Featured Mod of the Month: Helen Anderson

In this series, we shine a spotlight 🔦 on the different DEV moderators — Trusted Members and Tag Mods — who help to make DEV a kind, helpful place. Aside from spreading good vibes and helping fellow community members, these folks also assist us with removing spam and keeping posts well organized by adding and removing tags as necessary amongst other things.

If you want to learn more about what these awesome folks do, I recommend checking out our Trusted Member and Tag Moderation guides. There is information about how to apply in both guides if you're interested in joining up as a moderator.

Introducing Helen Anderson 🙌

To round out the year, I'm siked to shine the spotlight on Helen Anderson, a long-time DEV member and moderator. Holding a strong passion for data, Helen was the very first tag mod for several tags: #database, #sql, #postgres, #performance, #monitoring, and others. Her skills as a writer and ability to explain dense concepts shine through in her many beginner-friendly tutorials and posts. She is also incredibly generous with her time, having reported an applause-worthy amount of spammers during her long tenure as a mod. 👏 Thank you, Helen!

Helen AndersonFollow

Data wrangler by day, tag moderator by night

The Interview

Hope you enjoy the interview below!

Michael Tharrington: Can you tell us about your coding journey? How did you first get interested in tech, what made you decide to become a software dev, and what was your early work experience like?

Helen Anderson: It hasn't been a conventional journey for me. During my time at university, I didn't study computer science and didn’t do well in my IT courses either. After graduating with a degree in business, I pursued a career in logistics and supply chain analysis in my hometown. Though we relied heavily on Excel, I enjoyed the process of figuring out how to get the right products to the right people at the right time. Over the years, I have worked on revenue projections for the Royal NZ Ballet, planned manufacturing for Timex Watches in London, and managed stock distribution for Icebreaker Clothing's global locations.

I made the switch from Excel to SQL and coding when I joined Xero, a tech company in New Zealand, in 2015. I was a bit late to the game when it came to SQL and databases, but over the past decade, I have been gradually taking on more technical roles and now I'm a Principal Business Intelligence Developer. I lead projects, develop datasets, and support junior colleagues who are making a career change into data-focused roles.

Michael: You’ve been a long-time DEV member (since 2017!) and moderator… you’ve created some awesome posts over the years and done so much to help us out — from reporting loads of spammers to uplifting good authors. Can you talk for a bit about why you choose to help out as a mod and what your favourite thing about modding is?

Helen: As a tag moderator, I feel like an invisible hero. Using my moderator tools, I can add tags to posts for better cataloguing, promote posts that deserve it, and quickly hide spammy posts. Even if people are unaware of my behind-the-scenes work, I hope their experience finding what they need is improved with every action I take.

Michael: You’ve assisted as a tag moderator for #database for a good while — you were actually the very first tag mod for the tag! — and I’m hoping you could tell us what it is that you find interesting about working with databases.

Helen: I work with databases and data modelling all day, every day in my job so am always trying to learn as much as I can about the effective use of databases. Initially, I found it challenging to understand how to store data in a way that makes it easy to retrieve. Now find it enjoyable and love the challenge that comes with each new project. Each dataset is unique and has its quirks, just like the database technologies and languages we use. It’s so satisfying to find the right tool for the job and even more satisfying to learn about it from other developers here on Dev.to.

Michael: You’ve always been awesome about writing beginner-friendly content (for instance, your excellent Data Analysis series!) and I’m curious what drives you to create content like this?

Helen: I feel a lot of empathy towards those who are just starting out as data analysts or report developers, as I was once a beginner too. I had a hard time finding documentation that didn't require years of experience to understand beyond the basics. That's why I have always focused on writing beginner-friendly blog posts. I believe that a well-written post can be beneficial to anyone, even experts who can gain new insights from a unique perspective.

Throughout the years, I've retired some posts and rewritten a few as I learned more about the technology and tools. I look back at those posts now as a sign of how far I've come from my first post in 2018 and tentative steps into technical writing.

Michael: One of my favorite posts of all-time on DEV is “The trouble with blog post views and vanity metrics” — frequently, we see folks who are motivated by metrics creating content that is sensational, controversial, and created to draw attention rather than crafted from a genuine place. Any advice for how to go about creating genuine content versus chasing numbers?

Helen: Thanks for your comment! That particular post holds a special place in my heart. When I wrote it, I was spending a lot of time writing, tweeting, and trying to get a positive response from my audience on every post I wrote. However, I realised that if my post was shared on a not-so-friendly platform, the negative comments would discourage me from sharing my thoughts altogether. This made me reflect on how likes, follows, and retweets were affecting my mental health. If a post I had worked hard on didn't capture anyone's interest, I felt discouraged, and if it did, I wondered if those likes and reactions were genuine or not.

It reminded me of the reason why I started writing in the first place and the joy I felt when I shared my thoughts through beginner-friendly posts. By writing about a technology or tool, I was able to strengthen my knowledge and even if only a few people read it I still felt a sense of accomplishment.

When you write a blog post, make sure to infuse your unique perspective and passion into the topic. You don't have to be an expert in everything, as this is not a technical documentation. Remember that your post could be discovered by someone who might find your particular explanation helpful in better understanding the topic. Even if you're a beginner, your explanation of how you're learning to use a new tool can be valuable. So, be confident and share your knowledge!

Wrap up

Thanks so much for reading. We appreciate you taking the time to learn about another one of our amazing moderators. 💚

Stay tuned for future mod interviews in this series!