Vint Cerf’s career advice for engineers
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Vint Cerf’s career advice for engineers
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Re: Vint Cerf’s career advice for engineers
#2I appreciate the sentiment of "You can learn something from virtually everybody," but the anecdote doesn't exactly prove it out. Fun story though!
Re: Vint Cerf’s career advice for engineers
#3was hoping for something meaty, but the advice is just platitudes
Re: Vint Cerf’s career advice for engineers
#4I appreciate the sentiment of "You can learn something from virtually everybody," but the anecdote doesn't exactly prove it out. Fun story though!
I think it's a great story, about a man who retired from his job as CFO of one of the largest insurance companies in Chicago, got bored playing golf, and decided to drive a limo three times a week to meet interesting people.
In a remarkable coincidence, I heard the same story today about two other people during my visit to the Gilmore Car Museum in Michigan.
I was talking with one of their volunteers, a fellow named Paul, who told me how the museum got started and why it is in Hickory Corners, in the middle of nowhere.
Donald Gilmore was CEO and Chairman of the Upjohn Company in Kalamazoo. When he retired, his wife Genevieve Upjohn Gilmore told him he had better find something interesting to do. They had a summer home on a lake near where the museum is now. Genevieve knew that Donald loved to restore old cars, and she suggested they buy a farm near their lake home and turn it into a museum.
And then Paul told me that when he (Paul) retired, his wife told him the same thing, and that's why he now volunteers at the museum. He gets to tell interesting stories and meet interesting people.
Re: Vint Cerf’s career advice for engineers
#5Vint’s a solid guy in my book. Right after I joined Google last year I sent him a message on Chat. He actually responded to me (by email)! It was clear he actually gave me a few minutes of thought given his response. I saw him later by the Googleplex but didn’t want to cause a scene as he was quietly making lunch at the salad bar.
Re: Vint Cerf’s career advice for engineers
#6was hoping for something meaty, but the advice is just platitudes
He was a working Engineer decades ago but his current job is Evangelist.
Re: Vint Cerf’s career advice for engineers
#7I appreciate the sentiment of "You can learn something from virtually everybody," but the anecdote doesn't exactly prove it out. Fun story though!
There's a man named Chuck Hutchins who pioneered computer numerical control machining over many decades. He started his career as the first bonafide engineer at a machine tool manufacturing company. He took the job even though the salary was lower than his other offers; the deal was that he got to shadow every other employee in the company for a week each, from the shop floor to management.
He is quite old now, but he published a book a couple years ago describing his experiences in the industry, founding a scrappy startup in the early 60's and growing it to a highly profitable business with thousands of employees. If you like engineering non-fiction, it's called "Hot Tech Cold Steel".
Re: Vint Cerf’s career advice for engineers
#8What’s up with the sol.int email addresses on the whiteboard? Seems to be related to IPN/DTN but I can’t find anything concrete on the naming scheme.
Re: Vint Cerf’s career advice for engineers
#9was hoping for something meaty, but the advice is just platitudes
I got the opposite gist than you did.
That he focused on things you consider "platitudes" may have more to do with the significance of these platitudes (primarily those having to do with "soft skills" ) than any more technical advise he may have given.
Re: Vint Cerf’s career advice for engineers
#10My advice, (for what it's worth) is to value liberal-arts degree holders far higher than I find many engineers do: People misplace trust in the hard science side of study and neglect what the humanities can bring to the workforce.
I value their input more and more highly.
Oh, and I value the input from Lawyers too. I might discount it, but I listen.
(late stage career, moving out. Not as late as Vint. I can't afford his snappy three-piece suits, and boy does he carry them off well. He's like America's answer to Bill Nighy)