National Engineers Week 2020: Thank you to our Global Technology Solutions team!

Q: Please describe the work you do. 

A: I support a Control Room Application for our RPA team and monitor the activities of the application. I also assist the production team in tracking down expiring certificates for many of our front-facing applications.

Q: Can you share your Verizon career journey? 

A: Years back, I applied for a position at Verizon but didn’t get the job because my skills were not where they needed to be. I decided to join the military to serve the country and get an opportunity to further my education. While I was in the Army, I completed an MBA with IT specialization and Project Management Certification. In 2018, I finished my career in the Army and started a job as an office manager with a company here in Dallas. Twelve months after leaving the military, I received an email from the Veterans Affairs coordinator for an opportunity to learn how to code (Javascript) with a full scholarship and an opportunity to possibly become employed by Verizon. Without hesitation, I quickly jumped on the opportunity knowing that this is what I had been dreaming about for so many years. I completed Full-Stack Javascript Developer boot camp and was offered a job at Verizon as a MTS 1- System Engineer. I can boldly say to anyone, Verizon is one of the best companies to work for in the world. Verizon puts its customers first and also makes the work environment conducive for their employees to do their jobs.

Q: What technology are you most excited about? Why? 

A: 5G provides greater speed and lower latency in transmission with its ability to connect more devices.

Q: What inspires you every day, personally or professionally?

A: The ability of Verizon to always deliver the next best thing in technology inspires me a great deal. Every day, I strive to be the best I can be so I can be a valuable asset to the team.

Q: Can you describe the work you do?

A: As a data center engineer, my day-to-day role includes installation, configuration, troubleshooting, and general maintenance of the hardware that makes this company work.  Outages play a huge part in engineering, and as challenging as some may be, it makes the correction and resolutions of these issues that much more rewarding to work on. This gives me the opportunity to dive headfirst into the devices that build our internal network, and the systems that govern them.

Q: Please share your Verizon career journey.

A: My career with Verizon Media began as a contract security guard for Yahoo! I was tasked with the physical security of the campus through patrols, monitoring cameras and directing traffic. Five years later, I am a data center engineer, tasked with the physical infrastructure of corporate and data centers globally.  My growth is a direct result of my years of networking, and my desire to learn the ins and outs of what makes this company function. Given the amount of growth in such a short time, I have been fortunate enough to experience tech at one of the highest levels in the world.

Q: What excites you about Verizon? 

A: After witnessing the mountain of knowledge required to become successful in this role, I have never been more excited.  I realize that I am far from realizing my true potential and have a lot to learn about this level of engineering. My hopes for the future are to move into software engineering, where I can learn to write my own scripts that have excited thus far. Verizon has continuously been a launchpad for my career, and this is where I want to continue to thrive. When I learn everything I can in this role is my idea of success, which then I hope to move on to the next challenge this company can offer. As I see it, we are never truly challenged until we realize how much we don’t know.

Q: Can you describe the work you do? 

A: I previously held positions as a network engineer and software developer. Currently, I leverage IT to accelerate large and strategic customer deals with the goal of improving the customer and employee experience, driving revenue growth and reducing costs. I step beyond regular IT software development to work closely with customer-facing account teams to fully understand and efficiently deliver their needs by building proactive and agile solutions.

Q: What technology are you most excited about? Why?

A: 5G because it will bring digitization of our daily life to new levels. Software Defined Networking (SDN) because it brings intelligence and agility to our already excellent network products. And Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning (AI/ML) because these can automate repetitive tasks and allow focus on innovative and creative work.

Q: What inspires you every day, personally or professionally?

A: Brilliant minds who disrupt established industries to drive innovation, evolution and digitization – this includes our very own Hans Vestberg strongly driving Verizon 2.0.

Q: Please describe the work you do.

A: I build data-driven solutions for different teams across Verizon along with my team. We build data science models for different problems and use cases to help our business in whatever way we can!

Q: What technology are you most excited about? Why? 

A: I’m most excited about 5G! Not only is it one of our main new technologies — the possibilities of 5G are truly endless. Two specific possibilities that I’m really excited about are remote surgery and self-driving cars.

Q: What inspires you every day, personally or professionally?

A: I love the work that I do! Not everyone is lucky enough to have a job that they love at such a great company. Honestly, I’m thankful for all the opportunities and mentorship I’ve received so far, and I really want to learn as much as I can and do as well as I possibly can and be able to give back as well.

Q: Please describe the work you do.

A: Robotic Process Automation (RPA) - we build BOTs to automate repetitive processes and free up the people to do more critical thinking than repetition of tasks well-suited to a BOT.

Q: What technology are you most excited about? Why? 

RPA and the eventual convergence with it of AI/ML (Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning). This holds great promise for BOTs, which presently are scripted recording/configuration and playback to learn as they go.

Q: What inspires you every day, personally or professionally? 

My religion (Christianity) and my family, especially my children and grandchildren, inspire me. My colleagues also help me get smarter by just being nearby to collaborate with them.

Q: Please describe the work you do.

A: Product enablement and lifecycle management for different market segments such as large enterprise, medium business, public sector and wholesale.

Q: What technology are you most excited about? Why?

A: I have been in a technology profession for over 20 years. It is my passion and I am constantly learning about new technology. My current favorites are 5G, MEC (Multi Edge Compute) and IOT (Internet of Things). I am excited about it because a combination of these three unleashes a whole new set of opportunities for Verizon. 5G provides super-low latency and with computing at the edge, we will be able to realize machine communication at scale in areas of virtual/augmented reality, intelligent video, smart communities, manufacturing automation, gaming and mass IoT. The possibilities are endless and I am proud to be a part of this Fourth Industrial Revolution.

Q: What inspires you every day, personally or professionally? 

A: My family inspires me, they make me want to be a better human every single day. Professionally, my work gives me purpose and direction. Because I am passionate about technology, I promote STEM early on in the formative school years to promote more diversity in engineering, especially getting more women engineers in the workplace.

Q: Please describe the work you do.

A: Project management and reporting on application security and global clearance initiatives.

Q: Can you share your Verizon career journey? 

A: I came to New York Telephone 36 years ago in the Switch & Network Engineering Department responsible for the design and implementation of electronic and digital switching systems across the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens. During my time here and at legacy Verizon companies, I’ve held numerous roles, each one allowing me to use my technical acuity and skills in areas other than traditional engineering.

Q: What inspires you every day, personally or professionally?

The people I work with every day, especially the newer additions to the team. It's very rewarding to try and coach them as they make their decisions about their careers. I constantly think about my two sons, who are embarking on their own careers as engineers and how I’d hope someone would coach and guide them. I try and provide them with the same type of support and feedback I’d like to see them receive.

Q: Please describe the work you do.

A: In my current role, I lead the development efforts for the My Verizon app. With the help of my highly qualified team, our goal is to improve customer experience and increase app engagement by constantly developing new features and converting ideas that customers can benefit from. I joined Verizon in 2013 and have been part of my current team since 2015. During this time, I have been part of many projects. However, I particularly enjoyed building the shopping experience on the app, developing the prepaid version of My Verizon Mobile and building an end-to-end experience for 5G Home customers on the app. This experience has pushed me outside of my comfort zone and helped me grow.

Q: What technology are you most excited about? Why? 

A: Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. I like the little things that help us in our day-to-day tasks such as predicting the tone of the email and coming up with possible responses, guessing what a user is going to type, correcting human errors in spelling. This includes Siri as a personal assistant, Maps to help us get to a destination fast, Nest that learns and manages temperatures. I’m also interested in technology and medicine, where AI will assist doctors to diagnose patients and their health risks.

Q: What inspires you every day, personally or professionally?

A: Problem solving! My inspiration comes from solving big or small, meaningful and challenging problems with people I respect, admire and who are equally interested. Challenges keep me thinking, engaged and energized. My role also helps me grow as a person and I thrive on getting better each and every day, making it better one day at a time.

Q: Can you share your Verizon career journey? 

A: Before coming to Verizon, I worked for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in the DC area. I was looking for new opportunities in the NJ area. I joined Verizon in 2010 starting out as MTS. The first project I worked on was the Visual VoiceMail application for Android, Blackberry and Windows Mobile phones.

Q: What technology are you most excited about? Why? 

A: Affordable self-driving cars. I do a lot of long distance driving along the east coast visiting family, and it would make my commute so much easier. Also, the more people using them the safer our roads will get.

Q: What inspires you every day, personally or professionally?

A: My 17-month-old daughter Zoey. I love how curious and adventurous she can be.

Q: Please describe the work you do.

A: I work in the Verizon Business Group and my team is responsible for multiple systems which serves the business needs of our global enterprise, professional services and wholesale customers.

Q: Can you share your Verizon career journey?

A: I started with Verizon in 2016, bringing with me several years of technology development and management experience. What attracted me to the company is its business, diverse workforce, global scale and the excellent benefits it offers to its employees. It is great to work for a company that truly affects the life of its customers on a day to day basis.

Q: What technology are you most excited about? Why?

A: I am excited about the developments in big data, analytics and artificial intelligence and the opportunities they offer, not just in terms of business value, but the difference they can make to humanity if used for the greater good.

Q: What inspires you every day, personally or professionally?

A: What inspires me is having the opportunity to make a difference, for my family, company and the community at large. I am very fortunate to work with so many talented and hardworking colleagues, on a day to day basis.

Q: Please describe the work you do.

A: I am the lead software developer of the MyVerizon App Sales team. Besides drinking lots of coffee, my work involves delivering the best and safest shopping experience an app can offer a customer. As a graphic artist, photographer, web and app developer I have developed a keen eye for details which I use to analyze different aspects of the user experience to improve it based on metrics and increase revenue for the company.

Q: What technology are you most excited about? Why? 

A: I am really excited about self-driving vehicles. Although it has been around for years, somehow it feels surreal that they exist. With this technology mixed with machine learning and 5G, there is no way to measure the possibilities.

Q: What inspires you every day, personally or professionally?  

A: The fact that millions of customers get to see my work and use it every day is, alone, very rewarding. But probably one of my main inspirations, is the team and mentors I get to work with every day. Personally, music, art, family and friends, including my dog Molly, motivate me.

Q: Please describe the work you do.

A: I work on a team that develops processes and tools to help and improve applications user onboarding, participate in architecture planning and updates of cloud-based API platforms. Our team builds automation, troubleshoots the application and handles any software issues.

Q: Can you share your Verizon career journey? 

A: I won a Grace Hopper scholarship and I was able to present my research in the conference. As part of the application process, I had to upload my resume. Verizon reached out to the Grace Hopper organizer who then reached out to me. After some phone and in-person interviews, I received a call that I had gotten the job.

Q: What technology are you most excited about? Why?

A: I would say I am most excited about the possibilities of blockchain technology. This semester, I am taking a cybersecurity class where we are learning how this technology is changing the nature of business like with bitcoin. I am really excited to learn more about how it works.

Q: Please describe the work you do.

A: I’m responsible for leading the Verizon Kubernetes team and dedicated to making it a world-class team that embraces resilient architecture. Kubernetes is an open-source container-orchestration system for automating application deployment, scaling, and management.

Q: What technology are you most excited about? Why? 

A: Kubernetes and Machine Learning. K8s is also a powerful open-source container orchestration and high availability platform for app modernization and ML is definitely going to be used in the cloud adoption for identifying patterns and predicting future trends.

Q: What inspires you every day, personally or professionally?

A: I feel inspired by other people’s success stories. Knowing others have failed and then have gone on to succeed keeps me motivated.