Vint Cerf’s Career Advice for Engineers

Vint Cerf, recipient of the 2023 IEEE Medal of Honor, has this advice to engineers starting out their careers:

• If you really want to do something big, get help, and preferably from people who are smarter than you are."
• Be humble, because unless you approach things with the understanding that you really don't know exactly how to make it all work, you may overlook possibilities."
• Listen to other people. I tell my engineers that if they know I'm about to do something stupid, they have to tell me, so I don't do it. And if they knew and didn't tell me, that's going to be reflected in their end-of-year fitness report. When you're in a position of responsibility and authority, people may assume you've already figured out where the hazards are, but you may not have."
• Try hard to stay on good terms with everybody. Civility is an important property, and burning bridges is generally a bad idea; you never know who you're going to work with again, who you might work for, or who might work for you."
• You can learn something from virtually everybody. One example: I was being driven in a limousine in Palm Springs by a white-haired guy. And I remember thinking, This poor guy, it's too bad. Here he is driving a limo. It's nine o'clock at night. He ought to be just out there on the links playing golf and having a nice time.' We struck up a conversation, and I find out that he actually did retire-from being the chief financial officer of one of the largest insurance companies in Chicago. He got bored playing golf, so he decided to drive a limo three times a week because he knew he was going to meet interesting people."