FoodLover Juliana Simão is passionate about journalism and data – and found a way to combine the two
Juliana – or Ju, as everyone knows her – is a most versatile FoodLover. Passionate about learning, her curiosity took her down different paths until she ended up here, with us, as Data Analytics in the Commercial Data team. Learn more about Ju’s story:
“My name is Juliana Simão. I'm 22 years old, I live in the North Zone of Rio de Janeiro, and I'm in the 6th period of Journalism at UERJ.
I've always been passionate about data, until, at the end of 2019, a college professor commented on the importance of journalists knowing how to program and extract news from data. This kept echoing in my head, and I decided that I wanted to know how to do this too.
At the time, I already started researching how I could learn to program. Here, in Rio, my first experience was in Ship of Knowledge. I passed the selection process and started a Programming Logic course. That was my introduction to technology. And I'm like this: It's an open course, it's free? I go!
With the pandemic, I stopped for a while – everything stopped, right? But in July 2020, I decided to return to my goal. I started looking in Facebook groups for some opportunities when I discovered the Let's go.
It was practically Christmas, December 18th, when I saw the post. I ran to sign up, completed the selection process and moved on with my life. When I saw it, on the 23rd, they scheduled my first interview! In January 2021, I received the news that it had passed.
I couldn't believe it: there were thousands of applicants, for just a few places... Until it hit me: on January 27th, I started the course.
At first, I was worried. As I had been stopped for a while, it was as if I had gone back to square one. I had forgotten a lot and, due to the online format, I missed actually meeting, talking and chatting with people. It was a difficult first month. I felt insecure and thought about giving up, because people arrived full of “baggage”!
But then I understood that I was really there to learn – and my friends on the course reminded me of that all the time. Everyone supported me, gave me reference material, they didn't let me give up at all! What's cool is that the guys come with a very strong sense of community, and they helped each other a lot.
It took six months of a lot of effort, to understand things that were obvious to others, but not to me. With this, I learned not only hard skills, but also soft skills important. I brought some debates from class into the house, such as communication methods. It even helped me in college, with organization exercises.
At the end of the course, we had series of lectures with heads from iFood, which was very interesting to understand more about the areas and have a direction. We had mentors and we could schedule appointments with them, on topics such as technique, career and leadership – and this was essential for me to continue in the selection process for the position at iFood.
Today, at Ifood, I'm a data analyst, and it's been great! I joined a wonderful team, which helped me from the beginning and was happy with each achievement. It's a team willing to answer questions and welcome everyone! I am very grateful, especially to my teammates and mentorship that didn't let me give up.
My tip is: nothing is impossible if you really want it. It's a matter of prioritization and resilience. I tell my story so people can see that it is real, that it is possible leave scratch in the technology area and work with it.
Put it like a dream and try to make it come true. In journalism, I like telling stories. Currently, being able to tell stories with data, for me, is a victory.”
