5 answers
Warren
Student
Orlando, Florida
1
Question
Asked
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These questions are for anyone working in the computer science field
What do you do?
What are the duties/functions/responsibilities of your job?
What kinds of problems do you deal with?
What kinds of decisions do you make?
If you had to break it up into percentages, how do you spend your day?
How does time use vary?
Are there busy and slow times or is the workflow fairly constant?
Why did this type of work interest you, and how did you get started?
How did you get your job? What jobs and experiences have led you to your present position
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5 answers
Josh Learned
Data Analyst
1
Answer
Murfreesboro, Tennessee
Updated
Josh’s Answer
Hi Warren. These are all great questions about the field; I'll try to answer each one as best I can.
- I am a data scientist working primarily with Tableau for visualizations and SQL for data logic
- Responsibilities include: reporting and analytics around Retail KPIs, supporting client visualization build requests, solving for data logic issues
- Common problems are missing, incomplete, or mismatched data being reported
- Decision making in my role focuses around displaying the data I'm working with. Questions I ask myself and decide on are: How do I want this data to be displayed? What do I want the audience to take away from the reporting? What insights can I make with what is being reported?
- Daily time spent: 50% visualization building and code writing, 30% meetings discussing current or future projects, 10% communication management (email / Slack), 5% ticket management and cleanup (JIRA), 5% finding / brainstorming personal initiatives
- Time use varies largely based on what issues have cropped up, how quickly is my current work needed, what upcoming project needs preparation. No day is the same time wise.
- Work flow does ebb and flow. Some days allow for more personal initiatives to be worked on, while other days require focus on one issue all day.
- I became interested in my current role largely by accident. I had already been interested in data science, but when I discovered and began to use Tableau, I found that I had a knack for it and really enjoyed coming up with new ways to display data.
Hope this information helps you as you explore data science as a career option.
Good luck!
- I am a data scientist working primarily with Tableau for visualizations and SQL for data logic
- Responsibilities include: reporting and analytics around Retail KPIs, supporting client visualization build requests, solving for data logic issues
- Common problems are missing, incomplete, or mismatched data being reported
- Decision making in my role focuses around displaying the data I'm working with. Questions I ask myself and decide on are: How do I want this data to be displayed? What do I want the audience to take away from the reporting? What insights can I make with what is being reported?
- Daily time spent: 50% visualization building and code writing, 30% meetings discussing current or future projects, 10% communication management (email / Slack), 5% ticket management and cleanup (JIRA), 5% finding / brainstorming personal initiatives
- Time use varies largely based on what issues have cropped up, how quickly is my current work needed, what upcoming project needs preparation. No day is the same time wise.
- Work flow does ebb and flow. Some days allow for more personal initiatives to be worked on, while other days require focus on one issue all day.
- I became interested in my current role largely by accident. I had already been interested in data science, but when I discovered and began to use Tableau, I found that I had a knack for it and really enjoyed coming up with new ways to display data.
Hope this information helps you as you explore data science as a career option.
Good luck!
Immad Uddin
Software Engineer
6
Answers
Schaumburg, Illinois
Updated
Immad’s Answer
What do you do?
I am a software engineer with 10+ years of experience.
What are the duties/functions/responsibilities of your job?
My responsibilities include writing production ready code, maintaining and troubleshooting systems, working with product managers on next set of requirements for the next project.
What kinds of problems do you deal with?
Working on real hard computer science problems and improve performance and efficient of the product that my team owns.
What kinds of decisions do you make?
Tradeoffs to find the optimal way to improve performance, reliability of our internal systems in a cost effective way.
If you had to break it up into percentages, how do you spend your day?
Meetings: 25%
Writing code: 50%
Debugging and troubleshooting: 25%
Code reviews, write design documents etc: 25%
Are there busy and slow times or is the workflow fairly constant?
Of course, some days are more hectic than others.
Why did this type of work interest you, and how did you get started?
I always was interested in maths and science and choose a fairly traditional path to get into this field. I completed by undergrad in Computer Engineering followed with a master degree.
How did you get your job? What jobs and experiences have led you to your present position
Network... Network... Network
Connect professionally with people. All my jobs have always come from some recommendation from people I have known or worked with.
Brad Schmitt
Principal Solutions Architect
4
Answers
Kansas City, Missouri
Updated
Brad’s Answer
What do you do?
I'm a Solutions Architect with about 20 years of experience.
What are the duties/functions/responsibilities of your job?
I meet with customers every week to ensure they are getting as much value out of our software as possible. This could mean one day I'm helping someone troubleshoot a problem and another day I'm doing demonstrations of new features that have been released. I also work closely with our Software Engineers to ensure we're building features that customers want and will actually use.
What kinds of problems do you deal with?
I frequently advise customers on how to best deploy our solution to their environments and educate them on best practices. Every customer environment is different so knowing the right questions to ask is very important!
What kinds of decisions do you make?
I have to decide things like "What is best for this customer in this situation?" and "What is the most optimal way to deploy our solution and that ensures a balance of cost, efficiency, and speed?".
If you had to break it up into percentages, how do you spend your day?
It varies from week to week, but I would say 25% of my week is customer-facing meetings. 25% is internal meetings and responding to Slack messages. The remaining 50% is a mix of building things, programming, reading, writing, and learning new things.
How does time use vary? Are there busy and slow times or is the workflow fairly constant?
How I use my time varies greatly. Some weeks are very, very busy and I don't have a lot of free time. Other weeks are slower and I'm able to catch up on things as well as learn new things that I'm interested in.
Why did this type of work interest you, and how did you get started?
I like the mix of engineering, interacting with people, and problem solving that my role provides. I started my career working in a NOC (Network Operations Center) fielding phone calls and performing troubleshooting tasks. This progressed into other roles over time (System Engineer, Performance Engineer, Consultant, Sales Engineer) and led to where I'm at today.
How did you get your job? What jobs and experiences have led you to your present position.
I got my job through LinkedIn after being contacted by a Recruiter. My previous jobs and experience certainly helped land the current role that I have but don't be afraid to apply for things a little "outside of the box". You never know what might happen.
I'm a Solutions Architect with about 20 years of experience.
What are the duties/functions/responsibilities of your job?
I meet with customers every week to ensure they are getting as much value out of our software as possible. This could mean one day I'm helping someone troubleshoot a problem and another day I'm doing demonstrations of new features that have been released. I also work closely with our Software Engineers to ensure we're building features that customers want and will actually use.
What kinds of problems do you deal with?
I frequently advise customers on how to best deploy our solution to their environments and educate them on best practices. Every customer environment is different so knowing the right questions to ask is very important!
What kinds of decisions do you make?
I have to decide things like "What is best for this customer in this situation?" and "What is the most optimal way to deploy our solution and that ensures a balance of cost, efficiency, and speed?".
If you had to break it up into percentages, how do you spend your day?
It varies from week to week, but I would say 25% of my week is customer-facing meetings. 25% is internal meetings and responding to Slack messages. The remaining 50% is a mix of building things, programming, reading, writing, and learning new things.
How does time use vary? Are there busy and slow times or is the workflow fairly constant?
How I use my time varies greatly. Some weeks are very, very busy and I don't have a lot of free time. Other weeks are slower and I'm able to catch up on things as well as learn new things that I'm interested in.
Why did this type of work interest you, and how did you get started?
I like the mix of engineering, interacting with people, and problem solving that my role provides. I started my career working in a NOC (Network Operations Center) fielding phone calls and performing troubleshooting tasks. This progressed into other roles over time (System Engineer, Performance Engineer, Consultant, Sales Engineer) and led to where I'm at today.
How did you get your job? What jobs and experiences have led you to your present position.
I got my job through LinkedIn after being contacted by a Recruiter. My previous jobs and experience certainly helped land the current role that I have but don't be afraid to apply for things a little "outside of the box". You never know what might happen.
Todd Everett
Cyber Security Sales Engineer
6
Answers
Updated
Todd’s Answer
What do you do?
Sales Engineer for cybersecurity products
What are the duties/functions/responsibilities of your job?
Customer support, ensure full effective deployment of solutions, troubleshooting and assistance, health checks and configuration reviews, evaluations of new solutions, integration with other tools, education, technical Q&A, and presentations.
What kinds of problems do you deal with?
Configuration issues, interaction between solutions and tools, client understanding of capabilities, bug or missing feature identification, communication between multiple teams.
What kinds of decisions do you make?
How to help, time management between multiple clients, internal or external prioritization, team design, lab and presentation design.
If you had to break it up into percentages, how do you spend your day?
40% email/team communication tools
10% client facing
20% administration and coordination
30% team communication
How does time use vary?
Very dynamically, during the day, day-to-day, week-to-week, etc. are all very flexible based on what is happening for others
Are there busy and slow times or is the workflow fairly constant?
4 months regularly extremely busy, rest of year is fairly consistent
Why did this type of work interest you, and how did you get started?
I started in sales as a technical sales person, then realized I enjoyed solving issues more than chasing deals. I went through being a consultant and learned that my forte is really in client satisfaction.
How did you get your job? What jobs and experiences have led you to your present position
See above.
Sales Engineer for cybersecurity products
What are the duties/functions/responsibilities of your job?
Customer support, ensure full effective deployment of solutions, troubleshooting and assistance, health checks and configuration reviews, evaluations of new solutions, integration with other tools, education, technical Q&A, and presentations.
What kinds of problems do you deal with?
Configuration issues, interaction between solutions and tools, client understanding of capabilities, bug or missing feature identification, communication between multiple teams.
What kinds of decisions do you make?
How to help, time management between multiple clients, internal or external prioritization, team design, lab and presentation design.
If you had to break it up into percentages, how do you spend your day?
40% email/team communication tools
10% client facing
20% administration and coordination
30% team communication
How does time use vary?
Very dynamically, during the day, day-to-day, week-to-week, etc. are all very flexible based on what is happening for others
Are there busy and slow times or is the workflow fairly constant?
4 months regularly extremely busy, rest of year is fairly consistent
Why did this type of work interest you, and how did you get started?
I started in sales as a technical sales person, then realized I enjoyed solving issues more than chasing deals. I went through being a consultant and learned that my forte is really in client satisfaction.
How did you get your job? What jobs and experiences have led you to your present position
See above.
Tim Dwight
VoIP Network Design
4
Answers
Dallas, Texas
Updated
Tim’s Answer
A common first job for someone with a bachelors degree in CS, is programming. If you don't love programming you need to change majors. If you do love programming you should enjoy that first job.
It's often the case that while your CS degree "got you in the door", over time you become interested in the technology secter you work in. In my case I started as a programmer, developing operations support systems for telecommunications networks. That led me to interact with companies that made network equipment. Eventually I took a job at such a company, and for a while I developed operating system software for network elements (routers etc.,). Technology evolved, I followed it into wireless, eventually found myself working for a telecommunications company designing the networks that use network elements and are managed by OSS's similar to those I developed earlier in my career.
Basically once you're in the door, stay curious and follow opportunities as they present themselves. It's unlikely you'll be doing when you retire, what you do in your first job. But the path will be interesting and rewarding.
Good Luck!
It's often the case that while your CS degree "got you in the door", over time you become interested in the technology secter you work in. In my case I started as a programmer, developing operations support systems for telecommunications networks. That led me to interact with companies that made network equipment. Eventually I took a job at such a company, and for a while I developed operating system software for network elements (routers etc.,). Technology evolved, I followed it into wireless, eventually found myself working for a telecommunications company designing the networks that use network elements and are managed by OSS's similar to those I developed earlier in my career.
Basically once you're in the door, stay curious and follow opportunities as they present themselves. It's unlikely you'll be doing when you retire, what you do in your first job. But the path will be interesting and rewarding.
Good Luck!