Kayla Dunn Email & Phone Number

I used to look inside of people's mouths on purpose.No, seriously. I did. Long before the Coding Gods graced me with their presence, I used to work in the healthcare field as a Pediatric Dental Assistant. It crossed off all the boxes:☑ Working with children/special needs☑ Making a difference in people's lives☑ Creative problem solving (for days that were harder than others)... But it was missing two, very important boxes. Room for growth. Challenging. And while I loved what I did, I craved something more, yearned for a ladder that I could continuously climb up. That's when I discovered the career-altering field: software development.After taking some classes in school, I had the opportunity to work at Sandhills Global through their internship program. I started as a Business Analyst, gaining first-hand knowledge working with stakeholders to create and modify existing functionality to meet the department's needs. I learned to put myself in their shoes, think outside the box, and come up with applicable business solutions that helped accelerate the business processes that the company used.After getting my feet wet and completing my first few coding classes (a quick thank you to my C# and Java teachers for all that they did - those OOP concepts finally clicked).. I was able to grow into the Software Developer role that Sandhills offered.I worked in the Auction Software Department - my home away from home - where I worked with wonderfully talented developers and managers who helped me thrive. Through a range of projects, I was able to expand my knowledge, contentiously building on the foundation I had learned in school.It wasn't easy. I faced bug fixes that made my head itch. I implemented a new feature from the ground up that made a few hairs turn gray as I tested it repetitively. Had my eyes glaze over trying from trying to understand the logic that the auctions were built on. But I prevailed. And through my trials and tribulations, I was able to take on increasingly difficult projects.After 2 wonderful years with that team, we unfortunately had to part ways when I moved as Sandhills currently does not offer remote options. Armed with some previous industry experience and the strong mindset to grow, I am now flourishing in my career as a Web Developer at Results Direct.