Field trips aren’t just for kids! TurnToTech’s students took a trip to the BuzzFeed office on East 118th Street to take a look around and hear what TurnToTech alumna Paola Mata and her co-workers do day-to-day. Paola has been an iOS developer at BuzzFeed for 2 years and is an active member of several organizations– one of them being the NYC Tech Latinas, a community of female Latinas who are active in the tech community.

She and Greg Thompson, Software Engineer at BuzzFeed, kindly took time out of their busy day to talk to TurnToTech’s students about their experience in the world of iOS development and offered valuable insight on how to increase their visibility while looking for a job. Her main piece of advice was that you must give back to the community either through volunteering at a tech event, starting a meetup group or simply attending a meetup event.

The students were engaged and learned a lot from the experience. TurnToTech would like to thank Paola and BuzzFeed for inviting our students for a visit and for giving up part of their day to explain the ins-and-outs of being an app developer.

These field trips are valuable for our students because it shows them what it is really like to be a professional app developer while giving students the opportunity to have their questions answered by a pro.

Stay tuned for our next field trip!