We’re ecstatic to welcome Julie Tung as our new software engineer. Using her analytical and problem-solving skills, she will help the team develop new products, systems, and features that expand public servants’ access to a marketplace of shareable contracts.
Julie is also an engineer that is passionate about mitigating climate change. When she’s not in the office, you can find her gaming or reading. We sat down with Julie to discuss her path to Pavilion, hobbies, fun facts, and challenges.
Why Pavilion?
In the past few years, my anxiety about climate change has been skyrocketing. Beyond taking small individual measures, I knew when looking for my next role that I wanted to find a way to apply my time and skills toward making an impact in the climate space.
When I first started talking with Mari and Alicia about Pavilion, I was surprised by how quickly I felt excited about public procurement (a topic I can honestly say I had never thought about before) and the positive impact that their vision could achieve. Further conversations convinced me that the work here could be a significant lever for fighting climate change, by accelerating the adoption and implementation of cleaner technologies, among other things.
I’m so grateful to have found a mission to strive for that’s closely aligned with my values; that I get to work with a talented, close-knit team while doing so is just icing on the cake! I’m very excited for the journey ahead.
What do you like to do when you’re not working?
I really like playing video games, though I think I’m a more casual gamer than most. I love old school point and click adventure games with great puzzles and a lot of humor. Actually I played a more recent one in the genre, called “There Is No Game” which was very funny and enjoyable. I was more than a little addicted to Stardew Valley for a while. And party games like Overcooked! and Mario Kart are long-standing favorites in our household.
What’s something someone who didn’t know you wouldn’t expect about you?
I learned to type in Emacs. (I’ll really be dating myself here, but here goes!)
Personal computers were still relatively rare when I was young, but my dad was a software engineer and computer hobbyist, so we had a PC at home. I was probably 6 or 7 years old, and I wanted to learn to type. So my dad fired up Emacs, handed me a programming book, and tasked me with copying all the code samples from the book into the computer. I worked diligently at this for hours that summer, and I remember being disappointed at only finishing a handful of chapters (my dad needed the whole book! Though now, in hindsight…I realize he probably didn’t *need* the output of this task as much as I’d thought).
The code I typed was all gibberish to me, but it did have one lasting effect: I’m still an Emacs user to this day.
What’s something you’re not good at, but working on?
Exercise! I’ve never been very physically active, and for a long time, I thought of “real” exercise as including only activities that I found either unappealing or intimidating, like playing sports, running, or working out at the gym. So I never thought of myself as a person who exercises, and left it at that.
The past few years, I’ve started realizing how much exercise is an investment into my well-being for the future vs. just a pastime, so I’m now newly motivated to try to do more of it! I’m working on just stepping up my activity level for now, whether that’s doing more walking, stretching to improve my flexibility, or playing Beat Saber (a VR dancing game). I hope to keep improving!
