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naathThis week's questions are in honor of engineers week, the letter e and the number 0...
1) What has been your favorite job?
this one, sysadmin at Sanger (but I've only had 2 jobs since graduating)
2) What did you like about it?
my colleagues,the mix of challenge and routine, the sense of making the world better.
3) How can a kid become like you when they grow up?
eh, so, there is the fundamental 'have the right kind of brain' issue I think, but if you do this advice will be easy (challenging, but possible and rewarding not a struggle), if it is hard maybe think about a career in something that actually suits you. Do as much maths as your local education system will let you, play with computers as much as you can - and not just using them, but understanding how they work, maybe get a raspberry pi you can break rather than breaking an expensive machine your parents rely on; I prefer practical experience to books and there is loads of info out there for free online. What you learn now will be obsolete in a decade (probably before) so you don't care about details you care about knowing more the shape of the thing. Computing qualifications at school can be good or daft, hard to tell without checking the syllabus, get them if you need the credential to go further or they look interesting. Computer Science degree is these days more common, but I read natural sciences so it's not entirely necessary. My interview tips are mostly "look keen, and clever, and nerdy" which I really don't know if that's just me, and I hate job hunting so do it very rarely, and I work in research not banking.
4) What safeguards do you use to avoid mistakes?
Having colleagues review work that could go badly wrong before running it in production.
5) What's changed in the world that you've had a hard time keeping up with?
Everything? but not actually computers, because I work with them I tend to keep up with at least the bits I work with. But look, vaccines in a year! robots on Mars! climate falling apart...
1) What has been your favorite job?
this one, sysadmin at Sanger (but I've only had 2 jobs since graduating)
2) What did you like about it?
my colleagues,the mix of challenge and routine, the sense of making the world better.
3) How can a kid become like you when they grow up?
eh, so, there is the fundamental 'have the right kind of brain' issue I think, but if you do this advice will be easy (challenging, but possible and rewarding not a struggle), if it is hard maybe think about a career in something that actually suits you. Do as much maths as your local education system will let you, play with computers as much as you can - and not just using them, but understanding how they work, maybe get a raspberry pi you can break rather than breaking an expensive machine your parents rely on; I prefer practical experience to books and there is loads of info out there for free online. What you learn now will be obsolete in a decade (probably before) so you don't care about details you care about knowing more the shape of the thing. Computing qualifications at school can be good or daft, hard to tell without checking the syllabus, get them if you need the credential to go further or they look interesting. Computer Science degree is these days more common, but I read natural sciences so it's not entirely necessary. My interview tips are mostly "look keen, and clever, and nerdy" which I really don't know if that's just me, and I hate job hunting so do it very rarely, and I work in research not banking.
4) What safeguards do you use to avoid mistakes?
Having colleagues review work that could go badly wrong before running it in production.
5) What's changed in the world that you've had a hard time keeping up with?
Everything? but not actually computers, because I work with them I tend to keep up with at least the bits I work with. But look, vaccines in a year! robots on Mars! climate falling apart...