Problem solver Kamilah Taylor embraces failure

Kamilah Taylor is an experienced engineer. It’s her job to come up with elegant and simple solutions to problems. In her field, there’s always something new she has to figure out - similar to life.

Taylor’s dad played an instrumental role in her appreciation for technology. He introduced her to educational computer games like Word Munchers, Number Munchers and Kid Pix as a child. But it was the Lego Mindstorms robotics kit that drove her obsession with programming.

She recognises Mona Prep as her first formal introduction to programming and attended up until grade five. Though she moved to Atlanta and studied at Holcomb Bridge Middle School, her love for reading and math followed her.

At North Springs High School, she got more comfortable with the subjects and was willing to do advanced math and science classes. Though the school was challenging, she got into a class that offered an Advanced Placement Computer Science course.

Her school life in Georgia was rocky. Especially when some classmates tried throwing her off her game.

“I took AP Computer Science and while I loved the content, I had a hard time with some of the guys in the class. I actually almost decided against computer science as a major in college based on that experience,” Taylor said in an interview with 'Women of Silicon Valley'.

To the surprise of loved ones, Taylor moved back to Jamaica and did a year of sixth form at Campion College. Soon after, she enrolled at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona and was graduating with a B.Sc. in Computer Science and Mathematics.

Following UWI, she completed her master’s in computer science, specialising in robotics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and would go on to work with tech giants and startup apps like Gusto - a startup that does payroll and benefits for small businesses, Swaay- an app focused on reducing polarisation and toxicity online, Krikey - with their mobile apps, and LinkedIn.

Taylor secured a position at LinkedIn in March 2012 and spent five and a half years coding as a Senior Software Engineer.

“In late 2011, I applied to a couple of places, including LinkedIn, and as soon as I did my onsite interview, I knew that this was a good fit. Looking back, I’m so glad I made that decision because I’ve seen my own personal growth,” she told the Gleaner’s Outlook.

Taylor was on cloud nine until she started pursuing her PhD and ended up dropping out.

“I felt like I’d hit rock bottom. I was crashing on my friend’s sofa, and then I lost two friends in the following months to suicide and cancer,” Taylor told ‘Women in Silicon Valley’.

In retrospect, she is immensely proud of that point in her life. Taylor found an effective solution by accepting failure for what it is. “I’m proud that I figured out how to move on and grow from my failure.”

“There’s no way that I would have accomplished the things I have, made the friends that I have, and been able to help my family along the way if I’d stayed in the PhD program. It’s a good reminder that it’s okay if I fail — I’ve failed before, survived, and thrived,” she said.

Kamilah Taylor is also an advocate for underrepresented minorities to choose science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) as a path to a career. She was named as one of Business Insider’s 43 most powerful women in tech in 2017 and one of Essence’s 10 Black Women Rocking the Tech World in 2018.

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