From El Salvador Electical Engineering to Gaming QA Lead with Carlos Matal | Ep013

Episode Information Show Notes In this engaging episode of Career Downloads, host Manuel Martinez sits down with Carlos Matal, a seasoned QA Lead who shares his inspiring journey from El Salvador to becoming a key player in Las Vegas’s tech scene. Episode Highlights: Carlos’s unique path from electrical engineering in El Salvador to software QA in the US Overcoming language barriers and cultural differences in the American tech industry The art of job hunting and standing out in a competitive market Transitioning from manual testing to automation and becoming a QA Lead Balancing career growth with family responsibilities The importance of soft skills and adaptability in tech careers Insights into the world of Quality Assurance and its role in software development Tips for breaking into the tech industry without prior experience Key Takeaways: Persistence pays off: Carlos’s story of repeatedly applying and improving his skills is a testament to the power of determination. Continuous learning is crucial: From learning English to mastering new technologies, Carlos emphasizes the importance of always expanding your skillset. Cultural intelligence matters: Carlos shares valuable insights on navigating cultural differences in corporate America. QA is more than just testing: Discover the difference between being a tester and a quality assurance engineer. Work-life balance in tech: Learn how Carlos manages his career while prioritizing family. Whether you’re a tech enthusiast looking to break into the industry or a seasoned professional seeking inspiration, Carlos’s journey offers valuable lessons and insights for anyone looking to advance their career in technology. Tune in to this episode of Career Downloads for an honest, engaging, and informative conversation about the realities of building a successful tech career from the ground up. Transcription Manuel: Hi everyone, my name is Manuel Martinez and this is another episode of Career Downloads where each episode I basically hit the refresh button, bring on a different guest to really learn more about their background, their job history and really try to uncover any techniques or tips that they’ve picked up along the way as far as how they’ve managed their career. So with me today I have Carlos Matal. So welcome Carlos. Carlos: Thank you. Manuel: And, if you can just real quick just tell me where you’re at now, like you know you can tell me your employer not tell me, but basically tell me what is your current role and just a quick summary we’ll get to it eventually but just so that people can now understand where you are currently at, give me your role and what you do there. Carlos: So right now I’m working with the small gaming company, casino gaming company, since we’re in Las Vegas right, it’s the technology that you know like the industry that is kind of like the biggest industry in town. I work for this company and it’s my role is QA lead. I’ve been doing QA for a long time, it’s software QA because we also do manufacturing but it’s you know my role is more like it’s software versus hardware because we also have hardware guys but it’s separate. So I do software automation and I’m a lead but the company is pretty small, we don’t have more than I would say less than 10 engineers. So I only lead one person and a couple of interns in a couple of projects, not really I’m not really like a manager or a supervisor, I just kind of like decide what we’re doing when it comes to testing. Manuel: Got it, okay and what I’ve been doing all with all my guests now, so now we kind of know where you’re at now, we’re going to go back and if you just can give me a, again share as much or as little as you want but just give me a summary of kind of where you kind of grew up and then what eventually got you interested into technology. Carlos: So I’m from El Salvador, I was born and raised over there and I was studying electrical engineering over there in the national university, so that’s what got me, well actually my high school was like an electric, I forgot how it was called something like electrotechnia, something like this is like electrical and electronics at the same time and it was a three year high school so that’s what got me into technical stuff let’s say. So after that I like whatever things I learn about electricity and then I decided to study electrical engineering and in electrical engineering they introduced everything related to computers so that’s how I got into computers and from there I wasn’t able to finish over there because I decided to move before I completed my degree so I came here to the US and completed my degree here. Manuel: And so then you completed your electrical engineering degree? So how much did you finish in El Salvador versus how much you finished here? Carlos: So the National University, National de El Salvador, it’s a pretty hard university like you have to actually study and study and study, for engineering you had to have on, you couldn’t do it just by yourself because it was pretty demanding so you had to have a group of friends with whom you could study, right? So I studied there like five and a half years but still I still have one more year to go because it’s pretty hard so to give you an example there was only like when you already advanced let’s say like on your third or fourth year let’s say out of 40 people in a class maybe 10 were passing that class and if you have five classes at the same time there was almost no way you would pass all of them. So you had to choose it’s like okay I think I’m not going to pass this one so I’m going to focus on this other three or this other four. So it takes a long time, a lot of the people that I knew that they were ahead of me they were like it goes like getting smaller and smaller and smaller and we started like maybe 250 people on the first year which is nothing really electrical engineering related but more like calculus and physics and stuff like that and then when you are about to graduate they’re like five guys graduating or three guys or two sometimes one it was crazy so that’s why it’s supposed to be like five years but I was already in my fifth and a half year and I still have one more year to go when I decided to move to the US because I had a residency since I was a little kid but I never lived here and it was going to expire so I had to renew and it’s like okay do I stay and forget about living in the US or do I move and see if I can continue my education over there and that’s what I did. Manuel: And where did you move to so when you kind of came in? Carlos: I came to Las Vegas or like my first town let’s say Manuel: Okay Carlos: I came to Las Vegas and then maybe like three years ago I was living in Richmond, near Richmond Virginia for like four years so I live only in Las Vegas and in that area my entire time here. Manuel: So then when you moved to Las Vegas so I’m assuming you finished your degree here in Las Vegas so you went to UNLV finished that probably like you said like a year left? Carlos: No I had to study another four years here because I was also working so at the end it took me they gave me a lot of credits it wasn’t easy to get the credits because you know they’re trying for you to take more credits and pay so I had to kind of like fight it’s like hey how do you want me to take the electronics one lab that takes you know several credits and all the Fridays I have to be there just for this thing when I when you already gave me credits for you know electronics one electronics two electromagnetism is like I don’t need that you know it’s something where you learn the basic things and I already passed that is like so it took me a year to get all the credits that I actually needed or wanted and that’s why and I was also working so it was like a part-time student, full-time worker so it took me four years. I think in total I started in El Salvador in 2000 and I graduated in 2010 so ten years. Manuel: But you finished yeah that’s the important part. Carlos: Yeah Manuel: Okay and then so you graduated electrical engineer and then I’m assuming you started to try to look for those types of positions and then how did that? Carlos: It’s it’s interesting because in Latin America I think it’s a little bit different from how you learn how you know that work is in the US here most people know that you know you have to get experience for them for so then you can get a better job over there we just think you know as long as I have my degree I’m set and it wasn’t like that and I was thinking you know it’s interesting I saw your book over here Ego is like I came with Ego you know I was thinking I’m an electrical engineer come on I’m not gonna be you know I want a good job like right away and it wasn’t like that. So then you know looking for jobs looking for jobs the sad part in my opinion from living in this town is that most maybe not most but a lot of the companies that go and recruit from the university they’re related to military stuff. You know and I didn’t want to be part of that so and I couldn’t because I have family in El Salvador so if you need a secret clearance or something like this they’re like if you have your sister is over there so no way you’re gonna get to the you know those top secret things. So and because an electrical engineer you you work with secret stuff right so it wasn’t something that I could get in but I also didn’t want to and I was lucky that casino gaming it’s all over town right so I could get into into testing pretty much I started working for the university at the beginning. Well actually started in IT for casino but that that wasn’t e...