Rachel Beser enjoys hand lettering, making cards and reading, and earned her bachelor’s degree in Graphic Design from Towson University. After starting out in print design, she saw the market evolving and added web courses to her schedule.

“I saw where the market was going and wanted to keep up,” Rachel says. “I taught myself updated HTML and CSS through Lynda.com and blogs.”

She combined these technical skills with her design background and ended up on a career path she finds personally fulfilling.

“I enjoy making complicated information simpler and creating beautiful sites and applications to help people do their jobs in an enjoyable way,” Rachel says. “I solve complicated problems through design and development and use software and HTML/CSS to create well designed and functional websites and applications.”

Rachel encourages girls considering a career in technology to look for ways to combine other things they love with technology and see where it leads them.

“Find something you’re passionate about and apply your technology skills to that. You will only learn when you’re excited about something,” she says. “As humans we are all creative in different ways and are great problem solvers. Don’t be intimated by people. That held me back from learning at first.”

Rachel also notes that art can be a big part of the equation:

“Keep at it. Art is really important in helping with problem-solving skills,” she says. “Computer science is great for the logical reasoning skills. Combine the two, and you will have a great career in technology. Good luck!”