***Editor’s Note: The “I Became An Engineer” blog runs every Friday. To share your story email jennifer.delaosa@advantagemedia.com***

This week’s story comes to us from ECN reader Prayson Pate, CTO, Ensemble, ADVA Optical Networking.

Becoming an engineer was a very natural progression from my childhood interests; I loved any kind of toys that involved construction such as LEGOs, Erector, Tinkertoys, Kenner Bridge Building sets, and plastic models, especially planes, tanks, and cars. My dad was an engineer and math and science came very naturally to me too. On the other hand, I hated writing, public speaking, and sales.

Given my interests and strengths, engineering was a logical career choice but my preference was to work in the aviation or space industries. In many ways, I’m a very typical engineer but what’s more interesting is how I found myself doing (and even liking) things I had once hated.

I had no idea I would wind up studying electrical engineering and computer science and working in telecoms. Nor did I foresee that I would come to embrace my dislikes.

Firstly, I moved from being part of a team to leading one. Over time this led to my biggest achievement, which was co-founding Overture Networks. My Co-Founder Jeff Reedy and I grew Overture from a two-man shop into a leader in Carrier Ethernet and network functions virtualization (NFV) with customers worldwide and hundreds of employees.

The next area of change was to participate in the aforementioned activities I had detested: sales and networking. I came to understand that while not everyone works on commission, everyone is in sales. Being in a startup hammered home the importance of getting in front of customers, helping to close deals and to resolve the inevitable issues that arose. I also became very active in building my personal network.

Additionally, I found my career aspirations required me to develop my speaking and writing abilities. I wanted to move into a more outward-facing role, so I started training to build my skills and seeking public speaking opportunities at conferences and other events. At the same time, I started writing blogs and articles for our corporate website, LinkedIn, and magazines. I still don’t enjoy the process of writing but I find it very satisfying once I‘m done.

So I went from being the sort of introverted individual who is typically associated with science and math to a well-known speaker and writer in the virtualization space. It just goes to show that things don’t always turn out as you envision!

Read other stories, here:

• A Note From The Editor: An Engineer’s Story
• I Became An Engineer: Because Of A Small FM Radio
• I Became An Engineer: Because Of The Cool Jackets
• I Became An Engineer: Because My Dad Said Not To
• I Became An Engineer: Despite Being Bad At Math 
• I Became An Engineer: Because Of Uncle Chet 
• I Became An Engineer: Because I Can’t Stop Asking ‘Why?’
• I Became An Engineer: Because Of Star Trek (Specifically Montgomery Scott)
• I Became An Engineer: Because I Was A Really Lucky Nerd
• I Became An Engineer: But ‘Nobody Knows’ Why
• I Became An Engineer: Because Of Nuclear Submarines
• I Became An Engineer: Because No One Was Hiring Shoe Salesmen
• I Became An Engineer: Because Of Mr. Kenny, the TV/Radio Repair Man
• I Became An Engineer: Because Of A Book (And My Mom)
• I Became An Engineer: Because Of A Cattle Ranch
• I Became An Engineer: Because Of A Wise Father And The Possibility Of Death
• I Became An Engineer: Because Of An Evil Mastermind
• I Became An Engineer: To Get Off The Tractor
• I Became An Engineer: Because Of My Rodeo Coach