I’ve been an engineer at heart since I was a little KID.
My favorite thing to do was to take apart my toys to see how they worked. If I had a toy with a light that came on or a part that moved, I had to know WHY, and — much to my parent’s dismay — I’d break the toy open to figure out what was causing it to do so.
For a while, my mom stopped buying me toys because I was always breaking them, and I had to explain to her that there was a method to my madness. She finally understood that I was learning and exploring, and thankfully, I had just as much fun putting my toys back together as I did breaking them apart!
I’m a first-generation American — my parents immigrated to the U.S. from Haiti — and I was the first person in my family to graduate from high school. Even though I graduated early, I didn’t have the grades (or the money) to make heading off to college my logical next step.
Lake Worth High School - Class of 2000
I found a way, tho…
Being that I was born in the 80s, I knew that I had a passion for technology. So I enrolled in a two-year technical school, and I started to understand how computers worked. Soon… I was hooked, and I began to gather as much experience as I could, as well as acquire a wide range of certifications. This opened the door to a career in engineering — I took it and never looked back.
Since then (…2002) I’ve worked as a Help Desk Technician to a System Administrator before being DRAFTED in 2013 as a Systems Engineer to a BigTech company known as Twitter. Not only did I work at Twitter for nine years, but I also helped solve some of the world's largest computing infrastructure challenges.
Eample: …writing and designing software/systems that saved Twitter 100s of millions in cost savings and more…
While there, I enjoyed roles as a Senior Engineer to becoming one of only a few Black engineers to achieve the title: Staff Engineer.
Yet, despite my success and how fortunate I feel to have found a lucrative and successful career in tech, it’s difficult to look around the industry and see so few people who look like me.
And that’s the thing… there's no reason WHY … cause
You Belong in Tech!
That’s why I’ve made the decision to step away from the keyboard 👨🏾💻 (…just for a while 😏😎 ) and directly impact my community. Through global travel, speaking engagements, and sharing my unique stories of engineering success, I aim to introduce a perspective the world has never seen before. As someone who looks like me, talks like me, and moves like me, I want to inspire others to believe that they too can achieve greatness in the field of engineering. If I can reach and inspire at least one person, it will all be worth it.
Back Story on BobbyD 📚
Thanks for sharing a little of your story Bobby! Looking forward to hearing more insights.