MODS Celebrates Day of the Programmer: In conversation with Anu Tomy

September 13th is dedicated to celebrating programmers who change the world through coding. Significance of it being the 256th day of the year may be lost on most of us, but if you want to get your geek on, you can learn about it here.

The first known programmer in history, Ada Lovelace, was a woman. In light of that poignant history, MODS celebrates Day of the Programmer through a conversation with our very own pioneer: Any Tomy, who stumbled into programming through a background in electronics. But when she discovered the magic of coding, she was hooked.

Q: Anu, tell us a little bit about yourself.

A: I’m South Indian, from Kerala. I recently moved to the UK with my husband, who is pursuing his higher education; we’ve been married for three years. I now work totally remotely as a developer. We live in Nuneaton near Coventry, and the people here are so friendly. I love to play badminton in the evenings with my friends here.

Q: What’s your educational background?

A: I studied back in India for a Bachelor of Technology in Electronics and Communications as my major, which is not what I’m doing right now in my career. I finished my Bachelor’s in 2014. I studied a little bit of programming in my course, actually.

Q: OK, so you didn’t focus your early studies on programming. What was the lure?

A: I found it makes everything easier so that’s why I moved to the world of programming and so started my programming journey as a developer.

Q: Tell us about your early career.

A: Started in a company in Kerala (Cochin Area) India in 2014 just after my course. It was a company who were developing applications for ship management in the maritime industry. I worked there for two years in different teams. So, I was a very junior developer back at that time. I didn’t know anything about programming because I studied electronics. And they helped me a lot. They supported me to study, and that’s where I started, coding in .Net.

Q: You came to MODS by way of JGC. Could you tell us a little about your time with JGC?

A: I was with [the previous company] for two years. Then I finished that journey in September 2016 and moved to Japan. I got an opportunity from a Japanese company [JGC] from their branch in Singapore. I was in Yokohama, at JGC’s head office for almost six years as System Engineer. I developed in-house applications based on .Net technologies, web applications for their inspection, tag management, material preservation, etc.

Q: You then came to MODS. Could you please explain what you do here?

A: I have only worked with MODS for the last three months. So far, I have been focused on developing the Origin Construct module and on Reality. The 3D modeling and visualization of tags and everything with Reality is the most exciting.



Q: What do you enjoy about working at MODS?

A: At MODS, we use the same technologies and applications I was used to at JGC, so the transition was smooth. It was a new country, everything was new, so this provided some comfort. The team members are really supportive here. They love what they are doing.

Q: What is the best thing about working as a developer?

A: There are new challenges every day. I feel happy when I see that I resolve problems that makes people’s work easier. I saw that in JGC, too – it was challenging every day, but I enjoyed it.

Q: Do you have a favorite programming language?

A: I have worked with different UI technologies and in various languages, including .Net, C#, SQL, JavaScript, CSS and HTML. I really like the back-end database side. I like to play with the data, so love SQL.

Q: What are the challenges of being a woman in your field, and can you offer any advice to young women who want to code?

A: It is more challenging for women programmers. When I went to Japan [to work for JGC], it was my first experience as the only woman in a group of men. I was the only technical woman in the department. So, I have experienced a certain amount of discomfort particularly with regards to assumptions about my ability. But if you study new technologies and upgrade with those with certifications, further studies and exams, then you can definitely succeed.

Programmers like Anu Tomy are the backbone of MODS. Today and every day we at MODS celebrate developers who advance our products and society at large through coding. Kudos, Anu!

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