Calin Lupa
Customer Engineer, Google Cloud
I was born/grew up in: Zalau, Salaj, Romania
I now live in: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
I completed my training/education at: University of Bucharest, Faculty of Physics
Describe what you do at work.
A typical day at work starts with breakfast :) Yes, Google, as does many other technology companies, provides breakfast (and lunch) for employees.
Breakfast not only energizes you for starting the day but is also a chance to talk with your colleagues, meet new people, socialize, and make friends at work.
After breakfast I usually go through all my emails and prioritize the work for the day.
The work usually consists of:
- Cutomer meetings - I meet with engineers, programmers, managers and executives from companies we work with. My goal is to help them understand and embrace the latest technologies in Cloud Computing. These technologies will help our customers be more productive, profitable, and creative.
- Learning and research - Cloud Computing technologies evolve very fast. To stay on top of the game you have to constantly learn and research. A background in science and math definitely helps to quickly grasp the interesting ideas and innovations that we at Google are continuously sharing with our customers and the world.
- Contributing to internal and/or external (open source) projects - Google is committed to create an environment where employees can be creative and can express their true selves in a safe, friendly working environment.
- Prepare and conduct demos - This includes proof of concept and presentations for customers.
When I was a student I enjoyed:
How does your job affect peoples lives?
By helping customers adopt cloud technologies I help them they create new applications that makes their work easier, helps attract and retain more customers, and makes their companies more profitable. At the same time many of the technologies created by Google are used to help protect the environment, save energy, create more inclusive and equitable working environments, and bring information and internet access to people who otherwise will not have access to information. Ultimately I hope my work and my company are making the world a better place.
What motivates you in your career?
I am motivated when I am either creating or helping others create new things never seen before. These are based on the new technologies and evolutions in computing such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML).
It excites me to be able to combine all these new technologies to create “wow” apps and systems that enchant and help people. It’s like putting Lego blocks together to build something.
When I was a student, I would have described myself as someone who:
Describe your career path to this career.
Learning, working, learning, dreaming, learning and again working towards my goals and dreams.
Although I was passionate about physics in high school and university, as soon as I got my hands on a computer I knew that I will follow a career path in Information Technology (IT), to create programs and systems.
What activities do you like to do outside of work?
Outside of work I practice Aikido and Iaido, two Japanese martial arts. I enjoy activities that discipline your body, mind and spirit.
Aikido is a martial art that resolve conflicts not by going heads-on towards your opponent, but rather blending with the incoming attack and using the opponent's energy to overcome him.
Iaido is an ancient art of sword, where one tries to unify and harmonize its intent, body movement and the sword as a point of focused energy. Every form in Iaido resembles a life and death situation in which one must prevail through concentration and detachment from the end result.
What advice or encouragement would you give others seeking a similar career?
Follow your dreams and you passion. Read a lot, play, experiment, don’t be afraid of failures, they are stepping stones in you journey through life.