Meet the Thunkable Team: Megan Woolfrey, UX/UI Designer

At Thunkable we’re lucky to work with some of the best and the brightest folks out there. In this blog series, we’re pulling back the curtain on a Thunkable employee, sharing their history, how they ended up at Thunkable, and more. In the latest installment, let’s meet Megan Woolfrey, a UX/UI designer at Thunkable. 

Woolfrey at a Glance

Based: Toronto, ON

Team: Product (Design)

Favorite place you’ve traveled: The west coast of Sintra, Portugal (where I got engaged) and Mount Rainier National Park in Washington

Favorite artist: Kings of Leon

Go to karaoke song: Fergalicious

Advice you’d give your younger self: Just figure out what you want and value, then trust that everything will work out.

Favorite book: Too many! The Algebra of Happiness, Pride and Prejudice, and The Fionavar Tapestry trilogy

Pet peeves: Slow walkers (that’s the Toronto speaking)

Favorite cuisine: Toronto-specific, but the plant-based Asian cuisine served at Planta Queen. I’ve never loved a restaurant more!

A Non-Traditional Path 

Woolfrey didn’t have a typical career path to the tech industry. Initially, she thought she wanted to be a teacher but soon realized that wasn’t her passion. Woolfrey shared, “I started off wanting to be a high school teacher, so I took English and psychology in university thinking I'll teach social studies and be an English teacher. I realized that's not something that I wanted to do while doing my degree.”

After college, Woolfrey began working in the hospitality industry, working at restaurants and hotels. “I was in a hotel in Toronto for a few years, and before that, I worked at the campus bar during university. I'm from a really small town, so tourism in the summer is huge. I always had a safe summer position at a restaurant in my hometown, which was really convenient,” she shared.

New Beginnings

Then, in 2020, the pandemic hit, and Woolfrey was forced to re-evaluate. She elaborated,  “I wasn't happy in hospitality anyway, and [now] had all this time. I decided, ‘I’m going to figure out something that I actually enjoy doing.’”

Woolfrey already had the tech industry on her radar but wasn’t sure what part of tech would be the best fit for her. Then she found UX/UI. “I like that it's both creative and technical, and you work across a lot of different departments within the team,” she said.

Woolfrey dove right in. “I took an online UX UI boot camp, a fully immersive three-month program. I did a lot of free research beforehand and then fully committed. So that was like three months,” she explained. “I've been working in tech since. I started off working at a really small company that was just local, like a scrappy startup. After working there for a year, I was looking for a change, and I applied to Thunkable.” 

Life at Thunkable

What Woolfrey likes most about coming to work every day are two things: culture and people. 

“I think Thunkable is actually unique in just the kindness and communication within the team,” said Woolfrey. “I feel very supported as an employee. There's a sense of community present at Thunkable that I haven't experienced before. Being a more junior member of the team, being able to look at who I'm working with and how they work is really inspiring. They're just so great to work with, and I learned so much from them design-wise. There are so many good coworkers you can learn from at our company.”

We couldn’t agree more. 🙂

Final Thoughts

We’re obviously glad Woolfrey decided to change careers and ended up at Thunkable. She’s able to apply aspects of her degree to her current position, and if she could do it all over again, she said she would still take the road less traveled. 

“I have a very non-traditional career path. I still love English, I still love reading, and that comes in handy for writing copy and designs, but yeah, totally different change from what I thought I would be when I was 18,” said Woolfrey. “Even when I was starting to look at what do I want to do, I had no idea UX or UI Designer was a position. Sometimes I think maybe I could have gone back and done this all along, but that's not something you could ever predict.” 

Join the Thunkable Team

Thunkable is hiring across multiple teams and locations. If you’re interested in opportunities at Thunkable check out our job openings here. And stay tuned to meet more of the Thunkable team!