July 4, 2025 • 36 mins
Are you curious about what it really takes to succeed as a software engineer?
In this episode of All Things STEM with Ashley, we sit down during our Men in STEM series as Raymond Collins shares his career journey in software engineering, from studying computer science in college to landing a role in tech.
If you're interested in breaking into tech, majoring in computer science, or simply want to hear real-world software engineering advice, this video is for you.
We cover everything from coding tips, navigating college courses, and standing out during technical interviews. Whether you're a student exploring STEM careers, a recent computer science graduate, or someone looking to transition into software development, you'll find valuable career tips and motivation in this conversation.
🌟 Topics covered include:
What to expect as a computer science major
How to grow your skills as a software engineer
Career advice for aspiring developers
Meet our next Men in STEM Guest, Raymond Collins!
Raymond Collins was born on September 24th and grew up in Donaldsonville, Louisiana. He attended Southern University A&M College in Baton Rouge, Louisiana as a Computer Science major.During his senior year in college, Raymond interned at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Louisiana as a Data Configuration Analyst before graduating in Summer 2020.
Raymond began his career as a software engineer in January of 2021 in Mount Laurel, New Jersey. Until that following year in September of 2022, Raymond decided to move back down south to Fort Worth, Texas to continue his career.
Raymond enjoys a mixture of side hobbies such as video editing, music production, volunteering in the community, and studying the bible.
🔔 Don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more STEM career journeys, tech insights, and inspiring stories.
#SoftwareEngineer #MenInSTEM #ComputerScience #STEMCareers #AllThingsSTEMWithAshley #Careerjourney
In this episode of All Things STEM with Ashley, we sit down during our Men in STEM series as Raymond Collins shares his career journey in software engineering, from studying computer science in college to landing a role in tech.
If you're interested in breaking into tech, majoring in computer science, or simply want to hear real-world software engineering advice, this video is for you.
We cover everything from coding tips, navigating college courses, and standing out during technical interviews. Whether you're a student exploring STEM careers, a recent computer science graduate, or someone looking to transition into software development, you'll find valuable career tips and motivation in this conversation.
🌟 Topics covered include:
What to expect as a computer science major
How to grow your skills as a software engineer
Career advice for aspiring developers
Meet our next Men in STEM Guest, Raymond Collins!
Raymond Collins was born on September 24th and grew up in Donaldsonville, Louisiana. He attended Southern University A&M College in Baton Rouge, Louisiana as a Computer Science major.During his senior year in college, Raymond interned at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Louisiana as a Data Configuration Analyst before graduating in Summer 2020.
Raymond began his career as a software engineer in January of 2021 in Mount Laurel, New Jersey. Until that following year in September of 2022, Raymond decided to move back down south to Fort Worth, Texas to continue his career.
Raymond enjoys a mixture of side hobbies such as video editing, music production, volunteering in the community, and studying the bible.
🔔 Don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more STEM career journeys, tech insights, and inspiring stories.
#SoftwareEngineer #MenInSTEM #ComputerScience #STEMCareers #AllThingsSTEMWithAshley #Careerjourney
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Hello everyone, and welcome to all. Thanks sim With Ashley,
we are doing our Men and stim series and today
I'm so excited to host our guests, Raymond Collins.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Welcome, Raymond, Glad to be here, Ashley, Yes, So a
little introduction about Raymond is.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
Raymond Collins is a twenty seven year old software engineer
in the defense industry. He has been in the contract
defense industry for four years. He enjoys solving critical programming
problems and applications development in software engineering. Raymond is from
a small town in Louisiana called Donaldson Bill. It is
located along the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and New Orleans.
(00:49):
Raymond happened to discover software engineering and computer science through googling,
professions that aligned with his personality and interest during high school.
Raymond has a love for technology and computers, which is
why he can spend a vast amount of time and
various around various technology. That is what spiked his interest
in software engineering in the field of STEM.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
So welcome Raymond, glad to be here.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
Once again.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
I'm excited to see you. So can you give us
a little bit about yourself? I know I talked a
little bit about it, But tell us about yourself and
what spiked your interest in STEM, like a deeper version.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
Okay, so a little bit about myself.
Speaker 4 (01:22):
You know, I kind of grew up. You know, I'm
not an only child, but I kind of grew up
like an only child since my siblings was like very
older than me. Yeah, so I had a lot of
time to spend by myself, and you know, that just
cultivated a lot of time for me to be around computers,
play video games, and be on a cell phone like
a lot of kids of this generation today.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
So just growing up, I fell in love with technology.
Speaker 4 (01:47):
So I always wanted to n I always knew I
wanted to go into a field our profession that involved
technology as well. And I remember in middle school it
was a career day. I believe someone told me that,
hey man, you should consider going into the field of engineering.
So I was like, computers and engineering. Yeah, I'm like,
let me put those two words together and see what
(02:08):
I could find on Google. You know, come across computer engineering, yeah,
and you know, come across hardware and software size of
computer engineering. Yeah, and the software side is computer science.
So yeah, that cultivated with that, that aligned with what
I liked as a person, you know, being around software,
being around technology and things of that nature.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
I love that. Thank you. Oh, so, can you.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
Share if you had any role models or mentors that
have influenced your STEM journey.
Speaker 4 (02:39):
Okay, I would say, Actually, any influencing role models, I
would say all my two eldest sisters. You know, they
are not engineers, but they are both in the medical field.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (02:51):
And the way that influenced me is I have r
I have real life examples of someone who can go
into a very difficult uh profession, Yeah, and be able
to succeed and make it.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
So I was like, hey, I don't wanna be a doctor.
Speaker 4 (03:07):
I do wanna be a software engineer.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
Right.
Speaker 4 (03:11):
It may seem difficult to learn the necessary skills to
be a software engineer, but hey, if my older siblings
can learn what they need to learn to become doctors,
I know I can learn what I need to learn
be to become a software engineer.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
That's excellent.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
That drive that determination, Yeah, that's excellent Raymond. So, were
there any challenges you faced growing up that made pursuing
a STEM career differ difficult?
Speaker 4 (03:32):
Hm? I would say things growing up that may pursue
a STEM engineer and degree kind of difficult for me.
I would say, I I felt like I kind of
was behind when I went to college. You know, I
know that some of my peers they already new programming languages.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
I didn't. It was a new world for me.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (03:53):
When I went to college and I took my very
first computer science class, yeah, firstman year, I was like,
what is this stuff?
Speaker 3 (03:59):
Yes, some of them was like, hey, you don't know
what this is.
Speaker 4 (04:02):
Uh, they already took some computer science classes in high school.
But I would say that that would be a hiccup
for me and just the natural anxieties that you have
with learning new things that are challenging, and just also college, like,
hey will I be able to even find a job
right once I graduate? And I graduated in twenty twenty,
so that's during the pandemic. Yeah, So I will also
(04:25):
say that is a challenge as well for me, you know,
trying to find a job and apply to jobs during
the pandemic.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
You have all these strict rules and regulations.
Speaker 4 (04:36):
Can't conduct interviews, all interviews are virtual and things like that.
So I would say, like, you know, graduating and trying
to find a job during the pandemic would have been
the one of the greatest difficulties.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
In my career.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
Yeah, that's really true. That's real.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
Yeah, that's real.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
No one knew what was going on at the time,
no one knew what was next. And you know, it's
always nice to have an interviews in person. You get
that personal touch, you get to feel people's you know, personality.
You know, it's so different than having that wall of
the computer up.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
Yeah, and then afore going on.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
So much was going on, it's like, what is job security?
What is really gonna happen in the next three to
four months, let along a year, right, So that's real.
So thank you, thank you for sharing that, and I'm
glad you made it. Yeah, and everything worked out. So
for the people that don't know what computer science is,
could you give us just a little overview of what
(05:27):
computer science is as you kind of.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
Spoke on Awesome. Yeah, sure, definitely.
Speaker 4 (05:31):
I would say computer science is a bunch of theories
and u mechanisms that involves a computer, involves applications like software.
Speaker 3 (05:41):
You have things like AI data analytics.
Speaker 4 (05:45):
You have all these different applications that you can use
and utilize in software engineering. You have a machine learning
and various things like that. So this is a bunch
of different theories and ways that you could use a
computer to improve suc side, to improve society, to help
out society, and just continuing to advance society overall. So yeah,
(06:07):
it's a bunch of different mechanisms and different formula's ways
that you could do things and yeah, you know concepts.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
I yes, see, thank you for that overview. And that's
really good. I really like having different guests to tell
what it really is.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Yeah, because people hear it all day. We hear in
computer science all the time. It's like, well what is it? Yeah,
for people to you know, look deeper into it.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
Yeah, thank you. So I wanna get.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Onto your accomplishment since STEM. So, what is one project
or accomplishment you're particularly proud of during your STEM journey?
Speaker 2 (06:36):
Now this can be.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
High school, college, career, whatever, you know, your favorite accomplishment.
Speaker 4 (06:42):
Or pract Okay, I would say my favorite accomplishment our
project I would be is you know assign one assignment
I had at my job. You know it involved, uh
creating a script for our team for our pipeline. You know,
a automation system you know, it was a very challenging task.
(07:05):
You know, I was familiar with Python, which is the
coding language that you would use to uh work with
pipelines that you would use to create a script, and
it was basically making a uh a script.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
For our database and things of that sort.
Speaker 4 (07:21):
So I would say, like that would be one of
my greatest projects and achievements that uh I'm proud of
cause and it's something that tested our entire code base.
So it wasn't something that was like small, uh very
fatigue that really didn't have too much of impact.
Speaker 3 (07:35):
It's something that impacted our entire team.
Speaker 4 (07:37):
So I was I that's something that I would say
that I'm very proud of doing.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
It's good than a right.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
So Raymond, Yes, how does computer science interact with other
disciplines such as aerospace engineering, mechanical engineering, or simple engineering?
Speaker 4 (07:53):
Okay, I would say, man, that's computer science interacts with
other STEM disciplines.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
Computer science interactual life.
Speaker 4 (08:02):
It's very hard to walk outside and not see something
that's derived from computer science. Technology. Everything that's advancing is
going towards like tech. So for example, let's just take UH,
aviation and aeronaut its just all kinds of technology. When
you look in at a in in a cockpit of
any type of plane.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
You know, if you could if if you.
Speaker 4 (08:23):
Go on a mar American Airlines plane and you aks
the polo, hey can I at least look in a cockpit.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
You gonna see all kind of machinery technology.
Speaker 4 (08:32):
And of course with the advancement of technology over time.
It it all has to do with computer science, with programming,
with the software that's being used. Like even when you
go into the airport, you know, everything is on the
applications on a software application. Yeah, you know, you looking
at the screens. Hey do my flight get delayed? Do
my flight get canceled? You could even walk into McDonald's.
(08:54):
You don't even have to talk to a person at
the register. You could all to your mail off of
a screen. All all of those things are due to
computer science through software and various applications and things like that.
And just even entertainment. You could turn on TV, you
don't even need cable. You could watch Hulu, watch YouTube, Netflix,
if you go on Disney Plus, you could watch Ulu
(09:16):
on Disney Plus, and as various different applications that's just
connecting with each other, and it's all very possible, you know,
just do computer science and technology could be halfway across
the world FaceTime and someone and things like that. So
that's how computer science just interacts with the world of
the STEM discipline. You could have electrical engineering, I'm pretty
(09:40):
sure there's like environmental civil engineering and things like that.
You could be looking at the landscape of a particular
field and you could use data analytics to let you know, hey,
based on this data, will we be able to build
this building in this specific area.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
You could come up with various different calculations.
Speaker 4 (09:59):
And you can try to predict certain things based off
of data analytics, which is a discipline of computer science.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
I love it. You just give it every example. They
work with everybody. I love that.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
That's so cool, how that top That topic is so versatile.
Computer science works with everybody. Like you said, it's everywhere
you look. So it's so many different ways you can
use that if you got a degree in that.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
Ye.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
So, as we just spoke of, computer science is a broadfield,
what are some different career paths within it that people
may not be aware of?
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Now? I know you just listen to a lot of things,
but are there.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
Any more you can add to that that people may
not be aware of how they can use computer science.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
In a role. I feel like a lot of people
know this one, but I'm gonna bring this one up.
Speaker 4 (10:44):
But security, cybersecurity and things like that, and you know,
just it's.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
Awesome to enjoy all of.
Speaker 4 (10:52):
These great things that we have through software and you know,
these different applications through technology. But we don't live in
a perfect world.
Speaker 3 (11:01):
Of course.
Speaker 4 (11:02):
You know, you have people with bad intentions. We all
got banks, bank accounts, and you have people that will
try to hack into a bank account, try to steal
money and things like that. So I would just want to,
you know, put a big emphasis on cybersecurity and the
importance of cybersecurity, making sure you know, our valuable stay safe.
(11:23):
Is like when you look at a country, you know,
for example, a country as a military to protect that country.
I viewed cybersecurity as the same thing cybersecurity.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
There's precious and beautiful software that you have created, you
need something to protect it. And I feel like cybersecurity.
Speaker 4 (11:38):
Is one of is that discipline of computer science that
protects that beautiful software that you made.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
I love it, Raymon, I love it.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
Thank you for that explanation that is super great because
that is one of the up and coming fields. You
see AI, and you see cybersecurity, yeah everywhere now there,
yeah everywhere? Okay, cool. So how do you see we
just spoke about what you could do in computer science?
Speaker 3 (12:02):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (12:03):
How do you see the field of computer science and
software engineering evolving over the next five to ten years?
Speaker 2 (12:07):
You know, we already see.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
So much with AI model based systems. How do you
think that can change over the next couple of years.
Speaker 3 (12:14):
You want a good or badass?
Speaker 1 (12:16):
It's your episode. You can get both if you won't,
it's whatever Raymond wants.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
Man.
Speaker 4 (12:22):
I see technology advancing. That's so beneficial for a lot
of people. I mean, like, I have a big imagination. Yeah,
I feel like it's good in the field of computer science.
But I imagine like we could go to the doctor
one day and with one scan from a machine that
could tell us all these different diagnoses in our body
and things like that.
Speaker 3 (12:43):
I feel like.
Speaker 4 (12:45):
You could take a fruit, a plant and just just
run all kinds of research with it and just computer
sciences for everyone.
Speaker 3 (12:54):
And I just see it advancing so much.
Speaker 4 (12:57):
But with that being said, is also a pot that
it could strip people of their jobs.
Speaker 3 (13:03):
So like earlier I.
Speaker 4 (13:04):
Was talking about McDonald's. I guess twenty years ago you
were going to McDonald's. You're always interacting with a person,
But nowadays you could go in McDonald's, not interact with
not one person, and get whatever you need. So it
is that thing to where you know, it could bring
this possibility of less jobs. Will things be more efficient, yes,
(13:25):
but everything has its frozen as cons you know. I
feel like it will open society up to be more
efficient and be more consistent as well as humans we
tend to make errors compared to.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
When things tend to be more automated.
Speaker 4 (13:40):
It's less prone to make mistakes because it doesn't have that,
it doesn't get tired, it doesn't have human error and
things like that.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
So yeah, that's a great aspect on it, an error aspect.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
Now, like you said, I agree, it definitely will decrease jobs.
Like you spoke about McDonald's. Do you think that while
it decreased these jobs, there will be some kind of
human like one human has to make.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
Sure all the robots are doing that job exactly.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
So while it might not take all the jobs, it
will decrease the jurassically, but we still need that one
thing like, okay, if it starts spilling French fran creasauce around,
you need that human override. So basically people need to
start learning how to utilize these robots are how to
fix them in the air, right, That could be some
new possibilities.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (14:20):
Also even possibly I don't sound like you know I
roll about people could possibly have the robots in their house.
You want to know what to do if you gotta
rollout in your house, you want to know what to
do with it. Now, I'm not no person that's like
advocating for like robots and stuff like that being in
their own but I'm just thinking about like what we
see on TV and where we see technology and computer
(14:43):
science going. So it's like, yeah, it's some things that
some people might be like, whoa, I don't know about
that yet. And there's some things like yeah, you know,
I like the aspect of going to Walmart, being able
to buy all your girlfriends online.
Speaker 3 (14:57):
People like stuff like that. Of course he doesn't.
Speaker 4 (15:00):
It is like some as far as like robots and
stuff like that, you know, self driven cars. I don't
know how people feel about that with Tesla, as.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
Long as it's not a flying car. Yet I can't
get with justice yet. Okay, we got to stay on
the ground.
Speaker 4 (15:14):
People that could bail it drive so imagine if people
flying and stuff like that.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
No, it is okay.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
Thank you, Thank you for bringing in that, you know,
your expertise on that, your insight.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
That was excellent.
Speaker 3 (15:26):
Woman.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
Thank you so much for talking about how everything could
change over the next couple of years. I want to
get back on the advice track and things like that
based off of your personal journey.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
So what advice.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
Would you give to young men that are considering a
career in STEM but are unsure about balancing it with
personal life or other.
Speaker 4 (15:45):
Interest man, I would say the best, and I would
go as far to say the number one advice I
would give to anyone that's.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
Trying to pursue.
Speaker 4 (15:57):
Any type of discipline or you're in the STEM field
is make.
Speaker 3 (16:02):
Sure that you love it. Make sure that you're not
trying to pursue it or do it for.
Speaker 4 (16:06):
The wrong reasons, because a lot of these disciplines are
very hard to learn and it takes a lot of
dedication to learn it, and you got to have that love,
that passion for you could look at any aspect of
any type of profession. You're gonna go through hardship and
trials and stuff and that trying to learn what you
need to learn. And oftentimes, you know, sometimes when you're
(16:27):
in college, and I'm not trying to say this in
a bad way, this is just you know, people and
us learning in life. But you'll see a person that's
in one major then they'll switch to another major and
it's like, you know, you don't don't get you know,
attracted to like what you see on TV. Don't get
attracted to salaries. Be attracted to the actual skill sets
(16:50):
and things that you need. Make sure like you're passionate
about those things. Make sure you will want to sit
in front of a computer all day, four to five
days a week. What I'm saying is like, you know,
so just make sure you have a passion for it.
Just make sure you have an interest for it. And
the best way to find out if you have that
passion or interest for something is until the hard times
(17:13):
come in pursuing it. So the moment you know you're
learning a program language like C plus plus, which is
object oriented language, and you're trying to figure out how
functions speak to each other, how to create a class
you're in these different classes trying to learn about all
these different computer these programming languages like job C plus
plus Python, SQL and stuff like that, and they're getting frustrated.
(17:37):
But something inside of you is like, even though I'm
getting frustrated, I still like it.
Speaker 3 (17:42):
You know.
Speaker 4 (17:43):
It's almost like when you watch an athlete workout and stuff.
Working out isn't easy, it doesn't feel good, it's painful,
but for some reason, you build an endurance to it.
So it's almost like you're gonna build an endurance to
that profession, to that major, you know, in the field
of STEM, whether it's like mechanical engine the computer science,
electrical engineering, you know you're gonna build this type of
(18:04):
tolerance forward where like you love it even though some
things will aggravate you or frustrate you. It's something that
wakes you up every day and then motivates you to
do it.
Speaker 3 (18:13):
You know, I get motivated. I don't go to I
like what I do. I love what I do.
Speaker 4 (18:17):
When I wake up in the morning, it's not like,
oh man, I gotta go.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
To work again.
Speaker 4 (18:21):
It's like, hey man, I have it feels like a privilege.
I can't wait to go to work. I can't wait
to problem solve. You know, Hey we're working on this
piece of software. Hey, we're working on this update. I'm
dealing with the crash. I'm dealing with the bug. This,
this widget, this, this web page isn't acting the way
I wanted to act. And rather than like, you know what,
(18:41):
forget it. I hate this, I'm not gonna deal with it.
It's like, even though it's giving me trouble, I love
what I do and I like this, and I'm gonna
keep working through it, and the previsional I'm gonna get
to the point where I want to get to.
Speaker 3 (18:51):
And so that that's the advice I would give. Just
make sure, like you know, when.
Speaker 4 (18:56):
You get into it, you know, especially if you don't
know anything about computer science, a software engineering or anything
like that, just whenever you get into it, and the
first time you come across that first thumping block, just
pay attention to yourself, even though it's something that's irritating you.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
Do you see yourself running back to it.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
Yeah, that's excellent, Raymond.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
And that's so true because we are in our career
at thirty forty years right, God, enjoy You don't want
to be miserable.
Speaker 3 (19:21):
Because it's also an investment as well.
Speaker 4 (19:22):
You went to college for this, so it's like I
feel like it's better to go to college and be like,
oh man, I don't like this and switch a major
rather than graduate in this major getting this career and
it's like I don't like this, And it's like, Yo,
you just invested finances and time into this major just
to find out that you.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
Don't like it.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
Yes, student loan say no jobs. So yes, those are
excellent tips. You thank you for sharing that, Raymond. Next,
I want to ask what you just gave a lot
of great, great advice in general, what's the best piece
of career advice you've received so far and how has
it shaped your path? And this could be any part
(20:03):
of your STEM journey or it could be more than
one if you want. So this is your this is
your answer.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
I guess it would it?
Speaker 4 (20:11):
I guess the advice I would that I just gave
it would be my best advice, I would say, But
also it's just how it was raised as well, you know,
I would just I guess speak about you know, my
mom and like my parents, and you know, like they
never tried to dictate what I became. You know, they
always told me, you know, hey, be what you want
to be. You know that my parents they will always
(20:34):
be proud of me. And just like you know, both
I was saying earlier, both of my sisters on a
medical field.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
I chose to go into completely different, opposite path. You know.
Speaker 4 (20:41):
Growing up, people would be like, hey, are you going
to be a doctor like your sisters? And I'm like,
I do not want to be anything with my sisters.
They inspired me, they motivate me, but it's like I
don't want to follow after that path. So it's like
I would say, like the best advice I got are
like the best guidance.
Speaker 3 (20:56):
I got was like, hey, you know, be what you
want to be and do things. Is that peak your interest?
You know?
Speaker 4 (21:02):
For you have some people who like art a lot,
but they want to be involved in technology. You know,
you have different art designs, you have graphic designs. You know,
you could get into more front in software compared to
back in software. Kind of getting kind of technical here,
but like it when you think about back what back
end software is, it's the things that you can't see.
(21:22):
In front end is the things that you can see.
So whenever you look at a computer. Whenever you're looking
at the screen watching me and Astley conversate with you,
that's that's the front end, you know, that's the UI,
the UX, the the user interface, and back in code
is like all the things going on behind the scene.
It's like whenever you see a car, you see the
body and the pain of the car. You see the wheels,
(21:44):
but you know you have an engine and transmission things
that you cannot see that's doing a lot of work.
Speaker 3 (21:49):
And that's what the back end code is as well. Yeah,
it's like it's like your.
Speaker 4 (21:56):
Brain, Like all kinds of things are going on in
your brain, and you got all kind of thought sentuss
just being formulated as you talk and have a conversation
with a person. But it's like you could see a
person's lip moving, you can see a person's.
Speaker 3 (22:08):
Eyes, a facial expression.
Speaker 4 (22:10):
That would be the front in the back end would
be like your brain and the thoughts, your emotions and
things like that.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
We need a whole Raymond series. Honey, Oh my goodness,
this is awesome Raymond. Yeah, thank you for sharing that.
Speaker 3 (22:24):
But yeah, go ahead, but yeah, just make sure you know.
Speaker 4 (22:29):
Just the best advice I got was, you know, do
what you love, do what you're passionate about, and just
don't feel pressured to do something that you don't want
to do.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
Thank you, Thank you, Raymond. We're gonna get back on
your journey a little bit. You've shared some great advice,
giving us some great insight on computer science. I want
to ask, looking back, is there anything you would have
done differently in your STEM journey.
Speaker 3 (22:55):
No, I don't. I wouldn't say I have any regret regrets.
Speaker 4 (23:00):
You know, the way my cars has been dealt in life.
You know, I'm happy they were laid out that way. Yeah,
And I mean, even though there's no regrets, I kind
of do wish and I think I might have said
this earlier. I kind of do wish I would have
found out about computer science a little bit earlier and
maybe try to learn some of those programming languages earlier.
(23:20):
But it's not like me learning programming languages for the
very first time in college set me.
Speaker 3 (23:26):
Back or anything like that. So like, it's no regrets.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
That's great. I love that.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
So now we're gonna get into how we help the.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
Next generation of STEM leaders.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
Have you ever been involved in any initiatives for programs
that encourage young men or underrepresented groups to pursue stim fields.
Speaker 3 (23:46):
Yeah, I would say I have.
Speaker 4 (23:47):
I would say being a part of nesby National Society
of Black Engineers, you know, it allows for a great
opportunity and chances to speak to underrepresented kids too. Could
be in a position of where, you know, they could
be thinking about potentially being an engineer. They might have
heard this word engineering, don't really know what it is.
(24:09):
I even think about kids that could be in a
position that I was in in high school, whereas like
they know they want to be in the engineer in
a stem field, they don't know what direction to go
in in that stem field.
Speaker 3 (24:19):
So just interacting with those kids and just speaking.
Speaker 4 (24:23):
To them, picking their brains, picking their minds, and just
being I guess, like a physical representation of Hey, I
see someone that looks like me. Yes, that's underrepresented in
a particular field. This person looks like me, and they
are what I'm striving to be.
Speaker 3 (24:40):
So I know that I can be that, you know.
Speaker 4 (24:42):
So I would say like, yeah, being a part of
the National Society of Black Engineers, you know, it allows
me to encourage you know, young men and underrepresented group
you know, just by interacting with them and just you know.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
That's excellent.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
That's how I got introduced in STEM from Georgia Tech
Suite Society Women Engineering.
Speaker 3 (25:00):
It's great.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
Yeah, it's just like you see somebody looks like you're
like they're doing it, like right, that's super cool.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
Let me look it more into it to see if
I can.
Speaker 3 (25:06):
Do it too, right.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
So it's so impactful. Yeah, and I'm glad. I'm glad
we get to make a difference and give back the
way people pour it in us.
Speaker 3 (25:14):
Yeah, exactly, exactly.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
Well, thank you for sharing and thank you for what
you do to impact others.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
So now I wanted to ask again on the advice
and you kind of spoke on advice already, so if
you don't have a different answer, it's okay. What advice
would you give young engineers or students who are interested
in pursuing a career in software engineering or computer science specifically?
We talked about earlier about STEM fills in general, and
like you said, you need to make sure you love it.
(25:41):
I have to understand you have to do this forever. Now,
I know you mentioned you wish, maybe you don't even wish,
but it would have been cool to know some of
the coding languages before. So what are some advice you
would give to young engineers that want to pursue computer
science specifically?
Speaker 4 (25:55):
I could go a little bit more in depth. It's
just ask yourself, like what do you like? You know,
like do you like finances? You could go you could
try to work for a JP Morgan, you know, like
Chase Bank, you know, City Bank or something like that.
Do you like video games? You could work for EA Sports,
Like what do you like? Computer science interacts with everything
(26:18):
you know?
Speaker 3 (26:19):
You could work.
Speaker 4 (26:20):
You could be a software engineer for Walmart, Gorg McDonald's.
You could be a software engineer for all those on
if you like cars and things like that. So even
you know, strive dig deeper, be detailed than what you want.
You know, I don't try to go on this broad
path to be like, hey, I want to be a
software engineer, but for anybody.
Speaker 3 (26:37):
You know, so you might work for this particular company.
Speaker 4 (26:40):
You'd be like, man, I don't think I like software engineering,
But then you work for another company.
Speaker 3 (26:44):
And it's like I really like this.
Speaker 4 (26:45):
You know, it's all about what and who you're building
software for, and you know what kind of software you're
building for them. So it's not only it's like not
only is it just like, you know, making sure you
like computer science is like what are aspects of yourself
that you like? So that's a further Moore similar advice
that I would give is like, hey, what type of
(27:07):
things that you are interested in in computer science? And
what do you have interest of doing in computer science.
You might not like C plus plus or Java. That
does not mean you need to straight away from computer science.
You know, you could do things that's more scripting with Python.
You could do things that's more fronting like HTML, HTML,
(27:29):
CSS and things like that that deals with front.
Speaker 3 (27:33):
End software, whereas it would be more colorful.
Speaker 4 (27:35):
It's like, hey, let me make this tab on his
web page on his web page blue and things like that,
And you want to get your artistic gene activated in
computer science.
Speaker 3 (27:45):
So it's all about, you know, the type of things
that you like.
Speaker 4 (27:48):
Just discover yourself more and you'll discover like, hey, is
this really for me?
Speaker 3 (27:53):
Hey?
Speaker 4 (27:54):
I know I like computer science. At this point, what
do I want to do and who do I have
aspirations on working for? Or don't cut yourself short. If
you want to work for Apple, you know put yourself
in position and do things to try to work for Apple,
if you want to work for Amazon, Facebook. You know,
if you want to build a startup company, you have
this fantastic idea that was given to you or you know,
(28:16):
planning in your mind, and there's no company that's doing
this idea. You know, you can do the change to
the to your generation, to the next generation.
Speaker 3 (28:24):
And you see it all the time with these great companies.
Speaker 4 (28:26):
You know, like you know, so, yeah, you might have
an idea and there's no company that's working.
Speaker 3 (28:33):
On this idea. You know, you might have.
Speaker 4 (28:35):
The very ambitious idea or plan scheme of making your
own startup company to create that idea and bring that
idea into uh to existence.
Speaker 2 (28:48):
You know, so excellent. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
So. Now we're going to ask for your three overall
tips for success in the STEM industry. What are your
three tips for people that want.
Speaker 4 (29:02):
To have successful staminish I would say a myout three
tips is humility.
Speaker 3 (29:06):
Yes, you're gonna have a lot of.
Speaker 4 (29:10):
Time to learn and the things that there's gonna be
a lot of things you don't know.
Speaker 3 (29:14):
Oftentimes you're gonna you're gonna feel.
Speaker 4 (29:19):
Unintelligent at times, even though you are a very intelligent being,
You're gonna be like, man, I just can't figure this out.
You will literally be staring at one line of cold
for like five hours, and then like you will ask
for help and it'll be like, oh, man, you just
gotta add a semi colon in this place.
Speaker 3 (29:34):
And it's like, oh my gosh, it's like.
Speaker 4 (29:35):
Something so something so easy, and it's like you didn't
want to ask for help, but it's like, yo, go
ask for help, you know.
Speaker 3 (29:41):
So it takes a lot of humility.
Speaker 4 (29:43):
Nothing is wrong with asking questions, whether you're actioningly to
a coworker, whether you're actionlyn to a professor professor, even.
Speaker 3 (29:50):
If you're action into a peer you know.
Speaker 4 (29:52):
I know, for me, when I was in college, peer connection,
like when we was having like study study meetings and
study har with each other and the auditorium, just the
students in the program, like in the computer science program,
that's the time we learn the most because it might
be one thing that I understand better than everyone else,
and it might be another aspect that another person understands
(30:14):
better than everyone else. And it's like, you know, just
being humble to ask questions no matter who they are.
You might be a senior and this person might be
a freshman, you know, still asking they might have more
knowledge in a particular area than you, because computer science
is a very broad field. So one tip I would
say is always remain humble and with that humility, as
(30:35):
I was just saying, you know.
Speaker 3 (30:36):
Be open to networking with people.
Speaker 4 (30:38):
I know, for me personally, I tend to be more introverted,
more to myself, more quiet.
Speaker 3 (30:43):
But that's the thing about college.
Speaker 4 (30:45):
College helped me get out of that shell of always
just like being I don't want to say being laid back,
but just just always being quiet, not asking for help
and just being to myself all the time. It's like, hey,
step up, live your comfort zone, you know, try to
network and connect with this person. So always be open
to connecting with people. So I would say humility connecting
(31:10):
with others. And the last advice I would give this dedication.
You know, nothing is easy in life. You're always going
to have to strip and push hard. So it's gonna
take it's gonna take time where it's like you might
be up till two o'clock in the morning trying to
finish up some homework, trying to you know, fix compile
errors in your program and stuff like that, and you
(31:30):
looking on stack overflow, you might not know what that is,
but everybody who's in software engineering knows what stack overflow is,
and we love stack overflow.
Speaker 3 (31:40):
So let's just say it's an issue that we that.
Speaker 4 (31:43):
I'm having a hard time trying to figure out that
work or move my cold, and I'm like, why do
I keep getting this compiled error whenever I build my cold?
And so the compile error would say, it would give
you this phrase, and it's.
Speaker 3 (31:57):
Like, I don't know what this is telling me.
Speaker 4 (31:59):
You will go and google stack overflows the first website
that come up, and eighty percent of the time someone
gives like a correct answer that resolves the issue and
stuff like that. So both so it's a lot of
hard work, a lot of studying, you know, a lot
of dedication as well. Even being out of school in
(32:19):
my current profession, we still have to look up thingsh
google things. You know, there's gonna be things that you
run into that you're not familiar with because even when
you go to school, they're not gonna be able to
teach you every single thing about computer science. And you know,
with the way that society is advancing today is gonna
There's gonna be things you need to learn, and so
(32:40):
that habit that you picked up in college, you know,
or along your journey and being dedicated and always you know,
staying up three o'clock in the morning, you know, making
sure things are getting done right. It's gonna carry over
into your career, into your profession where when you go
to work and you need to learn something new or
adjust and stuff like that, it won't be hard for
you to adjust anything like that. So to go over
(33:03):
those three tips, humble, be humble, network, and be dedicated.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
I love it. Thank you, thank you for sharing those tips.
Speaker 1 (33:14):
Now my last question before we give you the floor,
what's next for you in your career?
Speaker 2 (33:19):
What do you hope to achieve in the future.
Speaker 4 (33:21):
I would say, what's next for me in my career
and what I hope to achieve. It's something I've been thinking,
I've been praying about a lot. Is you know, go
and get my masters? Yeah, you know, of course, you know,
always advancing yourself in knowledge and gaining more knowledge.
Speaker 3 (33:34):
It would never hurt. You know. A master's isn't always needed.
It really isn't needed in computer science, but it does
not hurt.
Speaker 4 (33:42):
You know, it's very beneficial and it could help spring
you further and make you get to certain points in
your career in your career quicker than it would.
Speaker 3 (33:51):
Be then the not go get your masters.
Speaker 4 (33:53):
So that's something that I've been thinking about and what
I want to get my masters in as well. So
you know, then if if I get the train rolling
with getting the masters, never know, I might try to
go get that doctor.
Speaker 3 (34:06):
I don't know, that's a big that's a big.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
That's that's okay.
Speaker 1 (34:10):
But you're thinking about it your option. You're bettering and
enriching yourself.
Speaker 4 (34:15):
That's good, right, Yeah, And I know it takes a
lot of the last tip that I g a lot
of dedication, So it's nothing that it's not. You know,
you could be like, hey, I won't give my master.
It's not like it's gonna be a walking apart. It's
gonna take some time, some years. It's some dedication.
Speaker 1 (34:27):
Oh yes, yes, I was doing it while working full time,
so I know.
Speaker 3 (34:31):
Oh so you know, yeah, first experience.
Speaker 1 (34:34):
I don't have to give an episode on that one
how to navigate getting a master's while working full time
and managing life.
Speaker 3 (34:41):
So yeah, definitely I'll be the first.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
One to go. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (34:45):
So before we close out today, I wanted just to
open the floor for anything you wanted to say, anything
you wanted to add before we close out. It's been
such a pleasure having you here today. So is there
anything else I was saying?
Speaker 4 (34:57):
Anything, Something that I always say that I could add
as you know, Yeah, and maybe I might have said
this already, but just you know, I think I did.
You know, just continue to discover who you are and
what you like. You know, don't do things just because
it looks one way. Grass is not always being on
the other side. So make sure whatever you choose to do,
(35:19):
make sure you're passionate about it, make sure you're passing
about STEM and that you love STEM. STEM is a
great field. It is a great field to network with
people in. It's a great feel to continuously learning. You know,
I feel like you could go on to get five
doctoral degrees.
Speaker 3 (35:33):
You're never going to stop learning in the field of STEM.
Speaker 4 (35:36):
So just be ready to learn, Be ready to come
into situations, whether it's meetings or whatever it is, with
an open mind, you know, being ready to adjust to
different things, and just you know, being on a swivel,
so that I guess that's a little extra our.
Speaker 3 (35:54):
Add you know, yeah, I love it.
Speaker 1 (35:57):
Thank you for sharing that, and thank you for all
your expertise, your personal experiences, just sharing these tips for
success that people have to learn by trial and error
unless they have guidance. So it's so wonderful having you
here today.
Speaker 2 (36:10):
I appreciate your.
Speaker 1 (36:11):
Time, thank you for being a guest, and I'm just
so excited about the series. So everyone make sure you like,
comment and subscribe. Thank you for watching All Things Soon
with Ashley, our Men and Stems series, and thank you
again Raymond. We'll see you guys, You guys.
Speaker 2 (36:27):
Fue
Hello everyone, and welcome to all. Thanks sim With Ashley,
we are doing our Men and stim series and today
I'm so excited to host our guests, Raymond Collins.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Welcome, Raymond, Glad to be here, Ashley, Yes, So a
little introduction about Raymond is.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
Raymond Collins is a twenty seven year old software engineer
in the defense industry. He has been in the contract
defense industry for four years. He enjoys solving critical programming
problems and applications development in software engineering. Raymond is from
a small town in Louisiana called Donaldson Bill. It is
located along the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and New Orleans.
(00:49):
Raymond happened to discover software engineering and computer science through googling,
professions that aligned with his personality and interest during high school.
Raymond has a love for technology and computers, which is
why he can spend a vast amount of time and
various around various technology. That is what spiked his interest
in software engineering in the field of STEM.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
So welcome Raymond, glad to be here.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
Once again.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
I'm excited to see you. So can you give us
a little bit about yourself? I know I talked a
little bit about it, But tell us about yourself and
what spiked your interest in STEM, like a deeper version.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
Okay, so a little bit about myself.
Speaker 4 (01:22):
You know, I kind of grew up. You know, I'm
not an only child, but I kind of grew up
like an only child since my siblings was like very
older than me. Yeah, so I had a lot of
time to spend by myself, and you know, that just
cultivated a lot of time for me to be around computers,
play video games, and be on a cell phone like
a lot of kids of this generation today.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
So just growing up, I fell in love with technology.
Speaker 4 (01:47):
So I always wanted to n I always knew I
wanted to go into a field our profession that involved
technology as well. And I remember in middle school it
was a career day. I believe someone told me that,
hey man, you should consider going into the field of engineering.
So I was like, computers and engineering. Yeah, I'm like,
let me put those two words together and see what
(02:08):
I could find on Google. You know, come across computer engineering, yeah,
and you know, come across hardware and software size of
computer engineering. Yeah, and the software side is computer science.
So yeah, that cultivated with that, that aligned with what
I liked as a person, you know, being around software,
being around technology and things of that nature.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
I love that. Thank you. Oh, so, can you.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
Share if you had any role models or mentors that
have influenced your STEM journey.
Speaker 4 (02:39):
Okay, I would say, Actually, any influencing role models, I
would say all my two eldest sisters. You know, they
are not engineers, but they are both in the medical field.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (02:51):
And the way that influenced me is I have r
I have real life examples of someone who can go
into a very difficult uh profession, Yeah, and be able
to succeed and make it.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
So I was like, hey, I don't wanna be a doctor.
Speaker 4 (03:07):
I do wanna be a software engineer.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
Right.
Speaker 4 (03:11):
It may seem difficult to learn the necessary skills to
be a software engineer, but hey, if my older siblings
can learn what they need to learn to become doctors,
I know I can learn what I need to learn
be to become a software engineer.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
That's excellent.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
That drive that determination, Yeah, that's excellent Raymond. So, were
there any challenges you faced growing up that made pursuing
a STEM career differ difficult?
Speaker 4 (03:32):
Hm? I would say things growing up that may pursue
a STEM engineer and degree kind of difficult for me.
I would say, I I felt like I kind of
was behind when I went to college. You know, I
know that some of my peers they already new programming languages.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
I didn't. It was a new world for me.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (03:53):
When I went to college and I took my very
first computer science class, yeah, firstman year, I was like,
what is this stuff?
Speaker 3 (03:59):
Yes, some of them was like, hey, you don't know
what this is.
Speaker 4 (04:02):
Uh, they already took some computer science classes in high school.
But I would say that that would be a hiccup
for me and just the natural anxieties that you have
with learning new things that are challenging, and just also college, like,
hey will I be able to even find a job
right once I graduate? And I graduated in twenty twenty,
so that's during the pandemic. Yeah, So I will also
(04:25):
say that is a challenge as well for me, you know,
trying to find a job and apply to jobs during
the pandemic.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
You have all these strict rules and regulations.
Speaker 4 (04:36):
Can't conduct interviews, all interviews are virtual and things like that.
So I would say, like, you know, graduating and trying
to find a job during the pandemic would have been
the one of the greatest difficulties.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
In my career.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
Yeah, that's really true. That's real.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
Yeah, that's real.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
No one knew what was going on at the time,
no one knew what was next. And you know, it's
always nice to have an interviews in person. You get
that personal touch, you get to feel people's you know, personality.
You know, it's so different than having that wall of
the computer up.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
Yeah, and then afore going on.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
So much was going on, it's like, what is job security?
What is really gonna happen in the next three to
four months, let along a year, right, So that's real.
So thank you, thank you for sharing that, and I'm
glad you made it. Yeah, and everything worked out. So
for the people that don't know what computer science is,
could you give us just a little overview of what
(05:27):
computer science is as you kind of.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
Spoke on Awesome. Yeah, sure, definitely.
Speaker 4 (05:31):
I would say computer science is a bunch of theories
and u mechanisms that involves a computer, involves applications like software.
Speaker 3 (05:41):
You have things like AI data analytics.
Speaker 4 (05:45):
You have all these different applications that you can use
and utilize in software engineering. You have a machine learning
and various things like that. So this is a bunch
of different theories and ways that you could use a
computer to improve suc side, to improve society, to help
out society, and just continuing to advance society overall. So yeah,
(06:07):
it's a bunch of different mechanisms and different formula's ways
that you could do things and yeah, you know concepts.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
I yes, see, thank you for that overview. And that's
really good. I really like having different guests to tell
what it really is.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Yeah, because people hear it all day. We hear in
computer science all the time. It's like, well what is it? Yeah,
for people to you know, look deeper into it.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
Yeah, thank you. So I wanna get.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Onto your accomplishment since STEM. So, what is one project
or accomplishment you're particularly proud of during your STEM journey?
Speaker 2 (06:36):
Now this can be.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
High school, college, career, whatever, you know, your favorite accomplishment.
Speaker 4 (06:42):
Or pract Okay, I would say my favorite accomplishment our
project I would be is you know assign one assignment
I had at my job. You know it involved, uh
creating a script for our team for our pipeline. You know,
a automation system you know, it was a very challenging task.
(07:05):
You know, I was familiar with Python, which is the
coding language that you would use to uh work with
pipelines that you would use to create a script, and
it was basically making a uh a script.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
For our database and things of that sort.
Speaker 4 (07:21):
So I would say, like that would be one of
my greatest projects and achievements that uh I'm proud of
cause and it's something that tested our entire code base.
So it wasn't something that was like small, uh very
fatigue that really didn't have too much of impact.
Speaker 3 (07:35):
It's something that impacted our entire team.
Speaker 4 (07:37):
So I was I that's something that I would say
that I'm very proud of doing.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
It's good than a right.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
So Raymond, Yes, how does computer science interact with other
disciplines such as aerospace engineering, mechanical engineering, or simple engineering?
Speaker 4 (07:53):
Okay, I would say, man, that's computer science interacts with
other STEM disciplines.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
Computer science interactual life.
Speaker 4 (08:02):
It's very hard to walk outside and not see something
that's derived from computer science. Technology. Everything that's advancing is
going towards like tech. So for example, let's just take UH,
aviation and aeronaut its just all kinds of technology. When
you look in at a in in a cockpit of
any type of plane.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
You know, if you could if if you.
Speaker 4 (08:23):
Go on a mar American Airlines plane and you aks
the polo, hey can I at least look in a cockpit.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
You gonna see all kind of machinery technology.
Speaker 4 (08:32):
And of course with the advancement of technology over time.
It it all has to do with computer science, with programming,
with the software that's being used. Like even when you
go into the airport, you know, everything is on the
applications on a software application. Yeah, you know, you looking
at the screens. Hey do my flight get delayed? Do
my flight get canceled? You could even walk into McDonald's.
(08:54):
You don't even have to talk to a person at
the register. You could all to your mail off of
a screen. All all of those things are due to
computer science through software and various applications and things like that.
And just even entertainment. You could turn on TV, you
don't even need cable. You could watch Hulu, watch YouTube, Netflix,
if you go on Disney Plus, you could watch Ulu
(09:16):
on Disney Plus, and as various different applications that's just
connecting with each other, and it's all very possible, you know,
just do computer science and technology could be halfway across
the world FaceTime and someone and things like that. So
that's how computer science just interacts with the world of
the STEM discipline. You could have electrical engineering, I'm pretty
(09:40):
sure there's like environmental civil engineering and things like that.
You could be looking at the landscape of a particular
field and you could use data analytics to let you know, hey,
based on this data, will we be able to build
this building in this specific area.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
You could come up with various different calculations.
Speaker 4 (09:59):
And you can try to predict certain things based off
of data analytics, which is a discipline of computer science.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
I love it. You just give it every example. They
work with everybody. I love that.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
That's so cool, how that top That topic is so versatile.
Computer science works with everybody. Like you said, it's everywhere
you look. So it's so many different ways you can
use that if you got a degree in that.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
Ye.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
So, as we just spoke of, computer science is a broadfield,
what are some different career paths within it that people
may not be aware of?
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Now? I know you just listen to a lot of things,
but are there.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
Any more you can add to that that people may
not be aware of how they can use computer science.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
In a role. I feel like a lot of people
know this one, but I'm gonna bring this one up.
Speaker 4 (10:44):
But security, cybersecurity and things like that, and you know,
just it's.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
Awesome to enjoy all of.
Speaker 4 (10:52):
These great things that we have through software and you know,
these different applications through technology. But we don't live in
a perfect world.
Speaker 3 (11:01):
Of course.
Speaker 4 (11:02):
You know, you have people with bad intentions. We all
got banks, bank accounts, and you have people that will
try to hack into a bank account, try to steal
money and things like that. So I would just want to,
you know, put a big emphasis on cybersecurity and the
importance of cybersecurity, making sure you know, our valuable stay safe.
(11:23):
Is like when you look at a country, you know,
for example, a country as a military to protect that country.
I viewed cybersecurity as the same thing cybersecurity.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
There's precious and beautiful software that you have created, you
need something to protect it. And I feel like cybersecurity.
Speaker 4 (11:38):
Is one of is that discipline of computer science that
protects that beautiful software that you made.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
I love it, Raymon, I love it.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
Thank you for that explanation that is super great because
that is one of the up and coming fields. You
see AI, and you see cybersecurity, yeah everywhere now there,
yeah everywhere? Okay, cool. So how do you see we
just spoke about what you could do in computer science?
Speaker 3 (12:02):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (12:03):
How do you see the field of computer science and
software engineering evolving over the next five to ten years?
Speaker 2 (12:07):
You know, we already see.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
So much with AI model based systems. How do you
think that can change over the next couple of years.
Speaker 3 (12:14):
You want a good or badass?
Speaker 1 (12:16):
It's your episode. You can get both if you won't,
it's whatever Raymond wants.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
Man.
Speaker 4 (12:22):
I see technology advancing. That's so beneficial for a lot
of people. I mean, like, I have a big imagination. Yeah,
I feel like it's good in the field of computer science.
But I imagine like we could go to the doctor
one day and with one scan from a machine that
could tell us all these different diagnoses in our body
and things like that.
Speaker 3 (12:43):
I feel like.
Speaker 4 (12:45):
You could take a fruit, a plant and just just
run all kinds of research with it and just computer
sciences for everyone.
Speaker 3 (12:54):
And I just see it advancing so much.
Speaker 4 (12:57):
But with that being said, is also a pot that
it could strip people of their jobs.
Speaker 3 (13:03):
So like earlier I.
Speaker 4 (13:04):
Was talking about McDonald's. I guess twenty years ago you
were going to McDonald's. You're always interacting with a person,
But nowadays you could go in McDonald's, not interact with
not one person, and get whatever you need. So it
is that thing to where you know, it could bring
this possibility of less jobs. Will things be more efficient, yes,
(13:25):
but everything has its frozen as cons you know. I
feel like it will open society up to be more
efficient and be more consistent as well as humans we
tend to make errors compared to.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
When things tend to be more automated.
Speaker 4 (13:40):
It's less prone to make mistakes because it doesn't have that,
it doesn't get tired, it doesn't have human error and
things like that.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
So yeah, that's a great aspect on it, an error aspect.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
Now, like you said, I agree, it definitely will decrease jobs.
Like you spoke about McDonald's. Do you think that while
it decreased these jobs, there will be some kind of
human like one human has to make.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
Sure all the robots are doing that job exactly.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
So while it might not take all the jobs, it
will decrease the jurassically, but we still need that one
thing like, okay, if it starts spilling French fran creasauce around,
you need that human override. So basically people need to
start learning how to utilize these robots are how to
fix them in the air, right, That could be some
new possibilities.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (14:20):
Also even possibly I don't sound like you know I
roll about people could possibly have the robots in their house.
You want to know what to do if you gotta
rollout in your house, you want to know what to
do with it. Now, I'm not no person that's like
advocating for like robots and stuff like that being in
their own but I'm just thinking about like what we
see on TV and where we see technology and computer
(14:43):
science going. So it's like, yeah, it's some things that
some people might be like, whoa, I don't know about
that yet. And there's some things like yeah, you know,
I like the aspect of going to Walmart, being able
to buy all your girlfriends online.
Speaker 3 (14:57):
People like stuff like that. Of course he doesn't.
Speaker 4 (15:00):
It is like some as far as like robots and
stuff like that, you know, self driven cars. I don't
know how people feel about that with Tesla, as.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
Long as it's not a flying car. Yet I can't
get with justice yet. Okay, we got to stay on
the ground.
Speaker 4 (15:14):
People that could bail it drive so imagine if people
flying and stuff like that.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
No, it is okay.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
Thank you, Thank you for bringing in that, you know,
your expertise on that, your insight.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
That was excellent.
Speaker 3 (15:26):
Woman.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
Thank you so much for talking about how everything could
change over the next couple of years. I want to
get back on the advice track and things like that
based off of your personal journey.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
So what advice.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
Would you give to young men that are considering a
career in STEM but are unsure about balancing it with
personal life or other.
Speaker 4 (15:45):
Interest man, I would say the best, and I would
go as far to say the number one advice I
would give to anyone that's.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
Trying to pursue.
Speaker 4 (15:57):
Any type of discipline or you're in the STEM field
is make.
Speaker 3 (16:02):
Sure that you love it. Make sure that you're not
trying to pursue it or do it for.
Speaker 4 (16:06):
The wrong reasons, because a lot of these disciplines are
very hard to learn and it takes a lot of
dedication to learn it, and you got to have that love,
that passion for you could look at any aspect of
any type of profession. You're gonna go through hardship and
trials and stuff and that trying to learn what you
need to learn. And oftentimes, you know, sometimes when you're
(16:27):
in college, and I'm not trying to say this in
a bad way, this is just you know, people and
us learning in life. But you'll see a person that's
in one major then they'll switch to another major and
it's like, you know, you don't don't get you know,
attracted to like what you see on TV. Don't get
attracted to salaries. Be attracted to the actual skill sets
(16:50):
and things that you need. Make sure like you're passionate
about those things. Make sure you will want to sit
in front of a computer all day, four to five
days a week. What I'm saying is like, you know,
so just make sure you have a passion for it.
Just make sure you have an interest for it. And
the best way to find out if you have that
passion or interest for something is until the hard times
(17:13):
come in pursuing it. So the moment you know you're
learning a program language like C plus plus, which is
object oriented language, and you're trying to figure out how
functions speak to each other, how to create a class
you're in these different classes trying to learn about all
these different computer these programming languages like job C plus
plus Python, SQL and stuff like that, and they're getting frustrated.
(17:37):
But something inside of you is like, even though I'm
getting frustrated, I still like it.
Speaker 3 (17:42):
You know.
Speaker 4 (17:43):
It's almost like when you watch an athlete workout and stuff.
Working out isn't easy, it doesn't feel good, it's painful,
but for some reason, you build an endurance to it.
So it's almost like you're gonna build an endurance to
that profession, to that major, you know, in the field
of STEM, whether it's like mechanical engine the computer science,
electrical engineering, you know you're gonna build this type of
(18:04):
tolerance forward where like you love it even though some
things will aggravate you or frustrate you. It's something that
wakes you up every day and then motivates you to
do it.
Speaker 3 (18:13):
You know, I get motivated. I don't go to I
like what I do. I love what I do.
Speaker 4 (18:17):
When I wake up in the morning, it's not like,
oh man, I gotta go.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
To work again.
Speaker 4 (18:21):
It's like, hey man, I have it feels like a privilege.
I can't wait to go to work. I can't wait
to problem solve. You know, Hey we're working on this
piece of software. Hey, we're working on this update. I'm
dealing with the crash. I'm dealing with the bug. This,
this widget, this, this web page isn't acting the way
I wanted to act. And rather than like, you know what,
(18:41):
forget it. I hate this, I'm not gonna deal with it.
It's like, even though it's giving me trouble, I love
what I do and I like this, and I'm gonna
keep working through it, and the previsional I'm gonna get
to the point where I want to get to.
Speaker 3 (18:51):
And so that that's the advice I would give. Just
make sure, like you know, when.
Speaker 4 (18:56):
You get into it, you know, especially if you don't
know anything about computer science, a software engineering or anything
like that, just whenever you get into it, and the
first time you come across that first thumping block, just
pay attention to yourself, even though it's something that's irritating you.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
Do you see yourself running back to it.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
Yeah, that's excellent, Raymond.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
And that's so true because we are in our career
at thirty forty years right, God, enjoy You don't want
to be miserable.
Speaker 3 (19:21):
Because it's also an investment as well.
Speaker 4 (19:22):
You went to college for this, so it's like I
feel like it's better to go to college and be like,
oh man, I don't like this and switch a major
rather than graduate in this major getting this career and
it's like I don't like this, And it's like, Yo,
you just invested finances and time into this major just
to find out that you.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
Don't like it.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
Yes, student loan say no jobs. So yes, those are
excellent tips. You thank you for sharing that, Raymond. Next,
I want to ask what you just gave a lot
of great, great advice in general, what's the best piece
of career advice you've received so far and how has
it shaped your path? And this could be any part
(20:03):
of your STEM journey or it could be more than
one if you want. So this is your this is
your answer.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
I guess it would it?
Speaker 4 (20:11):
I guess the advice I would that I just gave
it would be my best advice, I would say, But
also it's just how it was raised as well, you know,
I would just I guess speak about you know, my
mom and like my parents, and you know, like they
never tried to dictate what I became. You know, they
always told me, you know, hey, be what you want
to be. You know that my parents they will always
(20:34):
be proud of me. And just like you know, both
I was saying earlier, both of my sisters on a
medical field.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
I chose to go into completely different, opposite path. You know.
Speaker 4 (20:41):
Growing up, people would be like, hey, are you going
to be a doctor like your sisters? And I'm like,
I do not want to be anything with my sisters.
They inspired me, they motivate me, but it's like I
don't want to follow after that path. So it's like
I would say, like the best advice I got are
like the best guidance.
Speaker 3 (20:56):
I got was like, hey, you know, be what you
want to be and do things. Is that peak your interest?
You know?
Speaker 4 (21:02):
For you have some people who like art a lot,
but they want to be involved in technology. You know,
you have different art designs, you have graphic designs. You know,
you could get into more front in software compared to
back in software. Kind of getting kind of technical here,
but like it when you think about back what back
end software is, it's the things that you can't see.
(21:22):
In front end is the things that you can see.
So whenever you look at a computer. Whenever you're looking
at the screen watching me and Astley conversate with you,
that's that's the front end, you know, that's the UI,
the UX, the the user interface, and back in code
is like all the things going on behind the scene.
It's like whenever you see a car, you see the
body and the pain of the car. You see the wheels,
(21:44):
but you know you have an engine and transmission things
that you cannot see that's doing a lot of work.
Speaker 3 (21:49):
And that's what the back end code is as well. Yeah,
it's like it's like your.
Speaker 4 (21:56):
Brain, Like all kinds of things are going on in
your brain, and you got all kind of thought sentuss
just being formulated as you talk and have a conversation
with a person. But it's like you could see a
person's lip moving, you can see a person's.
Speaker 3 (22:08):
Eyes, a facial expression.
Speaker 4 (22:10):
That would be the front in the back end would
be like your brain and the thoughts, your emotions and
things like that.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
We need a whole Raymond series. Honey, Oh my goodness,
this is awesome Raymond. Yeah, thank you for sharing that.
Speaker 3 (22:24):
But yeah, go ahead, but yeah, just make sure you know.
Speaker 4 (22:29):
Just the best advice I got was, you know, do
what you love, do what you're passionate about, and just
don't feel pressured to do something that you don't want
to do.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
Thank you, Thank you, Raymond. We're gonna get back on
your journey a little bit. You've shared some great advice,
giving us some great insight on computer science. I want
to ask, looking back, is there anything you would have
done differently in your STEM journey.
Speaker 3 (22:55):
No, I don't. I wouldn't say I have any regret regrets.
Speaker 4 (23:00):
You know, the way my cars has been dealt in life.
You know, I'm happy they were laid out that way. Yeah,
And I mean, even though there's no regrets, I kind
of do wish and I think I might have said
this earlier. I kind of do wish I would have
found out about computer science a little bit earlier and
maybe try to learn some of those programming languages earlier.
(23:20):
But it's not like me learning programming languages for the
very first time in college set me.
Speaker 3 (23:26):
Back or anything like that. So like, it's no regrets.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
That's great. I love that.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
So now we're gonna get into how we help the.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
Next generation of STEM leaders.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
Have you ever been involved in any initiatives for programs
that encourage young men or underrepresented groups to pursue stim fields.
Speaker 3 (23:46):
Yeah, I would say I have.
Speaker 4 (23:47):
I would say being a part of nesby National Society
of Black Engineers, you know, it allows for a great
opportunity and chances to speak to underrepresented kids too. Could
be in a position of where, you know, they could
be thinking about potentially being an engineer. They might have
heard this word engineering, don't really know what it is.
(24:09):
I even think about kids that could be in a
position that I was in in high school, whereas like
they know they want to be in the engineer in
a stem field, they don't know what direction to go
in in that stem field.
Speaker 3 (24:19):
So just interacting with those kids and just speaking.
Speaker 4 (24:23):
To them, picking their brains, picking their minds, and just
being I guess, like a physical representation of Hey, I
see someone that looks like me. Yes, that's underrepresented in
a particular field. This person looks like me, and they
are what I'm striving to be.
Speaker 3 (24:40):
So I know that I can be that, you know.
Speaker 4 (24:42):
So I would say like, yeah, being a part of
the National Society of Black Engineers, you know, it allows
me to encourage you know, young men and underrepresented group
you know, just by interacting with them and just you know.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
That's excellent.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
That's how I got introduced in STEM from Georgia Tech
Suite Society Women Engineering.
Speaker 3 (25:00):
It's great.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
Yeah, it's just like you see somebody looks like you're
like they're doing it, like right, that's super cool.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
Let me look it more into it to see if
I can.
Speaker 3 (25:06):
Do it too, right.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
So it's so impactful. Yeah, and I'm glad. I'm glad
we get to make a difference and give back the
way people pour it in us.
Speaker 3 (25:14):
Yeah, exactly, exactly.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
Well, thank you for sharing and thank you for what
you do to impact others.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
So now I wanted to ask again on the advice
and you kind of spoke on advice already, so if
you don't have a different answer, it's okay. What advice
would you give young engineers or students who are interested
in pursuing a career in software engineering or computer science specifically?
We talked about earlier about STEM fills in general, and
like you said, you need to make sure you love it.
(25:41):
I have to understand you have to do this forever. Now,
I know you mentioned you wish, maybe you don't even wish,
but it would have been cool to know some of
the coding languages before. So what are some advice you
would give to young engineers that want to pursue computer
science specifically?
Speaker 4 (25:55):
I could go a little bit more in depth. It's
just ask yourself, like what do you like? You know,
like do you like finances? You could go you could
try to work for a JP Morgan, you know, like
Chase Bank, you know, City Bank or something like that.
Do you like video games? You could work for EA Sports,
Like what do you like? Computer science interacts with everything
(26:18):
you know?
Speaker 3 (26:19):
You could work.
Speaker 4 (26:20):
You could be a software engineer for Walmart, Gorg McDonald's.
You could be a software engineer for all those on
if you like cars and things like that. So even
you know, strive dig deeper, be detailed than what you want.
You know, I don't try to go on this broad
path to be like, hey, I want to be a
software engineer, but for anybody.
Speaker 3 (26:37):
You know, so you might work for this particular company.
Speaker 4 (26:40):
You'd be like, man, I don't think I like software engineering,
But then you work for another company.
Speaker 3 (26:44):
And it's like I really like this.
Speaker 4 (26:45):
You know, it's all about what and who you're building
software for, and you know what kind of software you're
building for them. So it's not only it's like not
only is it just like, you know, making sure you
like computer science is like what are aspects of yourself
that you like? So that's a further Moore similar advice
that I would give is like, hey, what type of
(27:07):
things that you are interested in in computer science? And
what do you have interest of doing in computer science.
You might not like C plus plus or Java. That
does not mean you need to straight away from computer science.
You know, you could do things that's more scripting with Python.
You could do things that's more fronting like HTML, HTML,
(27:29):
CSS and things like that that deals with front.
Speaker 3 (27:33):
End software, whereas it would be more colorful.
Speaker 4 (27:35):
It's like, hey, let me make this tab on his
web page on his web page blue and things like that,
And you want to get your artistic gene activated in
computer science.
Speaker 3 (27:45):
So it's all about, you know, the type of things
that you like.
Speaker 4 (27:48):
Just discover yourself more and you'll discover like, hey, is
this really for me?
Speaker 3 (27:53):
Hey?
Speaker 4 (27:54):
I know I like computer science. At this point, what
do I want to do and who do I have
aspirations on working for? Or don't cut yourself short. If
you want to work for Apple, you know put yourself
in position and do things to try to work for Apple,
if you want to work for Amazon, Facebook. You know,
if you want to build a startup company, you have
this fantastic idea that was given to you or you know,
(28:16):
planning in your mind, and there's no company that's doing
this idea. You know, you can do the change to
the to your generation, to the next generation.
Speaker 3 (28:24):
And you see it all the time with these great companies.
Speaker 4 (28:26):
You know, like you know, so, yeah, you might have
an idea and there's no company that's working.
Speaker 3 (28:33):
On this idea. You know, you might have.
Speaker 4 (28:35):
The very ambitious idea or plan scheme of making your
own startup company to create that idea and bring that
idea into uh to existence.
Speaker 2 (28:48):
You know, so excellent. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
So. Now we're going to ask for your three overall
tips for success in the STEM industry. What are your
three tips for people that want.
Speaker 4 (29:02):
To have successful staminish I would say a myout three
tips is humility.
Speaker 3 (29:06):
Yes, you're gonna have a lot of.
Speaker 4 (29:10):
Time to learn and the things that there's gonna be
a lot of things you don't know.
Speaker 3 (29:14):
Oftentimes you're gonna you're gonna feel.
Speaker 4 (29:19):
Unintelligent at times, even though you are a very intelligent being,
You're gonna be like, man, I just can't figure this out.
You will literally be staring at one line of cold
for like five hours, and then like you will ask
for help and it'll be like, oh, man, you just
gotta add a semi colon in this place.
Speaker 3 (29:34):
And it's like, oh my gosh, it's like.
Speaker 4 (29:35):
Something so something so easy, and it's like you didn't
want to ask for help, but it's like, yo, go
ask for help, you know.
Speaker 3 (29:41):
So it takes a lot of humility.
Speaker 4 (29:43):
Nothing is wrong with asking questions, whether you're actioningly to
a coworker, whether you're actionlyn to a professor professor, even.
Speaker 3 (29:50):
If you're action into a peer you know.
Speaker 4 (29:52):
I know, for me, when I was in college, peer connection,
like when we was having like study study meetings and
study har with each other and the auditorium, just the
students in the program, like in the computer science program,
that's the time we learn the most because it might
be one thing that I understand better than everyone else,
and it might be another aspect that another person understands
(30:14):
better than everyone else. And it's like, you know, just
being humble to ask questions no matter who they are.
You might be a senior and this person might be
a freshman, you know, still asking they might have more
knowledge in a particular area than you, because computer science
is a very broad field. So one tip I would
say is always remain humble and with that humility, as
(30:35):
I was just saying, you know.
Speaker 3 (30:36):
Be open to networking with people.
Speaker 4 (30:38):
I know, for me personally, I tend to be more introverted,
more to myself, more quiet.
Speaker 3 (30:43):
But that's the thing about college.
Speaker 4 (30:45):
College helped me get out of that shell of always
just like being I don't want to say being laid back,
but just just always being quiet, not asking for help
and just being to myself all the time. It's like, hey,
step up, live your comfort zone, you know, try to
network and connect with this person. So always be open
to connecting with people. So I would say humility connecting
(31:10):
with others. And the last advice I would give this dedication.
You know, nothing is easy in life. You're always going
to have to strip and push hard. So it's gonna
take it's gonna take time where it's like you might
be up till two o'clock in the morning trying to
finish up some homework, trying to you know, fix compile
errors in your program and stuff like that, and you
(31:30):
looking on stack overflow, you might not know what that is,
but everybody who's in software engineering knows what stack overflow is,
and we love stack overflow.
Speaker 3 (31:40):
So let's just say it's an issue that we that.
Speaker 4 (31:43):
I'm having a hard time trying to figure out that
work or move my cold, and I'm like, why do
I keep getting this compiled error whenever I build my cold?
And so the compile error would say, it would give
you this phrase, and it's.
Speaker 3 (31:57):
Like, I don't know what this is telling me.
Speaker 4 (31:59):
You will go and google stack overflows the first website
that come up, and eighty percent of the time someone
gives like a correct answer that resolves the issue and
stuff like that. So both so it's a lot of
hard work, a lot of studying, you know, a lot
of dedication as well. Even being out of school in
(32:19):
my current profession, we still have to look up thingsh
google things. You know, there's gonna be things that you
run into that you're not familiar with because even when
you go to school, they're not gonna be able to
teach you every single thing about computer science. And you know,
with the way that society is advancing today is gonna
There's gonna be things you need to learn, and so
(32:40):
that habit that you picked up in college, you know,
or along your journey and being dedicated and always you know,
staying up three o'clock in the morning, you know, making
sure things are getting done right. It's gonna carry over
into your career, into your profession where when you go
to work and you need to learn something new or
adjust and stuff like that, it won't be hard for
you to adjust anything like that. So to go over
(33:03):
those three tips, humble, be humble, network, and be dedicated.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
I love it. Thank you, thank you for sharing those tips.
Speaker 1 (33:14):
Now my last question before we give you the floor,
what's next for you in your career?
Speaker 2 (33:19):
What do you hope to achieve in the future.
Speaker 4 (33:21):
I would say, what's next for me in my career
and what I hope to achieve. It's something I've been thinking,
I've been praying about a lot. Is you know, go
and get my masters? Yeah, you know, of course, you know,
always advancing yourself in knowledge and gaining more knowledge.
Speaker 3 (33:34):
It would never hurt. You know. A master's isn't always needed.
It really isn't needed in computer science, but it does
not hurt.
Speaker 4 (33:42):
You know, it's very beneficial and it could help spring
you further and make you get to certain points in
your career in your career quicker than it would.
Speaker 3 (33:51):
Be then the not go get your masters.
Speaker 4 (33:53):
So that's something that I've been thinking about and what
I want to get my masters in as well. So
you know, then if if I get the train rolling
with getting the masters, never know, I might try to
go get that doctor.
Speaker 3 (34:06):
I don't know, that's a big that's a big.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
That's that's okay.
Speaker 1 (34:10):
But you're thinking about it your option. You're bettering and
enriching yourself.
Speaker 4 (34:15):
That's good, right, Yeah, And I know it takes a
lot of the last tip that I g a lot
of dedication, So it's nothing that it's not. You know,
you could be like, hey, I won't give my master.
It's not like it's gonna be a walking apart. It's
gonna take some time, some years. It's some dedication.
Speaker 1 (34:27):
Oh yes, yes, I was doing it while working full time,
so I know.
Speaker 3 (34:31):
Oh so you know, yeah, first experience.
Speaker 1 (34:34):
I don't have to give an episode on that one
how to navigate getting a master's while working full time
and managing life.
Speaker 3 (34:41):
So yeah, definitely I'll be the first.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
One to go. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (34:45):
So before we close out today, I wanted just to
open the floor for anything you wanted to say, anything
you wanted to add before we close out. It's been
such a pleasure having you here today. So is there
anything else I was saying?
Speaker 4 (34:57):
Anything, Something that I always say that I could add
as you know, Yeah, and maybe I might have said
this already, but just you know, I think I did.
You know, just continue to discover who you are and
what you like. You know, don't do things just because
it looks one way. Grass is not always being on
the other side. So make sure whatever you choose to do,
(35:19):
make sure you're passionate about it, make sure you're passing
about STEM and that you love STEM. STEM is a
great field. It is a great field to network with
people in. It's a great feel to continuously learning. You know,
I feel like you could go on to get five
doctoral degrees.
Speaker 3 (35:33):
You're never going to stop learning in the field of STEM.
Speaker 4 (35:36):
So just be ready to learn, Be ready to come
into situations, whether it's meetings or whatever it is, with
an open mind, you know, being ready to adjust to
different things, and just you know, being on a swivel,
so that I guess that's a little extra our.
Speaker 3 (35:54):
Add you know, yeah, I love it.
Speaker 1 (35:57):
Thank you for sharing that, and thank you for all
your expertise, your personal experiences, just sharing these tips for
success that people have to learn by trial and error
unless they have guidance. So it's so wonderful having you
here today.
Speaker 2 (36:10):
I appreciate your.
Speaker 1 (36:11):
Time, thank you for being a guest, and I'm just
so excited about the series. So everyone make sure you like,
comment and subscribe. Thank you for watching All Things Soon
with Ashley, our Men and Stems series, and thank you
again Raymond. We'll see you guys, You guys.
Speaker 2 (36:27):
Fue
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