Nathaniel T (Interviewer): So, introduce yourself here today.

 

Elstan Bultonsheen: Hey, I'm Elstan Bultonsheen. I am now two years into industry, graduated in 2023 from North Carolina State University with a degree in computer science.

 

Nathaniel T: So what does your current job look like day-to-day? 

 

Elstan Bultonsheen: So day to day, there is basically, I show up, I run through, so my job works on a structure known as agile, it’s using the agile methodology in which we operate on these things called sprints. These sprints have basically, we just have to deliver whatever ingestion application we're doing within a two-week span, and to do that, there's like a setup plan that we have. So basically prior, at the start of every day I'm just reviewing my board to see what I have to do then at around 10 o'clock there's a stand-up that I have to attend, in which we provide our updates to the rest of our team and then the rest of the day is mostly just working on my individual tasks. If there’s a need for me to work with others, I'll also do that. It's just, yeah, proceeding in that progress of development.

 

Nathaniel T: So what stem, discipline, or disciplines do you think your job involves? 

 

Elstan Bultonsheen: So definitely heavy computer science with a lot of focus towards data engineering, my position also kind of touches mathematics, and some, I mean like barely any science. But I mean, there's a good chunk of mathematics in terms of optimization in the programming that we do, and so, like, trying to make things as efficient as we can. And in terms of like, lines of code run, because everything we do has a cost, and especially dealing with things that have such big, like, storage capacity in size and everything, every little line of code does matter.

 

Nathaniel T: So what do you think you enjoy most about your work? 

 

Elstan Bultonsheen: Honestly, it's the camaraderie that I have with my team. I think it's just been so good to be plugged into a group that like operates as well as we do and has fun doing the things that we do even though we have like insanely tight deadlines at times, we still find time to like just enjoy each other's company and go out for lunch or just talk and that's really great. 

 

Nathaniel T: So, to get to your career profession right now, what did it look like after college in high school to get to where you are today? 

 

Elstan Bultonsheen: So what did it look like, honestly, so when I was in, all throughout high school, I just took maybe two or three computer science classes that intrigued me, and I was attending a couple other computer science-related extracurricular groups. But throughout university, I didn't work any professional, I mean any industry-related jobs. I actually worked part-time at like a grocery store for the majority of my high school and into college. So I didn't have any internship experiences. I did around, I think it was junior year of college, I started applying to a bunch of different universities, I mean, not universities, a bunch of different careers. And there were a lot of different options that I had, and I attended as many career fairs as I could, and then I was able to land this one, but yeah.

 

Nathaniel T: All right, so you said you had done some computer science classes back in high school, but what did you wanna do back then in terms of like career aspirations?

 

Elstan Bultonsheen: What would I have wanted to do? Let me think, in high school, so the few courses that I did take were very entry-level, and I guess what I ideally would've wished to have been a part of more. So I, honestly, in high school, did not know what I wanted to do. I explored a lot of different courses, but thinking back, I would've enjoyed participating in more programming related extracurriculars, so the ones that I did in fact go into were more focused on STEM and like robotics and specific, but there wasn't as much programming intensive like boot camps or anything that I attended, and I think those would've actually helped a lot in terms of just gaining more of that knowledge and then just like exposing myself to more I guess avenues for computer sciences, which were more available than at the start as opposed to now.

 

Nathaniel T: So, over time, in terms of career aspirations, what's made you more interested in computer science, or what's inspired you to do what you do?

 

Elstan Bultonsheen: It's a good question. So I think it's just the fact that within data engineering, everything's just increasingly, I mean, it's like a growing field. And I think in data engineering, what has continued to keep me interested is just the fact that there's always new software and there's always new tools that we're getting plugged into to use and ways to optimize things. And, like, the introduction of AI, which has actually been really cool, I could go on later about it a little bit, kind of changes the game in terms of programming. And it's been really cool just to learn some of it, but then also participating in these industry-like, work environments basically. It's very different as opposed to what you learn in school and university to transitioning into industry and like aligning with these tight deadlines, being able to deliver, just overcome multiple obstacles that you face along the way, but just like, it's always fun for me to program like this and to be a part of these tight deadline little projects that we're in. And it has been really cool just to like continue to work in those and then also see avenues to like make the processes that we're doing right now a lot faster than what they are, and in turn, save a lot of cost. Which I think is really cool to see. 

 

Nathaniel T: So you were talking about those computer science classes and programs. Did you do any other STEM-related extracurricular activities or classes, or was it just a focus on comp-sci at that point? 

 

Elstan Bultonsheen: So I, during high school, I did have a couple others that were outside of programming. I was a part of a robotics group that basically built these little, I mean, they weren’t that little, they were pretty big actually. They were like robots that could participate in mini games, so basically our team was given like a gameplay design for what we needed our robot to be able to accomplish, and so we basically had I think it was a year to just come up with a robot that would be able to be driven by somebody and operate and perform according to the games guidelines as best as it could. Much of that was actually not programming. It was more hardware, and like, a lot of time in the workshop, honestly, but yeah, it was a lot of fun. 

 

Nathaniel T: So, if you could go back to high school, do you think you would've done anything differently to prepare for what you do right now? 

 

Elstan Bultonsheen: To better prepare for what I do now. Honestly, when I was in high school, there were maybe a couple more things that would've been more available to me. But, if I would've participated in things like hack-athons or just boot camps for programming for different programming languages or just like, gone to other, I think they were even like university opportunities that I could've engaged with to just like take those university classes geared towards computer science while I was in like, the ladder half of high school, I think if I would've done that it would've helped me better progress through where I'm at right now.

 

Nathaniel T: So, back in college, you said you went to North Carolina State, I believe?

 

Elstan Bultonsheen: Yep.

 

Nathaniel T: All right, so what major did you pick? And you were talking about your inspirations for comp-sci, was that one of the reasons for what you chose? 

 

Elstan Bultonsheen: Yes, so when I first came into North Carolina State University, I chose a degree in computer science and I was following a lot of the track that I was taking, but then towards my junior year I actually grew more into and interested in cyber security, so I actually focused my degree towards computer, I mean towards cyber security. But that desire to go towards computer science was always there, and I think it was heavily impacted because of like the classes that I took when I was in high school that like, helped me see that I can, you know, I can actually do this stuff like and it's, I mean, it's pretty fun. It's challenging all the time, and it keeps you always interested, so yeah, that definitely helped guide me into that, into when I went into university, but yeah. 

 

Nathaniel T: So you kind of already started talking about this, but what do you think are a couple of things that a high school student could do right now to explore your profession, or maybe just any STEM discipline?

 

Elstan Bultonsheen: Right now, I think actually it's very, available more for the youth because the introduction of AI has shown up now. And I think now if I were in high school, I would definitely plug into, I mean using the AI for programming and then also this concept called vibe coding, which I just recently got into, where you use like programs such as like cursor or ChatGPT to help assist you while you're actually programming to like, produce. Like, you can produce an app like insanely quick without that much work, just through AI assistance, and just being, just having that available helps you program. I mean, it does make it a lot easier, but also like looking into what the AI is actually doing and how the prompting works. If that was available for me in high school, I probably would have tried that a lot earlier. 

 

Nathaniel T: So, like moving on from high school, what do you think are some [pieces of] advice that you’d give for people that have maybe already started entering the workforce or in college right now? What do you think are some things that they could do to kind of advance themselves and get even closer to what you do right now? 

 

Elstan Bultonsheen: If I were transitioning from high school straight into some form of industry, I think opportunities to gain like certifications throughout university would've been kind of useful, and then there's also like workshops that are available for a lot of different like companies and their products. And just going to those, or just actually hack-a-thons are big, and you can't, they aren’t as easy to get into post university, so if you have the opportunity, I would definitely say do it while you're in university, because also like you're surrounded by a bunch of other people who are also like minded there. And then you get the opportunity to like challenge yourself in those different scenarios, so I would definitely take those.

 

Nathaniel T: So to wrap it up, what do you think is something that you wish somebody had told you when you were in high school to help yourself right now? Whether that be academically or professionally, just to prepare.

 

Elstan Bultonsheen: What I wish someone had told me, I feel like if someone would've told me throughout my time in high school and throughout university, if I would just like soak in as much information as I could. In terms of like the broadness of computer science, and really like seek to take as many classes as I could just to like gain the knowledge, because once you transition out of high school and university, all that individual growth will happen on your own. And I mean it's way easier to get that started while you're in high school or university, just because of the wealth of knowledge that is around you. So just to engage in more of that while I was in university and not like, I mean it's good to like classes that are for fun, but definitely also like just, not like saying you're cut out for one little division within computer science, but opening it up to just all the ones that are available and really taking those in would've been something, yeah, definitely would've told myself back then. 

 

Nathaniel T: That's all that I have for today. Thanks for your time. 

 

Elstan Bultonsheen: All right, for sure, thanks Nathaniel.