What do the career path and the day-in-the-life look like for a Senior Cloud Engineer at Vestmark?
We connected with Carter Sheehan to find out!
Interested in learning more about Vestmark and their job openings? Make sure to check out their company page on VentureFizz!
Where did you grow up? What did your parents do for work?
I was born in South Boston, MA where I lived until I was 12 years old. We later moved north to Salem, MA where I still live today with my girlfriend. I grew up an only child, though I had some cousins that were around all the time, they were basically my siblings.
My parents, who are also MA natives, work in different industries than I do. They are the hardest working people I know. My mother currently works in the service industry providing day-to-day care for adults and elderly people, which she has done for the last 3-5 years. Prior to this, my mother worked 15+ years as a cashier for several convenient stores. My father is a shop foreman for a countertop outlet, which he has done for 10+ years; Prior to this, my father worked several jobs including a salesman and a pizza maker.
Where did you go to college? What did you study and what were some of your initial jobs out of school?
My career actually began in High School, since I attended North Shore Technical High School in Middleton, MA, a school that combined academics with technical studies. I originally enrolled with the intention of going into Culinary Arts but quickly switched to the technology field after taking part in the exploratory program. Over 3 years in the program, I was able to learn a TON from the instructors. It was in this program that I studied and achieved the CompTIA A+ and Network+ certifications before graduating. I got my first job while in High School working as a Customer Service Agent for Best Buy and was quickly moved to Geek Squad where I worked my way up to a Repair Agent, fixing people’s computers daily. On the side, I was a Web Master for my High School's website.
After High School, I enrolled at Wentworth Institute of Technology (WIT) in Boston, MA as a Computer Networking Major (Computer Science Minor). . I continued to work at Geek Squad to pay out-of-pocket expenses during college. At WIT, there are mandatory co-op semesters and it was at this point I found an opportunity with Vestmark as a Systems Engineer Co-Op. This new role lit a fire under me. It was a tremendous opportunity to learn and apply what I had learned in school to real-world problems. I could not have been happier and completed both of my co-op semesters at Vestmark. While finishing school, I stayed on part-time to continue my career growth and graduated in August 2018.
Apparently, I had left a good impression at the company and was offered a full-time position before I had graduated. I accepted and haven't looked back since.
What has attributed to your success thus far and has helped propel you to the position you have now?
I attribute my success to the work-ethic that was ingrained in me by my parents; being tenacious about everything, big or small. Look at every day as an opportunity to learn and do good things. Remain hungry; seek new opportunity and take on challenging things.
I took every piece of advice someone gave me to heart and acted on it. I was able to grow very quickly, moving from Associate Systems Engineer to Systems Engineer to Cloud Engineer and now Senior Cloud Engineer in a matter of a few years.
Can you share the high-level responsibilities of your current position as a Sr. Customer Engineer at Vestmark?
My current responsibilities are focused, but my reach is wide because I have had to wear a lot of hats over the years that I am still occasionally relied on for by other teams. Some of my responsibilities are:
- AWS Architecture design
- Automation (IAC – Terraform, Jenkins, Bash/PowerShell)
- Release management (for IAC)
- Supporting deployments
Any tips for someone considering a career in your field?
A lot of people will say you need to go to college and your first job should be on an IT help desk; I disagree. There are so many great instructors with courses available online, both free and paid. Having gone through a traditional school system to start my career, I can confidently say that what I learned can easily be found on Youtube for free and again there are many MUCH less expensive self-paced courses online through Pluralsight, AcloudGuru, LinkedIn, Udemy, etc. that are in many cases better than the courses at a college or university.
Definitely gain a solid understanding of Computer Networking; The network is the foundation of everything.
Day in the Life
Coffee, tea, or nothing?
Water or tea, no coffee, occasionally juice or soda
What time do you start working?
Usually at 9 AM, sometimes before
What are three things that motivate you in your role?
- My parents will forever be the only motivation I need, they are such hard-working people
- The opportunity to learn something new every day
- The opportunity to do what I love
Every day is different, but can you outline what a typical day looks like for you?
A typical day for me looks like this: Wake up, prepare for my day, get online, meet with people, solve problems. Of course, there is eating and sleeping in there too. :)
Many days I am meeting with my team and other teams to collaborate on all things Cloud. Often times our meetings are centered around our Cloud infrastructure (AWS), related automation, security, cost, design, migrations, and much more! Since Vestmark recently launched Vast, the last few months has included a lot of collaboration between the Software Engineers and our team to design modern architecture in AWS!
What time do you typically wrap up the work day?
I try to end my day as close to 5/5:30 PM as possible. I value work-life balance greatly for my mental and physical health.
Do you log back in at night or do you shut it down completely?
I will log back in at night occasionally but only for things that are really interesting to me; Typically, these are things I want to work on and not things I do normally day-to-day. Most days I shut down completely.
When I am offline, I like to watch movies, play video games, and play with my cat!
I was able to take a trip to Estes Park, Colorado with my girlfriend recently and we both had a great time! I was able to completely disconnect from work and I came back fully rested and ready to tackle new challenges. Definitely take time off to unwind, you will come back rested and enjoy your work more!
Any productivity hacks?
Keep notes, don't hold everything in your head. During Covid, I started a bad habit of not taking notes as often as I used to and, as a result, I was using a lot more mental capacity than needed to not forget things. I eventually broke that habit and take notes all the time again.
I listen to music all the time but If you're like me, songs can get stuck in your head. So, listen to white noise or classical music instead of other genres.
What are the 3 apps that you can’t live without?
- Desktop Apps: Web Browser, Slack, IDE
- Phone Apps: News, Weather, Music/Books
What professional accomplishment are you proudest of?
I have had many accomplishments but I am most proud of my current position as Senior Cloud Engineer. It took several years of studying, learning, and collaboration to reach this point and I am very happy to be here. Thank you to everyone who mentored and supported me through the years!
Who do you admire or call upon for professional advice?
I wouldn't say I have a single person I go to for advice, but I have had several mentors over the years who have had a huge impact on my career.
Some noteworthy people include my High School IT Instructors, College professors, Professional Career Managers and Mentors and several peers
