McClelland breaks down coding, flag football & data analytic careers

SANDPOINT — Coding and flag football aren’t often considered synonymous, but a new episode of a Google series featuring Sandpoint native Annaka McClelland shows just how closely connected the two activities can be.  

The series, "Job Hoppers," aims to make the real world a little bit less of a mystery for the up-and-coming generation. Creators of the show help young job seekers learn about popular careers — from cyber security to digital marketing and e-commerce — and hear advice from fellow “Gen Zers” on how to break into these fields, Jessica Ryan, Google employee, said. The episode featuring McClelland now has more than 2 million views.

McClelland attends Brigham Young University Idaho in Rexburg, with two years of schooling left in her program. She is majoring in data science with two minors in business analytics and statistics. She has been able to call Sandpoint home for 19 years.

“Most of my favorite memories in Sandpoint revolve around my time playing soccer for Sandpoint Strikers and being on the lake with my family,” she said. 

She attended Farmin Stidwell Elementary, Sandpoint Middle School, and Sandpoint High School. However, she wasn't able to physically attend school after she was hit by a car in eighth grade, which left her with a traumatic brain injury.

During her freshman year in college, McClelland took the Google data analytics certificate course.  She said she was drawn to its self-paced nature, which was an important aspect to her since she navigates disability challenges caused by her accident. At one point she wasn't sure college or a professional certificate was in her future because of the obstacles she had to overcome. 

“I was still dealing with chronic symptoms from my traumatic brain injury so there was a reasonable probability that college would not work out,” she said. “That is when Google's professional certificates caught my eye.”

She integrated the certificate into her studies, completing it in just two semesters. Shortly after she landed her current remote position at John Deere where she works part-time during the school years and full-time during the summers.  

When Google first reached out to gauge her interest in participating in the “Job Hoppers” series, McClelland said she was hesitant. 

“At first I was like, ‘no way,’” she said. “Then I could hear my professors’ and my parents’ voices in my head [saying] this could be a good career move to network and whatnot. So I was like ‘they definitely won’t pick me, so I can say that I did it so I don’t have any regrets. And then that’s kind of what happened at every interview. I was like ‘there’s no way they are going to call me back so I might as well just do it.”

Despite her expectations, she was selected for the first episode of the web series’ second season. 

In the episode, called “Code Breakers Football Showdown,” McClelland uses analogies from flag football, one of her hobbies, to explain how her job works to show host and YouTube creator Aaron Burriss. 

“Before I had the car accident, sports were like my entire life,” she said during the episode. “I played everything that I could. And so [flag football] is a healthy way that I can do what I love while still being safe.”

While explaining what her daily tasks might look like as a data analyst, McClelland began to tie in some new analogies. 

“A function is like a play, or like a route,” she said while illustrating for the camera. “So if I were to be like ‘play x,’ right? In the function that we could code, I could have ‘do a stutter step,’ and then in function x we’ll have ‘you run in, and then out.’ And then when you hit out, it’s like when you catch the ball.”

She showed Burriss how to create flag football plays with coding techniques, introducing him to coding vocabulary words along the way. After the play was complete, they took what they knew to the field for a game of flag football. 

Overall, McClelland said filming with Google was an enjoyable experience. Even though being in front of a camera took her out of her comfort zone, everyone made her feel comfortable. 

“The first day we shot some flag football scenes and I got to have my friends there with me and that made it a little easier to go into filming,” she said. 

She said being surrounded by boom mics and drones was an entirely new experience for her.

To anyone interested in coding, McClelland said you have to pursue a love of learning because the number of coding languages and endless possibilities involved in the field will keep you in a perpetual state of learning new things. 

“Be curious and stay curious,” she said as advice to those interested in following in her footsteps.

    Annaka McClelland is pictured in a screenshot of an episode of the web series "Job Hoppers". In the episode, called “Code Breakers Football Showdown,” McClelland uses analogies from flag football, one of her hobbies, to explain how her job works to show host and YouTube creator Aaron Burriss.
  

    Annaka McClelland is pictured with her flag football teammates in a screenshot of an episode of the web series "Job Hoppers". McClelland encouraged others interested in coding to follow in her footsteps, saying the field's number of coding languages and endless possibilities are idea for those who love learning new things and finding solutions.