Learning at Enova’s Open Source Lounge

By: Caitlin Morisse, People Resources Associate

Enova’s Culture Guild held their first biweekly Open Source Lounge last week, and as the new People Resources Associate supporting Software Engineering, I thought it would be a great chance to learn more about what they do.

While it was a very informal gathering, with engineers casually discussing personal projects or current open source Enova projects, I quickly realized that I was lost amidst the talk of coding and GitHub. That didn’t seem to deter those in attendance from trying their best to explain their work in a way I could understand. On the contrary, they seemed to rally around the idea that anyone, regardless of experience, could contribute.

Eventually we broke into small groups and pairs to work on different projects. I was paired with Bud, documenting a step-by-step process for setting up an all-in-one landing page with Landable. Even with my limited knowledge of what we were doing, Bud was a great guide, taking the time to show me how he corrects errors and checks each step for successful completion.

I went into the Open Source Lounge feeling nervous about my lack of knowledge and understanding, but I found a fantastic group of Enova associates excited to share their projects and ideas with others. I look forward to attending more OSL’s in the future and encourage anyone with an interest in learning more about open source to do the same.