Kathyleen Beveridge Insights

Role: MSA Director of Marketing

Of the two guest speakers, Kathyleen Beveridge, the current MSA Director of Marketing, inspired me the most. Like her, I have no interest in pursuing Computer Science in college, but I want to be more involved in the product and business side. Beveridge was born in Vietnam and came to California in 1980. Her story is very similar to my parents, who also immigrated from India and Singapore and are now in high-tech jobs in computer science and product development. Beveridge completed her undergrad in Santa Clara and studied abroad in Spain. Like her, I want to study abroad in college. I want to be able to travel while pursuing a degree. In 2004, she moved to San Diego. At this point, she didn’t know what she wanted to be in the future. So she got her bachelor’s degree in finance. She didn’t enjoy this fiance. So she took some time between and earned her MBA at USC five years ago. For me, more than her accomplishments at work, her ability to switch careers is very inspiring. Because I’ve been told that I should follow a set career path to be successful, it required a ton of courage to realize that her current occupation wasn’t making her happy and to switch to something totally different. When she worked for HP, Beveridge also got burnt out. She took six months off and did things that brought her joy, including surfing. From the recounting of her experience with taking time off, I learned that it is totally fine to take a break in my career if I ever find that I need it. In the three companies she worked in, all of their missions were to help people and make a product or service that people wanted. Another important takeaway from Beveridge was her view on high tech. I’m not the most fascinated by technology and innovation, but Beveridge convinced me that high tech has a profound impact on the world. For example, she stated that Qualcomm chips were in ninety-nine percent of the world’s cell phones, and every day, a billion people’s lives are impacted by the work that Qualcomm and high tech do. Beveridge is also proud and grateful that her current company’s products help so many people. Lastly, she spoke about her current role. She is the senior director of marketing sales. Her job includes working closely with engineering and commercializing a product. I’m thrilled I got the chance to listen to Beveridge because she has a future career I would very much like to have. She ultimately became a role model for me in the hour she spoke and taught me that it is okay if my career has some twists and turns from my original plan.

Kris Porter Insights

Role: Software Engineer

Kris Porter’s story is quite similar to my mother’s, a Sr. Software Developer who has to frequently learn about all of the new technologies in the market. Porter was an SRE, DevOps, and infrastructure engineer in his career. In high school, he enjoyed STEM classes. Later on, at UCLA, he majored in electrical engineering. During this period, Porter took his first computer science class, which he failed. As Porter spoke, this was the first connection I felt. Computer science does not come easily to me, and Porter reminded me that it is okay to fail or not excel in computer science classes right from the beginning. Later, Porter went back into computer science. He also did some research at the Center for embedded networked sensors. He networked mechanical info systems and was introduced to the Linux operating system, a marketable skill. I learned the importance of having marketable skills, especially in interviews. Porter’s key takeaway is that switching roles and jobs are acceptable. He worked at the data center, NBC Universal, and Qualcomm. Recently, he worked at Twitter but was laid off. This experience taught me that when companies shuffle and change ownership, I should immediately start looking for a new job. Porter worked on projects in which he worked on streaming media infrastructure for the 2012 Olympic games, NEW data center development, and migrating the home timeline to graph QL. This shows how well-rounded a computer scientist can become after lots of experience. Porter explained the importance of continuous learning and the value of obtaining new skills and knowledge. He had CCNA training, machine learning, and python training. For me, Porter is an example of someone who explored many areas of computer science and is a symbol of continuously evolving and being open-minded to new ideas and technological changes.

Conclusion

All in all, the most crucial skills to have in the computer science industry are continuous learning, resiliency, and adaptiveness. Technology is always in high demand, so there will always be a supply of jobs. This is good news for us. From the guest speakers, Beveridge inspired me. Her career path is ideal for me, and she gave me the confidence to pursue a role relating to product development and marketing.