What's great about your job?

What's great about my job? I am a sr manager for cybersecurity in Verizon. I get to do a lot of things, beside my normal day to day business responsibilities. I work with incredibly talented people. We get to collaborate and share ideas good and bad...and work through projects. Everyday is different. Right now there is a large emphasis in my company to give back to society. I am actually splitting time between my day to day work and getting to spend more time on volunteering. This includes volunteering myself, helping others in my company to become more engaged or creating new volunteering events. I am meeting so many new people and helping many kids in giving them direction. I love doing the interactive events where the kids will come with questions. It's very interesting to see how curious they are to understand Cybersecurity. Just remember that enjoying what you do is half the battle - loving what you do and how you bring yourself to work will help your production, your morale and your peers.

One of the best things about my job is there is never the same problem to solve. Every day brings new challenges and new problems to solve. There is so much I get to learn in my job and wide variety of topics that are not just limited to technical topics but also finance and legal. Lots of exposure.

The world is chasing the speed: everyone wants to download/upload faster and faster. Everyone wants the phone not to drop calls. At Verizon, many people work together to build, maintain, and expand the 4G and 5G network. As part of the team, I monitor the network, report problems to the vendors to get fixed, troubleshoot network and product issues, and improve processes to enhance product quality and prevent outages.

Many issues are under the surface. Just like the game of Hide and Seek, being creative helps to win. In order to find those problems at work, you have to be creative to check things around, find the right tools to help troubleshooting, analysis logs, traces, and play around with a lot of data to obtain clues. Once you discover or resolve an issue, it looks like you just won the game. Does this type of work sound fun to you? If so, then consider becoming a telecom engineer.

What is great about my job is that I have the opportunity everyday to learn something new. Exploring different possibilities and generating new ideas is the cornerstone of the engineering discipline. I enjoy the fact that we, as engineers, get an opportunity to create innovative solutions to the problems that our society faces. At the moment, as a Civil Engineer (specifically in the field of Coastal Engineering), I get to test and investigate new solutions that can be used on our coasts. Trying to find the best solution, that protects against climate change and yet does not negatively affect our environment is exciting. I get to use new tools, do tests in the lab….and work with other scientists to find a solution.

There are so many things that are truly “great” about my job. For example, the intellectual freedom of being a professor is unrivaled. In countless ways, I am my own boss, and decide what the important questions and topics and problems are, as long as they land close to my discipline (transportation engineering). Such flexibility allows faculty to stay on the cutting edge of science and application. My work is always motivated by the common good, so I was able to become an expert in crash prediction, land use change and travel choices across entire regions and nations, credit-based congestion pricing (CBCP) of transportation networks, mobile-source emissions and electric vehicles, shared autonomous (all-electric) vehicles (SAEVs) and dynamic ride-sharing (DRS). My and my students’ motivation is reduction of death and injury, congestion and lung damage, accidents and delays, greenhouse gases and the climate emergency. We want to make the world a better place, and my position supports that kind of work.

I also am naturally curious and love learning, and I am constantly learning through my students, my colleagues, and other experts around the world. My job allows me to interact with almost anyone, easily. Students show me new ways of solving problems, new questions we should be answering, and new simulations that I simply cannot run on my own. Both undergraduate and graduate students teach me valuable things, every week in this job. I become a source of information for family, friends, and many others, thanks to that on-going education. Of course, our research, and the results my students and teammates uncover, every week, also educate me. Such education allows me to stay on the cutting edge, and better help our communities and all species.

Finally, it is a lot of fun to teach students and share information with any audience. Dissemination of knowledge and problem solutions is key to academia and intellectual pursuits. I am very fortunate that students and other audiences make this an enjoyable process for me. We researchers have to do a lot of writing, and then slideshow presentations, but it is rewarding to see people around the world making use of (and even citing) our work. I just wish I could see SAEVs with DRS and CBCP out there on the ground right now. It is hard to orchestrate change on the ground from academia. But I strive to help others undertake such dramatic change, for the betterment of this world, and all its denizens. More details on our work can be found here: www.caee.utexas.edu/prof/kockelman.

The best part about being a software developer and solutions architect is that nearly every company needs one, and you can use your same skills across many different industries to solve lots of really cool, complex problems! The apps, games, media, telecommunications, and physical devices we use all day every day aren't magic - someone had to write the firmware, middleware, storage, encryption algorithms, interfaces, and application software that turns what you the user wants to do into the ones and zeros the device can understand and back again.

So in the 7 roles I have had in Verizon there has always been something in each role that has been exciting to me and or has made a difference. In most of my roles, I have been part of the teams that are in charge of designing and maintaining our networks. You could be in charge of building out the networks (ordering equipment, managing construction or project managing upgrades) or you can be part of the teams maintaining the networks (optimizing the network or fixing outages). Either way, you are making sure people can be connected when they need to! Sometimes it is hard to see how your little piece of the puzzle affects the big picture but you need each person to make our networks run so people stay connected.

My favorite role was in the Technology Development team. I was able to work on projects that showcased the high bandwidth and low latency of 5G when it was just being developed. This role allowed me to take my knowledge from my previous roles working on our network teams and start to think about how customers interacted with the network. The other awesome part of this job was being able to travel and attend some cool events where we were deploying demos like the Super Bowl, NBA All-Star Game, and Hawaii! In this role, I got to work on cutting-edge technology and work with internal and external teams to overcome numerous hurdles that accompany deploying new technology. I also got to expand my knowledge by working with our marketing, communications and product teams about how we can showcase this technology in a way customers would relate to it.

Overall, I love that I am constantly learning in every role I have. Having a variety of roles has allowed me to constantly expand my knowledge and contacts to have a great impact on our business which ultimately helps our customers! I love any project where I can work on the latest tech and work in a cross-functional team to solve a problem.

A lot of people think that engineering is just a bunch of nerds typing into computers, or a bunch of geniuses solving equations at blackboards. But actually, nothing really happens individually—almost all of engineering happens in teams! I think that’s my favorite part of the job; what’s great about it to me is that I can dig really deeply into the math or physics or technical side of the problem, but I’m doing it alongside other people who also care about those same problems (and bring a different viewpoint and a different set of skills). It’s definitely true that you need those “soft” skills too; knowing how to relate to others and how to work in a team is really important. As for the “wow” factor… I am a university professor and I lead a research group that studies how animals move through water and air (swimming, flying, and combinations of the two). Our work usually involves pointing a high-speed camera and a macro lens (or four) at an animal doing something cool. So we get a lot of “wow” in our lab!

One of the many things I love about my job is the effect it has on many peoples’ lives. The footwear product and innovations that I touch may end up getting produced on the scale of millions of pairs and for years to come. I also have the opportunity to contribute to footwear projects for a specific athlete or for a major national or international sporting event – it’s always very exciting to see something I’ve worked on be on television or the news!

I developed the very first GPS cell phone that was used in a state-wide trial in Colorado to demonstrate that E-911 location was possible for cell phones. These test results were used by the National Emergency Number Association to successfully lobby the FCC on behalf of Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) providers to implement regulations which now require all cell phones to provide location with any E-911 calls. This has resulted in countless lives being saved by enabling emergency services to rapidly reach mobile phone users in remote locations. The GPS cell phone that I built is now on display in the Smithsonian Aerospace museum.

The best part about my job is I get to solve puzzles and problems. How do we make an airplane better at taking people from point A to B? How do we design an engine that will work when the airline wants it, so those passengers can get on with their trip? How do we find new types of fuel for that engine that is better for the environment? I can actually see where my efforts are helping make the world a better place.

Something “big” I think might depend on where you work, what programs/projects you are near and the opportunities within your area of expertise. I can tell you that sometimes some of the most exciting projects catch you by surprise. For me, just one year into my job, I was tasked with solving the computer support for our field personnel (90% were new computer users – age bracket 35-60 yrs old – and did not know much of how computers work or the software they were now required to use to document their work). I was put on a Continuous Improvement Project and drafted the design for a new department to support our field personnel. I drafted up the department objectives, number of personnel and their job descriptions along with salary requirements tied to particular job duties. I was able to present to our Leadership and upon approval, they named me the Manager of the new department along with a promotion I was not expecting! From there, I was able to grow the department across various regions (from WY to AL).

So…yes, there are always exciting things to work on as an engineer! The biomedical field is exploding with ideas right now. Logistics is always coming up with brand new concepts and ideas. Civil engineering is exciting as well with all the changes in how people are moving/not moving due to the pandemic. As we grow and learn as people and a society, engineering is also growing and learning! Any field you choose in engineering will be exciting and fun, as long as you invest the energy to learn and the optimism to accept sometimes those unforeseen opportunities. Never stop learning and know that you have a whole legion of women engineers cheering you on…I hope you know that I am!!

The greatest reward that engineering has to offer is the direct and visible ability to serve your community. Many, if not all, fields and industries within engineering, reach this cause and serve this purpose. My first engineering job was an internship at Proterra, an electric bus company. They designed and manufactured electric buses for universities, cities, and airports. One of my most memorable days was when Greenlink, our local public bus transportation provider, bought Proterra buses. I now see all these buses riding around my hometown, in addition to many other towns in the USA. I now work for Collins Aerospace. Our particular location designs and manufactures seating interiors for aircrafts. Once again, I'm directly providing a service to my local and global community. If you particularly like a dynamic field, where you can directly serve your community, I highly recommend the transportation industry.

My favorite thing about being a civil/environmental engineer is that I get to work on projects that directly benefit my community. For example, after Superstorm Sandy hit the New York City area (where I live) in 2012, I helped hospitals and wastewater treatment plants assess damage, make plans to rebuild, and make plans to make their facilities more resilient so they won't see such significant damage when the next hurricane hits the area. This was very important because during the storm, many wastewater treatment plants and hospitals were so badly damaged that they had to completely shut down their operations. This meant people in vulnerable areas couldn't get the medical care they needed, and we had raw sewage going into our waterways and into peoples' homes.

There are many things that are great about my job. I work on products that help to feed a growing population. While doing that, we are focused on adding value for our customers. Our innovative solutions help our customers have a better life by making their life easier and by making their farms more profitable. We do all of this while also making farming more sustainable for the earth! As you can tell, I think what I work on is very “wow”!! I’m smiling right now thinking about it!

The nice thing about engineering is that you get to create and fix things that are meaningful for some customer base. The application for engineering is everywhere! Think about going through your day, what you touch, what tools you use, etc and most likely an engineer was involved.

I hope you have fun learning about engineering!

There are two wonderful things about my job. I can walk, every day, in the footsteps of America's most historic figures and I get to participate in projects on the historic facilities the Architect of the Capitol manages. in my job I see things that most American's will never see and walk in areas most American's will never have a chance to walk. These include the Capitol Dome interstitial space (the inside of the walls), the original granite Capitol spiral staircase, and many others. The most amazing project I have worked on was the refurbishment of the US Capitol Dome. We had to find ways to fill in over 1300 holes and cracks in the Dome that were letting in water and damaging the Dome structure, the Capitol building, and many historic pieces of art. The innovation required to complete this project was inspiring! We needed to find ways to repair the structure without affecting the historic aesthetic, everything had to continue to look as it did when the Dome was first constructed. As I am a Safety Engineer, I have to often be innovative and imaginative in order to comply with modern safety regulations, maintain the safety and health of our employees, Congress and visitors, and not have modern requirements interfere with seeing what the original historic facilities looked like. It is never dull and always challenging.

Variety! With my increasing levels of responsibility at Verizon over the years I now have 4 managers working for me who all have people who work for them. These 4 teams do related but different work for network capital planning, network metrics tracking and a variety of other projects. In order to keep all things moving along and progressing at the right pace my days are filled with removing road blocks for my team, talking with my peers to make sure they are on board with the projects and presenting new and future work ideas to the leadership team. The engineering knowledge I've acquired over the years, along with networking skills, allow me to ask the right questions for the details to my team and also provide summaries to the executives at Verizon.

Yes, I have worked on some really “wow” projects while working at the NASA Glenn Research Center as a materials research engineer. Over the past 33 years, I have worked on numerous exciting spaceflight projects. One great example is the Hubble Space Telescope! I was involved in each of the five Hubble servicing missions, helping to determine durable materials for components to be placed on Hubble by astronauts during the servicing missions. For example, I helped with the selection of the thermal shields for the replacement solar arrays placed on Hubble during the 1st servicing mission. I have also analyzed thermal insulation materials retrieved from Hubble during each of the servicing missions to help understand why the insulation blankets covering the telescope have become embrittled in the space environment. The insulation blankets retrieved during the 5th servicing mission were exposed to space on the Hubble Space Telescope for 19 years!! I have also flown materials space exposure experiments on the Shuttle, the Russian Space Station Mir, and I currently have an experiment on the International Space Station!

Being a wireless engineer for Verizon no one day is the same.  From day to day and sometimes minute to minute I could be engineering a circuit, talking to the FCC, working with a vendor or different engineers on a job!

Being an engineer for Verizon I have been given the opportunity to think, try, fail and succeed and that is what is so great about my job and my company!

Since I am a PhD student, I have had so much flexibility in the projects that I get to work on. I love that I get to learn everyday and better understand the world. I also get to learn from so many different experts who do vastly different research from each other. I love that with engineering, you can see a tangible impact on people and the world around you.

With COVID this past year, I have been working on understanding aerosol emissions from musical instruments and how to decrease the risk of COVID-19 transmission among musicians. I have been very grateful to be part of such a great team and that our work enabled music programs in schools to keep going this past school year.