The power of community is in its conversation. We know that the best ideas begin amid laughter and grow into success stories through coffee-fueled days and nights among friends. With the “Tell Me a Story” blog series, we want to know how you got there, wherever that may be; after all, your journey could help another take their first step.
Kicking off our series, we bring you the story from Juan Carlos (JC) Escalante, product manager of data access, visualization, and analytics at Ipsos, and tell you how he did it.
What Makes You Cool?
Connection, community, and curiosity are how Juan Carlos (JC) Escalante found himself at his current position with Ipsos.
As Escalante describes, it was an accidental journey that led him to his field in IT. In his own words, Escalante described his position as sitting at the intersection of technology, business development, and data product management.
“It crosses the line between business use and technical use of things … that is the balance I work to accomplish,” stated Escalante. “I’m the person that tries to connect three worlds of an enterprise. A lot can get lost in translation.”
What Makes You an Expert?
Escalante’s natural ability to derive and convey connections makes him an ideal thought leader.
According to Escalante, “A thought leader is a social connector. They make sure the right questions are being connected with the right people with the right knowledge.”
For Escalante, this where innovation takes root. However, creating innovation does not stop at the connection. There needs to be a sense of continuous curiosity and investment in your community. After all, this same curiosity in his market research community led Escalante down his fortuitous path.
It’s About the Journey: Top 3 Takeaways
“I wish I had a master plan. I ended up in market research 20 years ago by accident,” he mused.
Escalante reminiscences about a past party where he overheard a conversation that motivated him to connect with the individual and learn more about their story. Soon, that conversation led to his internship at their company.
Escalante provided three factors that helped mold him into this current position:
- Connecting with the right advisers: people who shape a company’s future, industry, or field of study.
“Whenever you reach out to people, they are always glad to help,” he said. “People are generous with their time if you come to them with a meaningful wish to connect.” - Constant curiosity: Technology is always changing. Escalante stressed the need to be open to fluctuation.
“If you work in any tech-related field, you work in the business of learning and unlearning,” he said. - Investing in a curious community: It is essential to work with companies that provide flexible environments that are not afraid to try new things.
Talk Google Cloud Platform to Me. Do You Have a Favorite?
It is through Escalante’s curious community he discovered his most useful Google Cloud tools.
“I started about two and a half years ago with Google Cloud Platform. Everything was super new,” he said.
Escalante found his footing with Google Cloud products like BigQuery, Dataflow, and Dataproc. These products change how we think about our data delivery.
“[The products] opened my eyes to the new world of data processing and a new world of possibilities,” he said, “a completely serverless design of data pipelines."
Inspire Me! Why Did You Choose to Join the C2C Community?
The need for connection, curiosity, and community ultimately led Escalante to his involvement with C2C.
Escalante described C2C as powerful with its access to professionals from different points of view across multiple networks.
“My interest in C2C goes with the power of the network,” he said, “[and] knowing who is the go-to person for your support.”
