Hi I'm Andrea Lea McBride

I grew up in the small town of Floresville, Texas. Floresville is famous for their Annual Peanut Festival Parade. My parents were young and poor when I was born, but I saw my mom go through law school and graduate at the top of her class, then climb her way to the top of the corporate ladder. She is my biggest role model and inspiration. Not only is she smart, but kind and funny too. She can make me laugh until I get hiccups. She's always been frugal and compassionate for those less fortunate.

My Biggest Accomplishment

My biggest accomplishment was becoming a software engineer. I am currently the only female on our team. Being the only girl has its advantages. For one, some employers are looking for diversity so that gives me an edge. Second I have the restrooms all to myself. I hope to be a role model for girls wanting to go into the technology field.

Before software I worked as a science teacher for ten years. As a teacher I felt like I really made a difference and met some really awesome talented kids! However, I always struggled to pay the bills and never had anything left at the end of the month for vacations. I was looking to better my life by increasing my income when I left teaching three years ago. I met a guy who is a software developer, and encouraged me to go that route. I wrote an app and managed to get it in the app store as a demo to potential employers. The rest is history.

Working at Dell and now VMWare has been a humbling experience. Sometimes I want to give up, but I try to accomplish small things each day.

At VMWare:

Hobbies and Stuff For Fun

I enjoy traveling. I went to Las Vegas for the first time last year. I also took a road trip to Florida all the way from Austin, Texas in a Tesla! When I was a teacher we had lessons on cars of the future...well the future is here and I'm living it!

I also enjoy kayaking on the lake. When I am on the water all the pressures of life seem distant. It is so peaceful.

Promoting Steemit

To promote Steemit, I decided to do a photo shoot and hold up a home made Steemit sign. I'm very creative and this was a great outlet for me. I took wanna be model pictures at the condo pool and people were staring asking what Steemit was (which was kinda uncomfortable). I'm still working on my beach body! I would like to travel to new places and take Steemit sign photos and pass out Steemit cards every where if I get lots of upvotes. It's a fun creative thing to do and much easier than coding!