CST 349 / Week 4 / Industry Expert Interview

 

  1. Introduction: I chose to interview Frank (he has asked to not share his last time for privacy reasons). He is a Supervisory Computer Scientist for the Naval Air Warfare Center - Weapons Division. I selected Frank because although he is a Supervisor for over three dozen Computer Scientists, he also involves himself in the projects and software development. He is knowledgeable in what is required to be successful as a Computer Scientist directly after graduating. I have known Frank for the past ten years and is a colleague of mine, but for a different branch. He carefully manages his time and primary responsibilities which allow him to do what he really enjoys, which is developing software. In addition, I also chose Frank because with the large amount of responsibilities at work he also has kids at home which I could use the advice on how the career change would impact my home life.
  2. Summary: Frank immediately advised me to stay with the organization that I have vested so many years in because they will value the experience you have in different areas. He started his career with the organization right out of college as an intern and moved up the chain through experience. Advice he also shared is to not try to just get by with the courses just to pass, and that it is very important to fully understand that concepts. Another piece of advice was to learn how to program in different languages because over the course of his career he has seen the need to know how to read and write every programming language. I asked Frank about what his insights were into the future in regards to AI, since there are speculations that AI could potentially one day write software for future requirements and capabilities. His thoughts were that AI could help supplement software development, but AI will always need some sort of human interaction to steer it in the right direction. AI is more likely to make mistakes versus human logic. Some of the technical challenges that are encountered is software development requires a clearly overall understanding of what is to be accomplished and how to solve any problems encountered. In addition, working for the government AI could create unknown security vulnerabilities.
  3. Reflection: This experience has influenced my understanding of career options because I never really understood what the job entailed or what the challenges were from the software development side. I only saw the end product. As an electronics technician it is our job to operate the software program that has been developed. I started off as an electronics technician and moved up the chain over the years with very limited options to move careers. Without the education, I have essentially pigeon-holed myself to only one path. This Industry Expert Interview experience helped me to validate the next stage of my career path. In addition, my colleagues and others in my organization understand that I would like to grow my career in another path to continue supporting the warfighter.
  4. Future Steps: I plan to apply this knowledge to my professional journey by talking with other Computer Scientist in my organization to see what their experiences are like and to also understand the different areas where a Computer Science degree can be applied.

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