Dawn Betro, McKEON’s Senior Software Engineer.
Dawn has been a member of McKEON’s team for seven years. She is responsible for updating and improving McKEON’s project management and inventory monitoring software – the application used to log the progress and shipment of all projects from proposal through the engineering phases, into the manufacturing process, until the project is shipped to its final destination.
Dawn is also responsible for monitoring any errors in the application and adjusting it according to the suggestions and preferences of McKEON team members in the various departments that interact with the application to make it more user-friendly.
Dawn said she first took a programming course in high school after her mother told her to give it a chance.
“I was just kind of hooked after that,” Dawn said. “You spend your day solving problems and fixing things, and there’s actually a rush when you figure out what’s wrong. That just never goes away. The more challenging the problem, the better.”
Dawn said that problem-solving is her favorite aspect of the job, and making the user’s life easier is something she takes pride in. She said she enjoys interacting with the people using the application, taking their suggestions, and making them happen.
“What annoys me the most is inefficiency,” Dawn said. “The application is not helping them do their job better; it looks like it’s actually hindering them. I want to be able to fix that.”
What differentiates Dawn’s role from other programmers is her involvement in technical support.
“You need people that understand support for this role,” Dawn said. “You need someone that is able to sit down with the customer or the user, come up with a solution, then go back, program that solution, test it, and then if something comes up (be able) to fix it.”
A fun fact about Dawn is that she is a huge New York Islanders fan. Dawn first attended a hockey game with her father at seven and watched hockey with her two older brothers throughout her childhood. Dawn now has half-season tickets, and never misses a game whether she is at UBS Arena or watching on TV.