“Hi, I’m Ruby, and I’m Co-CEO and ❤️ of Product at Joyous. I grew up in South Africa in a single-parent family with a low income.

I was not interested in what was taught at school, so I paid no attention and got bad grades. At the time my passion was drama and musical theatre. After I graduated, I worked as a waitress for a year to save enough money to study Drama. I dropped out after a year. After that, I started and quit many entry level jobs in various industries such as retail and hospitality. I kept giving up not long after I started something.

When I was 21 I decided it was time to find a good career path and stick with it. I did a one year course in IT. I found fixing computers and working on computer networks really fun and interesting. I loved knowing how to do something that most people found complicated and intimidating – truthfully it wasn’t all that hard.

At 23 years old, I knew that I wanted to be the one to build all these awesome apps that were loaded onto people’s phones and computers. So, I started a bachelor’s degree in Software Engineering – which I absolutely loved. I paid for my degree by doing software and design projects on the side. At 27 years old I finally graduated and for the first time I finished something that I was passionate about. I moved to New Zealand straight after.

I then got my first role as a Software Engineer. I loved writing code, creating beautiful interfaces, and solving meaningful problems. I got promoted from junior to team leader within two years. Five years later I shifted into Product Management and Design, and now I’m here at Joyous - living my absolute best life.

I highly recommend the industry to anyone who’s interested.”

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