This Meet the Trulian features Associate Software Engineer, Corina Putinar. Corina works on Trulia Rentals and helped build a number of products for the team in 2016. Read on to learn more about Corina and how she got her start in tech.
What’s your role at Trulia?
I’m an associate software engineer on the Trulia Rentals team. I mostly do frontend development and I’ve worked on projects such as Trulia’s Rental Resume and bot for Facebook Messenger, both of which launched in 2016.
What inspired you to get into your role?
I became interested in computer science and programming when I was in college. I got a taste for it and simply loved the idea of being able to create things through programming. Throughout college I knew I always wanted to work in the industry and immediately be able to apply my skills, but it wasn’t until my first hackathon when I realized I really enjoy web and front-end development. I appreciate the fact that at Trulia I get to work on projects that are very much user-facing — creating an amazing user experience matters a lot for me.
If you could have drinks with one tech luminary – dead or alive – whom would it be and why? And, what would your first question be?
Steve Jobs. I believe he had a vision for Apple and thought about its products really carefully, so it would be interesting to sit down with him and understand where he came up with his ideas for the iMac and iPhone specifically. I would also want to know what he envisions Apple doing in the future.
What’s the one gadget or personal tech item you cannot live without and why?
I can’t live without my iPhone. It’s so convenient to have everything I could ever want on my phone, and be connected to it all so quickly. The camera on the iPhone also makes it really appealing to carry around everywhere.
Also, my Fitbit. I’m on the Fitbit app constantly to track exercise and sleep, and I would be pretty upset if I lost this little device too.
What was the last movie you saw or book you read and what – if anything – would you change about the ending?
I’m going to take a different approach here and go with TV show. I’ve been watching the show “Black Mirror,” which reflects how technology is used in day-to-day life and the negative impacts it might have on human interactions in the future. I think I would change the ending of some of the episodes to convey a lighter and more positive message about how technology can help, instead of mostly focusing on the negative impacts it could have.
What’s your proudest accomplishment and why?
Some of the projects I’ve completed here at Trulia, specifically my role in creating Trulia’s bot for Facebook Messenger. I was able to lead the project and it was a really exciting and fulfilling experience to be able to work on a new platform. I also loved seeing how Trulia users interact with the bot and learning what works well and what doesn’t.
I’ve also attended conferences and meetup groups related to messaging bots. I’ve found them really fascinating – I think people will definitely become more interested in bots in the future.
If you could master one talent or skill that you don’t have now what would it be and why?
I would love to be able to draw well! I love art and, as a bonus, I think expanding my drawing and design skills could help me be a more well-rounded front-end engineer. I also think the art of drawing is really relaxing and is something that can be done in a social setting or alone and it’s still enjoyable either way.
If you could have one superpower what would it be and why?
I would love to be able to teleport. One of my favorite things to do is travel. I try to travel to new places as much as I can, so it would help if I did not have to deal with long flights and the other not-so-fun things about traveling, like airport security lines.
If you could time travel, would you go into the future or past and why?
I would definitely go into the future. Technology is changing and progressing really quickly and I’d love to see the technology that is being used and how it is being used 100 or 200 years from now.
