Blair Gosselin
Customer Engineer, Google
I was born/grew up in: North Bay, Ontario, Canada
I now live in: Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
I completed my training/education at: Electrical & Computer Engineering at McMaster University. I also completed a minor in Business.
Describe what you do at work.
I spend some of my time learning about and keeping up with new technologies that are available for creating software and organizing data. A lot of my time is spent meeting with current and potential clients. I talk with these people to learn about their needs. I help them understand how they can use the new technologies to improve some aspect of their business or organization.
When I was a student I enjoyed:
How does your job affect peoples lives?
People use Google's technology to organize the world's information. My hope is that by doing so they will solve problems and help others so that we will make the world a better place. There are so many ways to do this, including: curing diseases, providing access to education and connecting people around the world.
What motivates you in your career?
I love to connect the unconnected. I love to see how technology can simplify the world. I love working with customers to find solutions for their problems and see the solution come to life.
When I was a student, I would have described myself as someone who:
Describe your career path to this career.
I was always interest in technology but also in business. I really didn’t know what to study or what type of job I wanted, so I took both. I completed a 5 year undergrad which combines a full engineering degree with the first year of an MBA program. It wasn’t until my last year of school that I found my dream career - sales engineering. As a sales engineer I can be very hands-on and technical at certain times. But I get work as part of a corporate sales team and meet with customers on a regular basis to solve their problems. Education was key. I needed to challenge myself and grow. There are many great ways to get educated now, not just university. In Canada we have many excellent colleges and there are also many online training websites (Coursera, Pluralsight, Linux Academy).
What activities do you like to do outside of work?
I volunteer with Out of the Cold Toronto (making sure everyone has a hot meal on a cold winter night). I really like running, skiing and sailing in Lake Ontario.
What advice or encouragement would you give others seeking a similar career?
Start Now! Learn what you can. Public Libraries are a great place to begin.