What do the career path and day-in-the-life look like for a Data Engineer at PatientPing?
We connected with Heidi Schmidt to find out!
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Where did you grow up? What did your parents do for work?
I was born in Columbus Ohio and most of my childhood was spent in Columbus and Dayton Ohio. My Mom worked in the Hotel Industry then in Hospice care.
My Dad worked as a Mechanical Engineer for Kroger Bakery for most of his career.
Where did you go to college? What did you study and what were some of your initial jobs out of school?
I went to college at Ohio State University and took 4 classes my 1st semester. One of them was architectural history and from that I wanted to study Architecture.
I had 3 jobs in college. One working informally for the Architecture Computer lab, The Smith Physics lab, and the MAGNUS computer group.
Outside of school I was a paper delivery person from 10 years of age to my summer before college.
I volunteered at the Center Of Science and Industry (COSI) all through high school.
I worked remodelling houses and doing jobs for my Dad and step mom as well.
What has attributed to your success thus far and has helped propel you to the position you have now?
A willingness to be an uncarved block. A desire to learn new things and make the world a better place.
Any tips for someone considering a career in Engineering?
Technology has changed so much so that we have tons of options. So many that it’s hard to reduce the noise to signal. My advice would be to get out and meet as many different people and see how you can help.
Day in the Life
Coffee, tea, or nothing?
Tea in a large oversized mug
What time do you get into the office?
Typically 9AM -- though the MBTA can make it a challenge
What are three things that motivate you in your role?
The desire to make the world a bit better than I found it. Solving a puzzle. Collaboration.
What time do you head out of the office?
I head out of the office around 4:30 p.m. because the MBTA is so variable. I end up checking things outside of the office and also do work when needed off hours.
Do you log back in at night or do you shut it down completely?
Depends on what is needed. I check my phone on the train as I try to stay focused during the day. Most of the time I shut down being available from about 9PM to the next day. I check in the a.m. before I get into the office to be prepared for anything that may have occurred (mostly on the train)
Any productivity hacks?
TextExpander rocks my world. It saves my brain a bunch of typing and can run quick shortcuts and commands that I use frequently.
What are the 3 apps that you can’t live without?
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Headspace
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DataCamp
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Sudoku
What professional accomplishment are you proudest of?
At Gillette I reached out to the factory floor team to ask what their pain points were with their databases I supported. Their Boston database was not keeping up with reporting. After sorting out scope, the vendor, the types of needs for the software and the database options I was able to template the solution for 3 of the 5 factories, increase the speed, space, type, and throughput of the bare metal hardware, upgrade and tune the Oracle Database for one particular use case pattern, and provide them their reports in 8-10 minute that had been left to run for weeks on a dedicated work station on the factory floor. Through my work the executive team was able to fix the original contract, obtain updated software, and get the deliverables promised by the vendor years ago when the system was first implemented.
