CyberGuide Spotlight

I’ve been volunteering for the past two years with eCYBERMISSION as a CyberGuide. I have a BS and MS in Electrical Engineering and am originally from Northeast Pennsylvania. My name’s David Zahorksy and I’d say I’m a jack of all trades, master of none.

I spent 26 years working in the world of Automated Test Equipment, which was a great combo of electronic hardware and software design challenges. The past four years I have been working in the world of Project Management.

My first thought was to try to relate to all of you participating in eCYBERMISSION and try to show something from my life that inspired me to pursue engineering. However, I’m too old and the world has changed too much to do that justice.

So, let me give you my perspective from the past five years. I have transitioned from being an engineer to being a project manager, and it has been an interesting journey. As an engineering comedian once said, "I didn’t go to engineering school to deal with people." And so was the majority of my career: dealing with mainly physics, math, and engineering design, which I loved. But, at some point in my career, I ultimately realized that mission success came down to people and our interactions with each other. No matter how well-thought out your design, if you don’t communicate it appropriately, and if you don’t interact with your organizational teammates well, it was going to fail. The greater the scale of my projects, the more this became true.

So, this is the truth I want to share with you along with a related truth. I have experienced more joy and fulfillment from team accomplishments than personal achievement. The phrase “the whole is greater than the sum of the parts,” rings true and brings a certain kind of magic. I hope you get a glimpse of this magic on your eCYBERMISSION team.

Driven by these truths, I have enjoyed being a CyberGuide for the past two years. I am one of many Subject Matter Experts you have access to. I know something about physics, electronics, and automation. You may also have teachers who are Subject Matter Experts on these and other topics. You might have Subject Matter Experts on your team. In all cases, it is your job to discover them, learn how to interact with them, and combine what you learned from them and with what you already know to accomplish your mission. It’s hard work, but I think you will find it worth it.

Let me conclude by restating the above from a different perspective. Make friends with people that have skills and abilities you don’t. Make friends with people who are different than you. It not only makes powerful teams, but it makes great friendships.