What do you do at Cubic?
I support our Global Bids and Proposals team with graphic design, conceptual renderings, photography, and video, in order to better portray our solutions to our current and prospective customers. I also help out with random requests from our Executive team, Business Development, Software, and Engineering teams.
Can you tell us about your career journey thus far?
I was initially hired back in 2015 to work in the Marketing team. I quickly had to adapt to the team’s fast pace and started managing our North American presence in Trade Shows and Expos. Organizing everything from locations, permits, events, booth design and builds, product demos, meetings and all that entailed was very challenging, and couldn’t have done it correctly without the help of my other peers in Marketing.
Next, I moved to the newly formed Customer Solutions team, where we worked on important issues that travelers live with on a daily basis and helped our customers better solve them.
Throughout my years I had the opportunity to work on high-profile projects like NY, LA, Boston, Clipper, Marta, and WMATA, I got to know and befriend most of the highly intelligent people that design and build our systems and solutions… which led me to my B&P team.
What interested you in pursuing a career in design?
I started out using Paint and PowerPoint to make my homework look better than the rest and discovered Corel Drawback in the day. From then on, I knew I wanted to learn how to create what I can see in my head on the computer. I studied Advertising with a minor in Graphic Design and quickly saw the link between having a great idea and the need to make it look great.
What have you found most rewarding in your career so far?
I came to CTS from a well-known company that says “Our soul is our People,” and I completely agree, the people you interact with at work or outside, anywhere really, supremely influence your outlook on life. I’ve been lucky enough to know people from facilities, shipping and security, all the way up to the big man himself.
What advice would you give young professionals who are interested in working in your field?
In any field my advice would be:
1. Look at what you like to do more often.
2. Narrow that list down to what you are good at.
3. Find a way to get paid for doing that every day.
What does diversity mean to you and why does it matter?
Diversity is a part of life; it’s built into nature everywhere. It gave us evolution, therefore it matters because we are a product of it, not the end product, but a stage in the never-ending movie we’re living.
What are some of the ways you honor your Latinx heritage?
Well, I still live in Mexico, right across the border from San Diego. This is where I grew up, my in-laws live nearby, and my parents are not far from the border on the US side. I was brought up entirely bi-cultural, bilingual and was taught to embrace both sides, learn the best they had to offer and grow up accepting of all. This is how my wife and I are raising our son, and eventually, we know that we’ll move to the US, in order to give him the best opportunities in life.
That’s the dream!