Although he works at home, Brian Dote puts in long hours to meet his deadlines. During the school’s annual Career Day, he used a creative PowerPoint to share about his career as a software developer.

Growing up he was always interested in games and computers. After graduating from college with a degree in zoology, he returned to school for a graduate degree in computer science so that he could pursue a career in developing software.

“It’s been a life long interest in computers and technology that has driven me,” Dote said. “Video games really took off when I was at a young age. I was around when arcades became popular and I grew up in the age of the console game platforms. All of these have profound influence on me.”

He worked his way up from learning in Silicon Valley to working at Apple. He works for his company called Tapiki. With his team he produces applications for his company and even helped produce some of the famous Apple apps. He has achieved earning five patents from his team’s groundbreaking work with mobile phone technology and the web. He worked on the mobile safari apps for the very first iPhone and in the Career Day sessions, he also shared stories about the late Steve Jobs.

Dote said that there are multiple job roles in this career: engineering, project management, and design. He said that it’s good to have a background in computer programming and logic for the engineering aspect, business and management courses would be needed for the project management aspect, and classes in graphic design, typography, and other art are design skills would be needed for the design aspect.

“It’s less about the classes you take as it’s your ability to apply critical thinking and problem solving skills,” Dote said.

Dote also stressed the importance of communication skills. Effective communication within and outside of their company, and in their teams is essential to their success. Team members need to be detail oriented and organized. Coordination among teams to create a new project is “tantamount to our success.”

“Although we work with computers and mobile phones, in reality, we work with people,” Dote said. “We always have to remember that working with people is the most important aspect of our job.”

Dote also shared about his 90-100k salary and his really nice car; he has a BMW. But, above all, Dote said that he really enjoys his job.

“I love building a mobile app or game that exceeds our clients expectations. They ask us to build something and we are able to go above and beyond. The satisfaction of building consumer products that people can download and use is an amazing experience,” Dote said.