brainstorm on ideas together, get real discussions going and engage in innovation again. So as soon as it was possible, my fellow chapter leads and I created opportunities and organised a live IT area meet-up, which was a huge success and a great way to socialise and reconnect.”

Inspiring girls to choose tech

Her colleagues are not the only ones that Selin likes to inspire. Although she herself got her first computer when she was just eight years old and always knew she wanted to work in tech, that’s definitely not the case for all young girls. “I’ve never minded being one of the few girls in the classroom or the team, but it would be cool if more girls would choose tech. That’s why it was great to be a mentor at a previous Django Girls event in Groningen and also why I organised Django Girls in Amsterdam. We’re currently preparing for another Women in Tech event in Amsterdam, which will take place in 2023.”

Selin:

  • Was born from Turkish descent in Toronto, Canada, and has lived both in Toronto and Istanbul, Turkey
  • Has a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering and a master’s degree in software engineering
  • Previously worked in e-commerce, industrial automation, finance and data engineering
  • Likes to cycle through Amsterdam, where she lives
  • Regularly joins tech conferences
  • Enjoys dancing and creating electronic music beats
  • Loves outdoor sports like kite surfing, sailing, scuba diving, mountain biking and skiing. “Especially kite surfing gives me the rush I am looking for, clears my head and puts me in an almost meditative mood.”

Django Girls is a non-profit organisation that inspires girls and women of any age and from any academic or professional background by showing them that programming is fun, interesting and not that hard to learn.

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