Career Compass: Computer Science

Briefly, tell us about your job. What do you find most rewarding? What are your greatest challenges within this profession?

I am an android engineer for Square. I am currently a developer for the Square Register which is the Android point-of-sale app. Occasionally I also work on backend services and website development. I joined Square because I wanted to support people making a living by doing what they love and this is still my strongest motivator. The hardest part of my job is trying to distill a large and growing set of complex features into their simplest form without losing functionality for larger merchants. It’s very rewarding to see merchants figure out creative ways to compose separate well-engineered functionality to do things that none of the developers imagined.

What experiences and activities helped you to map out your career pathway?

My first job out of university was working on global payments infrastructure at Amazon. After a year and a half, I was fascinated with the scale of the technology but I didn’t feel fulfilled in my position. I wanted to work more closely with the people who actually relied on the technology every day.

As a student, did you see yourself in your current career? What stayed the same and/or changed?

I have been interested in programming since middle school. I played with Android development for fun while I was studying at the University of Manitoba, but I never thought I would work on the platform professionally. I also never considered “payments” a field that I would identify with. Amazon was just a great opportunity to experience a new city and a technology stack bigger than anything I had worked on before. I have always been fascinated by how different systems are integrated together so, in hindsight, the highly complex payments industry is a natural fit for me.

What advice do you have for students who are interested in pursuing a degree in computer science?

Enroll in the Co-operative Education Program. Having the opportunity to see how real systems are built and how real teams work is invaluable, even if you’re only planning to do computer science research. Choose a non-scientific field that interests you for your electives or minor. You can learn about esoteric APIs on the job, so take advantage of the breadth of subjects available to you while you can. If you are a white male, learn about things like hidden biases and take a gender studies course. A lot of technology culture ends up being toxic and discriminatory simply because of ignorance and I think a greater focus on humanities in engineering programs could help start to rectify that.

What job search advice do you have for students and recent graduates?

Again, do the Co-operative Education Program. If going for an interview makes you nervous, take an interview preparation workshop at Career Services and keep practicing your interview skills until you feel confident. Spread out your co-op work terms. It’s interesting seeing how different teams work. Networking is crucial. Especially in Silicon Valley, most hiring is done through referrals. Another advantage of the doing a co-op is the large group of alumni that are more than happy to chat with you, both in and outside of Winnipeg.

Tell us a fun fact about your career path.

My team at Amazon was nicknamed “Beach” and as a joke we always had a collection of beach balls lying around. A few months after I started at Square, someone near my desk brought a giant beach ball and a bunch of mini ones and I still run into them on a regular basis.

Briefly, tell us about your job. What do you find most rewarding? What are your greatest challenges within this profession? 

I am a software architect in the visual effects industry. The software we develop is used worldwide by artists to create images and visual effects for some of the biggest motion pictures. I find this job very rewarding because it allows me to work on complex, multidisciplinary projects. It is very rewarding to see the direct impact our work has on our clients and to see our software used in so many motion pictures. There are many challenges in this profession. I get to work on intricate programming and design problems which present challenges on a technical level. In practice, a lot of challenges in my career are related to communication, organization, managing teams of developers, as well as collaborating with clients. These types of soft skills are an essential part of the job.

What experiences and activities helped you to map out your career pathway?

From a young age I have been fascinated by computers and electronics, and always strived to figure out how they worked. I wrote my first video game at age 12 and started doing freelance work writing commercial websites and programs while in high school. I enjoyed it a lot, so I continued with it and my career path slowly evolved.

As a student, did you see yourself in your current career? What stayed the same and/or changed?

I did not know exactly where my career would end up. I just worked towards getting good at writing software because I knew I enjoyed it, and my career has evolved from there. I expected my career to focus primarily on writing software. Although this was the case throughout much of my career, my responsibilities now focus a lot more on leadership. This new role includes mentoring developers and designing large-scale systems rather than being intimately involved with every small detail of a project.

What advice do you have for students who are interested in pursuing a degree in computer science?

If you are passionate, or think you would enjoy a career in computer science, I would suggest you take the introduction courses for computer science or try experimenting in programming using online resources. If you find it interesting, continue on with it! Also, the industry is fairly male-dominated at the present time. I would strongly encourage women who have an interest in computer science to pursue this career. The entire field would benefit a lot from a cultural shift to help close the gender gap.

What job search advice do you have for students and recent graduates?

The University of Manitoba computer science program has a Co-operative Education program. This allows students to do three industry work terms in the area of their choosing. This work experience is immensely helpful in finding a job when students enter the workforce. It also gives students the opportunity to experience different areas of the profession and find out what they like best.