Noreen Fong
DIRECTV
El Segundo, CA USA
"If you don’t know what you want to do, start with what you know you like and then bridge out and try something else...Just keep following the passion of what makes you feel good."
Career Roadmap
Noreen's work combines: Technology, Engineering, and Problem Solving
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Day In The Life
Skills &
Education
Advice for getting started
Many people look at computer science as rigid, structured, and not at all creative. However, I've found computer science and software engineering to be a great field to flex your creativity. It allows a lot of room for collaboration with other software engineers, so you can see all the ways that different people come up with different creative ways to solve the same problem.
Here's the path I took:
High School
Bachelor's Degree
Computer Science
California State University, Long Beach
Graduate Degree
Computer Science
University of Southern California
Life & Career Milestones
My path in life has been direct
1.
I come from an engineering family—my mother, father, and grandfather were all engineers—so I didn’t think I would pursue that.
2.
I started college as a pre-business major and considered focusing on accounting, but my prerequisite math classes didn’t stimulate me as much as I hoped they would.
3.
An introductory programming class I took early on in college sparked my interest in computer science because of its problem-solving nature.
4.
I ended up getting both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in computer science.
5.
I started my career in aerospace because it merged both of my passions in computer science and space.
6.
One of my first professional programming positions involved writing software for satellites at Hughes Space and Communications Company.
7.
Moving through various positions, I found that everyone always competed for the programming role while I gravitated toward the coordination roles, which led to more professional recognition.
8.
I moved on to work for DIRECTV and worked my way up from staff engineer to vice president of software engineering—I helped build the set-top box engineering team from seven engineers to 650 employees!
Defining Moments
How I responded to discouragement
THE NOISE
Messages from Society in general:
Computer science is so structured and not creative.
How I responded:
Many people look at computer science as rigid, structured, and not at all creative. However, I've found computer science and software engineering to be a great field to flex your creativity. It allows a lot of room for collaboration with other software engineers, so you can see all the ways that different people come up with different creative ways to solve the same problem.
Experiences and challenges that shaped me
I started college as a pre-business major but was discouraged because I didn't feel a passion for it. I eventually switched my major to computer science because I loved the problem-solving nature of the subject.