Sandra H. Shichtman

 

 

WORKING SMARTER, WORKING FASTER

 

USING THEIR ACQUIRED KNOWLEDGE AND NATURAL ABILITIES TO SOLVE COMPLEX PROBLEMS, THESE COMPUTER SCIENTISTS APPLY THEIR SKILLS ACROSS A VARIETY OF ENTERPRISES

 

EMPLOYMENT OF COMPUTER AND INFORMATION RESEARCH SCIENTISTS IS PROJECTED TO GROW 15 PERCENT FROM 2012 TO 2022, FASTER THAN THE AVERAGE FOR ALL OCCUPATIONS, REPORTS THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS. COMPUTER SCIENTISTS ARE LIKELY TO ENJOY EXCELLENT JOB PROSPECTS, BECAUSE MANY COMPANIES REPORT DIFFICULTIES FINDING THESE HIGHLY SKILLED WORKERS. FOR THE FIVE WOMEN PROFILED BELOW, WHO CAME TO THE FIELD OF COMPUTER SCIENCE FROM DIFFERENT DIRECTIONS, THE PROFESSION IS ALSO BOTH REWARDING AND FULFILLING.

 

BENEFITTING THE MASSES AT EPIC SYSTEMS CORP

“I had this dream for a long time that I was going to be an astronomer,” says Janet Campbell, who is a software developer for Epic, a leading electronic medical records company with headquarters in Verona, WI. But, when she got to Carleton College, a liberal arts college in Minnesota, she took an introduction to computer science course, found it easy, told herself, “I could do this as a career,” and decided to major in computer science instead.

 

Campbell graduated in 2003 with a bachelor’s degree in computer science and was hired by Epic Systems. Having that liberal arts degree is of particular value to her because “it tends to be more focused on the whole of software development, not just on the code that you’re writing.”

 

Today, she is a product lead talking to potential customers, demonstrating how a particular software could work for them, working with Epic’s testing teams to make sure the software is working as expected, and figuring out how to make it work better, as well as helping to make it simpler for third parties to integrate with. “I really like how varied [the job] is,” Campbell explains. “And the work that I do has the potential to impact millions of people.”

 

Because so many physicians use Epic software, “If I’m able to write a better way for a physician to order medication for a patient,” millions of patients will benefit from it, Campbell says.

 

In recent years, the government has made it compulsory for all patients’ medical records to be computerized and the industry has become more heavily regulated, thus impacting the software that Campbell writes. As a result, she has become more involved with educating legislators and regulators about that software.

 

When hiring, Epic focuses mostly on competency skills and looks for highly-motivated people, “the ones who weren’t afraid to pull an all-nighter in college;” the ones, like Campbell herself, who are happiest “when we’re getting things done.”

 

To avoid burning out, she tells her staff, “keep an eye on yourself and realize when you’re pushing too hard, and how far you can push yourself.” As a supervisor, however, she also keeps an eye on the people she manages.

 

HARVESTING THE POWER OF SOFTWARE AT ADOBE SYSTEMS

Born and raised in Burma, Sarah Kong came to the U.S. to complete her college education, studying computer science at San Jose State University, and graduating in 1996. She was drawn to computer science because of an introductory programming course she took back in Burma, “and was intrigued by computers and the power of software,” she says.

 

Kong became familiar with Adobe Systems as an innovative customer-facing software company while in college, and chose to come aboard there upon graduation “because I would be a user of the very software I wrote.” Headquartered in San Jose, Adobe is a global leader in digital marketing and digital media solutions.

 

She was hired as a software engineer “to implement features for the Windows version of PageMill, the first WYSIWYG web-authoring software, as well as to prepare builds on both Mac and Windows for testing.”

 

Kong became a computer scientist three years later, focusing on productivity features and architectural work on Adobe’s Photoshop software. Her responsibilities included “re-architecting the whole menu system so that menu and keyboard shortcuts could be customized,” she explains.

 

Five years down the road, and after a promotion to senior computer scientist, she was drawn to the imaging side of Photoshop. Kong also wanted to solve some user-experience issues with Photoshop and led a small engineering team charged with improving those experiences. In 2010, now an engineering manager, she was tasked with building the Photoshop tech transfer team “to bring cutting edge imaging technologies from research to production for Photoshop. My team is responsible for delivering end-to-end solutions for Photoshop imaging features, evaluating technology from Adobe Research Labs, and prototyping, optimizing, and integrating the user interfaces.”

 

Besides her technical skills, her ability ”to listen; to empathize; to be flexible; goal-oriented; to have high expectations for myself and the team; to stay calm, patient, and positive in the midst of everything; and the willingness to go the extra mile have been helpful to me in my career,” she says. Being able to prioritize and focus on ”the right things,” even if they’re not always clear, to be aware of and to proactively find opportunities to align with changing business needs as they arise, to stay on top of all current projects while planning and aligning strategically for the future, and delegating more to her team leads are all challenges that she deals with.

 

Kong actively networks and looks to help women colleagues in the computer science field. She is a member of Women Alumni Unlimited, a networking group that offers leadership seminars at Adobe. She attended the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing conference in October 2014, where women in technology shared their knowledge and experiences, and recently joined Systers, an e-mail forum, where women in computing share their challenges and experiences.

 

Kong was also a volunteer mentor for the “Girls Who Code” program at Adobe in summer 2014. “Women represent just 12 percent of all computer science graduates today,” she explains. “I hope to help improve that number by continuing to participate in programs that make young women realize that they can be great at science and engineering.”

 

IMPROVING CORPORATE CULTURE AT SAP

Anne Hardy graduated from one of the top engineering schools in France, the very competitive Telecom Paris Tech. “I was very good in mathematics and physics when I was younger,” she says, adding that, in France, if you’re good at those subjects, you often end up in engineering school. Hardy came away with a degree in computer science applied to the telecom industry and worked for Alcatel for three years in France.

 

Moving to the U.S., she spent seven years at Nortel Networks, and then returned to France to earn an MBA in 2001. “I really wanted to do an MBA to complement my education,” she says, “and the fulltime MBAs in Europe are one-year long and in the U.S. it’s two years.”

 

As an MBA candidate, she did case studies on SAP and became interested in working for the company. SAP, a German multinational software corporation, makes leading enterprise software to manage business operations and customer relations. Its U.S. headquarters are in Newton, PA.

 

When SAP’s managing director came in and spoke to the class, Hardy felt “a connection;” hearing that SAP was looking for someone with her credentials, she applied.

 

Hired in 2003 as manager of the research center, Hardy spent a lot of time recruiting and getting government funding for research. She later became the research center’s director, and after returning to the U.S., a vice president.

 

Still a vice president, Hardy now works on the company culture as it relates to the engineering organization, researching how to keep engineers happy in their work life. It is, she says, a combination of “getting into the shoes of engineers” and having an understanding of neuroscience research and psychology.

 

Admitting that she had some less-than-stellar managers early in her career, “I spent a lot of time reflecting on how to be a good manager if I ever became a manager.”

 

In addition to caring about her employees, she spent time learning to understand and motivate them, and to ”help them find their way and hone their skills. Before I ask them to do something, I give them a lot of freedom to explore,” Hardy explains.

 

Hardy also enrolled in an online course called “The Science of Happiness,” to help her learn about ideas and processes she could implement at SAP that would help its engineers be happier at their work and help SAP become an even better place to work One of the challenges she faces is to convince her colleagues to make the changes in their work habits that she suggests. “Sometimes, people find change hard,” she admits.

 

Since Hardy returned to the U.S., she has been involved with women in the field of technology, such as joining the board of trustees of the Anita Borg Institute, an organization active with helping top companies recruit and retain technical women.

 

Acknowledging that many new college grads “don’t have a clear idea of what they are really passionate about, what they really want to do” in their career, Hardy advises trying various occupations until you find your calling. She also point to a book called “How to Find Fulfilling Work,” which features a young woman who spent a year trying 30 different jobs, hoping to find one she was passionate about.

 

Hardy also suggests finding a mentor and regularly participating in training programs, activities that helped her in her own career.

 

MAKING A CONTRIBUTION AT SYNOPSYS, INC.

“Right from my middle school days, I had an affinity towards math and science,” Sanjana Nair explains. She studied electronics engineering, earning a bachelor’s degree in 1992 from Bombay University in India and a master’s degree in electrical/computer engineering from the University of Pittsburgh in 1995.

 

Sixteen years ago, she joined Synplicity, Inc. as senior applications engineer, following jobs at Bell Labs as application engineer and at Cadence De sign Systems as design engineer. In 2008, Nair was working as the director of corporate applications engineering at Synplicity when Syn opsys acquired the company.

 

Headquartered in Mountain View, CA, Synopsys, Inc. is the world’s 15th largest software company, and a global leader in electronic design automation (EDA) and semiconductor IP, and in leader software quality and security testing.

 

Nair manages corporate applications engineers in the field programmable gate array (FPGA) products team in the solutions group, which makes certain that customers get the most value from its products and provides ongoing technical support to them. “We also provide support to the sales team during the sales cycle with benchmarks against our competition,” Nair says. “I am also responsible for managing the product documentation, licensing, and training teams.”

 

She attributes her years at Bell Labs to helping her “understand HDL and synthesis in depth.” During her work at Cadence, she developed an appreciation for the challenges customers face while using EDA tools. “The projects helped me develop in-depth understanding and experience in ASIC design and FPGA prototyping,” she adds.

 

“My advice to newly-degreed engineers would be to bring all their energy, enthusiasm, and intellectual curiosity to their jobs,” she says. They should “stretch their goals and aspirations; for example, apply for jobs that they think might be beyond their capabilities or experience level. Once they join a company, they should develop a keen understanding of the role played by the products they work on and the company they work for in the overall industry ecosystem, and develop a strong network in the industry they work in.

 

Nair has similar advice for engineers hoping to make their careers at Synopsys, and sums up her own career: “It is extremely rewarding to know that my personal contribution and my team’s contributions have had significant impact in our products’ success.”

 

LIFELONG LEARNING AT MATHWORKS, INC.

Penny Anderson first became acquainted with MathWorks through its mathematical computing program, MATLAB, as a student at McGill University in Montreal. At the university to earn a degree in math, she also enrolled in a few computer science courses on the advice of her advisor. One of the instructors energized the class, she says, “and that was a pivotal point for me. I switched from the more abstract focus just on math into computer science and thinking about using computers to solve practical problems,” she says.

 

Anderson earned her undergrad degree in math with a minor in computer science and immediately went on to earn a master’s degree in computer science at McGill. Because of her positive impression of MATLAB, she reached out to MathWorks to express interest in joining the company. MathWorks invited her in to interview, and she came away with a job offer. She went to work for MathWorks in 1996 and has been with the company ever since.

 

MathWorks is a leading developer of mathematical computing software for engineers and scientists. Founded in 1984, its headquarters are in Natick, MA.

 

Anderson started out as a junior software developer. Promotions followed; Anderson became a team leader who coordinated different projects, and today she is “a manager of managers,” running more complex projects in software development and working on the strategy of how those software products evolve.

 

Going from the university setting, where individual achievement is more common, Anderson learned the importance of a collaborative and shared problem- solving environment, both at MathWorks and in the software industry.

 

Before beginning your career, she suggests, “Find yourself an intern position, practice your software development skills, and, above all, get used to the idea of collaborating once you enter the workplace. To that advice, she adds, ask questions of people already working in the industry, try to build a team to learn from and then share your knowledge, including becoming a mentor to others, which Anderson says, is a valuable arrangement for both you and your mentee.

 

MathWorks has an entry-level engineering development group, she says, and recruits graduates with degrees in computer science and engineering. New hires are introduced to the company and to MATLAB and provide technical support to understand how customers are using the software. Additionally, they work on projects to learn about groups in the company. “So if you want to be a software developer, you do a project within the software development group,” Anderson says.

 

“Lifelong learning is a passion at MathWorks,” Anderson adds. “Ongoing training and keeping fresh” are the norm.