331: An Engineering Mindset Is Crucial and Always Work On The Things You’re Passionate About with Leon Kuperman

<p>In this week’s show, Phil talks to Leon Kuperman, the co-founder and Chief Technical Officer of Cast AI. He has worked in technology for more than 20 years in roles that cover product management, software design & development though to production deployment.</p> <p> </p> <p>Leon talks about the value in fostering an engineering mind-set. He also discusses the importance of following our passions and how working on things we’re interested in can help us to be far more productive.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>KEY TAKEAWAYS:</strong></p> <p><strong> </strong></p> <p><strong>TOP CAREER TIP</strong></p> <p>Developing an engineering mind-set is a keystone element in ensuring that you have a successful career as an IT leader. You must be immersed in the subject matter of what you are building.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>WORST CAREER MOMENT</strong></p> <p>A system was taken offline by hackers who demanded a ransom in order to release it back to the company Leon was working for. Rather than pay their demands, Leon was tasked with fixing the problem, retrieving the site and ensuring it could not happen again. However, this was not possible. The ransom was paid. But Leon learned about new ways in order to safeguard systems.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>CAREER HIGHLIGHT</strong></p> <p>Leon had an opportunity for a larger role in cloud security at Oracle, overseeing products that customers use to secure their environments. It was a time in which Leon was allowed to be more creative.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>THE FUTURE OF CAREERS IN I.T</strong></p> <p>Machine learning and data science has exploded recently, and this is incredibly exciting. There are many opportunities in the field, and many opportunities for self-development in the area.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>THE REVEAL</strong></p> <p><strong>What first attracted you to a career in I.T.?</strong> – Receiving the first computer as a child and learning coding at home.</p> <p><strong>What’s the best career advice you received?</strong> – If you work to work yourself out of a job, then