#013 – Senior Oracle Mechanical Engineer – Leo Gonzalez
Leo Gonzalez is a mechanical engineering alumni of San Francisco State University with 25 years of experience. He has worked at some of the biggest companies in the world like Xerox, Sun microsystems, and now Oracle. His specialties include Product Development, Manufacturing, Technical Program Management and Operations Engineering. In his free time, Leo encourages the youth to follow their passions into the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Medicine) fields.
Leo shares with us:
- why he studied mechanical engineering.
- his career path within many varied sectors.
- advice for recent graduates.
- insights into the evolution of Silicon Valley.
- and much more…
Reach out to Leo Gonzalez via LinkedIn.
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Discussion timestamps:
03:47 Intro
04:42 Why Leo pursued the engineering path.
07:15 How he was inspired and encouraged by a mentor to pursue drafting.
08:42 Leo’s first job as a mechanical engineer at Xerox.
10:12 Working with the earliest 3D Computer Assisted Drawing computers.
11:06 Leo talks about the numerous jobs he has had over the years and the flexibility of the mechanical engineering degree.
12:30 What Leo does as a hardware engineer at Oracle and why Oracle acquired Sun microsystems.
14:23 Talk about working in a state of the art factory in the early 2000’s.
16:13 Leo gives us a sense of the how many teams are involved in a project.
18:09 The importance of soft skills.
18:32 Leo talks about his presentation to engineering students in Baja Mexico.
22:34 Advice on how to find your passion.
23:46 What some recent engineering grads are missing when entering the work force.
26:31 Why you need to understand the manufacturing process.
26:31 Being active in the community, promoting science and technology to the youth.
29:43 Future technologies that excite Leo.
30:59 The best career advice Leo has ever received.
Episode related content:
The 50 Year History of Computer Aided Design:
A brief history of the Internet:
Larry Ellison of Oracle presents Cloud Services at 2014 Keynote:
The Oracle Corporation on Forbes.
Learn how to code on CodeAcade.com.
Image credit to Robert on Flickr.
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