Lara Karki

Broadening Access to Computing Careers

Hello,

My name is Lara Karki (also Schenck). I’m a Ph.D. candidate in Human-Centered Computing at Georgia Tech in Atlanta, GA, where I work with Dr. Betsy DiSalvo and the DataWorks team. Before my PhD, I worked as a self-taught software developer for a decade, and encounters with gatekeeping culture motivated my career change to research.

My PhD research focuses on understanding and shaping a future of work where people without a technical background can gain economic stability through salaried, middle-wage, middle-skill computing jobs.

Research Areas

My research focuses on the variety of concerns that affect adults learning technical skills in pursuit of financially secure careers, i.e., full-time jobs with benefits. I take a collaborative approach to research, e.g., working career changers at DataWorks and master’s students in industry through Georgia Tech’s OMSCS. I use qualitative and mixed-methods with a focus on incorporating diverse perspectives through a participatory approach to research.

PDF slide deck overview of my research

Career Development & Job Search

In this area, I research what makes job search so difficult and how career development programs can do better to help. I collaborate closely with career changers at DataWorks to understand the sociotechnical barriers to finding middle-skill computing jobs following their one-year term. We have investigated social-class based barriers embedded within LinkedIn and how hiring technologies create layers separating job seekers from hiring managers, increasing the necessity for pre-existing social capital to be considered for jobs.

Broadening Computing Jobs

Adults without formal computer science education engage focus on complex computing work outside of typical computing jobs. However, ideas about what “counts” as computing work are still focused on engineering jobs at high-tech companies, and people programming with non-traditional tools in domain-specific contexts are not seen as authentic computing workers. In this research area, I focus on characterizing these kinds of jobs and how they can be pathways to financially secure careers.

Work-Based Learning

Learning through work is an effective and accessible way for adults to acquire technical skills. The curriculum at DataWorks is an example of an approach to upskilling through work-based learning that integrates flexible curricula with work tasks to provide authentic work experience and exposure to new technical concepts on-the-job.

Future of Work

The industry assumes that when AI automates work, workers will use that time towards higher-level thinking, but research shows that automation often silos work, removing opportunities for learning and strategic contribution. This work is focused on developing approaches to maintain the meaning of work and work-based opportunities for learning among radical workplace change.

Published and In-Progress Works

PDFs for published works can be found on my Google Scholar page, or at the links below.

In-Progress Work

Lara Karki, Asher Brown, Dana Priest, Joshua Fortier, Briana Evans-Lopez, Oschaya Ellis, Justin Booker, and Betsy DiSalvo. “Sociotechnical Hiring Pipelines: Reckoning with Blind Spots.” In progress for CSCW.

Lara Karki, Idel Martinez-Ramos, Sabine Verdult, Dana Priest, Asher Brown, Felienne Hermans, and Betsy DiSalvo. “Constructing (and Deconstructing) Perceptions of Programming Language Legitimacy.” In progress for CSCW.

2026

Lara Karki, Aarti Israni, Tawanna Dillahunt, Juilie Hui, Asher Brown, Dana Priest, and Betsy DiSalvo. “Recognizing, Supporting, and Futuring Diverse Pathways in Computing Work.” Accepted Workshop for CHIWORK 2026.

2025

Lara Karki, Kayla Uleah, Carl DiSalvo, Sierra Traynail Ross, Jadin Butler, Selamawit Husein, Emanuel Bryant, Dana Priest, Justin Booker, and Betsy DiSalvo. “‘I get hives when I come on here’: Persisting Through Platform-Delivered Microaggressions on LinkedIn.” CSCW 2025. 📝 Blog Post | 📄 PDF

Lara Karki, Dana Priest, James G DuBose, Zajerria Godfrey, Annabel Rothschild, Ben Rydal Shapiro, and Betsy DiSalvo. 2025. “A Window into DataWorks: Developing an Integrated Work-Training Curriculum for Novice Adults.” SIGCSE TS 2025. 📋 Conference Page | 📝 Blog Post | 📄 PDF

2024

Carl DiSalvo, Annabel Rothschild, Lara L. Schenck, Ben Rydal Shapiro, and Betsy DiSalvo. 2024. “When Workers Want to Say No: A View into Critical Consciousness and Workplace Democracy in Data Work”. CSCW 2024. DEI Recognition. Open access PDF.

2023

Lara L. Schenck and Betsy DiSalvo. 2023. “From Data Work to Data Science: Getting Past the Gatekeepers.” Poster at ICER 2023. Open access PDF.

Contact

If my work sounds interesting to you, if you are working on something similar, or if you are thinking of a career change to computing or to research, I’d love to hear from you. Feel free to email me at lschenck3[at]gatech.edu.