Bruno Terkaly, Developer Evangelist, Former PFE

I am a former “Rapid Response Engineer.” The new term is “Premier Field Engineer (PFE).” Whatever you call it, you are customer facing and you are very deep technically. PFEs are deployed to customer sites across the EMEA region when there is a critical situation. You are expected to have excellent troubleshooting skills and the ability to manage the customer during an extremely critical time. PFE's will work closely with other engineers to ensure the customer’s environment is brought back to a stable state quickly. Within the space of field engineering there are several sub-disciplines:

I was a Developer Field Engineer. Developer Field Engineers typically do the following:

What do you like most about your work / being a developer?

Being a developer allows me to solve problems and save money for companies of any size. It is exciting to look at something inefficient and then turn it around with some well engineered software solutions. Serious business.

Not just about being geeky

Most people don’t realize that software is just not an excuse for geeks to write code. I have been involved with medical applications that are involved in life and death decisions – like an application that tracks organ donors and potential recipients. I’ve been involved in debugging financial applications where tens of millions of dollars are being electronically traded.

Helping Developers

My job allows me to directly help MicrosofMy job allows me to directly help Microsoft end users. I find that very rewarding. I get emails from attendees stating that they really enjoyed my presentations, asking for my slides and my code. I’ve been a developer and trainer for a long time. It really excites me when someone attends my presentations and writes me to tell me that it was a valuable use of their time.

What's been your toughest / most interesting challenge to date?

As stated previously, prior to becoming an evangelist, I worked in Premier Field engineering. That means I got called in to assist with the tough jobs, when in-house staff could not solve the problem. I felt like James Bond on a secret mission, flying in during the dark of night, driving to some destination, possibly some data center, perhaps on Wall Street or some obscure facility in the middle of Ohio or Jersey, guided by GPS devices. Ok, maybe I'm not James Bond saving the world from evil, but I do feel I provided great value as a problem solver, instructor, advisor.

Managing Emotional Situations

Field engineering requires a strong character as you face customers in dire situations, when emotions are high and careers and money are on the line. I’ve been involved in applications with brokerages where downtime meant lawsuits and millions of lost dollars.

Exciting Travel Experiences

I’ve flown to numerous countries in Asia, Latin America, Europe, and Canada. I’ve taught in Nuclear Power Plants. I’ve pulled all nighters installing more memory in computes in remote locations in Costa Rica. I’ve been squeezed into a Japanese commuter trains. I’ve been in 20 below zero temperatures in Calgary Canada, where your teeth hurt when you breath. I’ve been 118 degree weather in Phoenix. I’ve had a Korean taxi driver challenge a Korean bus driver to fight in the middle of the street. I’ve eaten insects in Mexico, kimchi for breakfast in Korea. I’ve eaten alongside sumo wrestlers in Japan.

Alternate Dream Career

Fixing problems in high pressure situations is exciting. It feels good to help a person or company solve issues. One profession I really respect is emergency room medicine. The challenge of using your knowledge and reasoning skills to save lives is remarkable. It would take a pretty extreme scenario in computing where you make life and death decisions. Emergency room doctors do it often and it takes a special person to do that.

Role Model

I think Anders Hejlsberg impresses me quite a bit. Anders is a technical fellow at Microsoft and he and his team desinged and built the C# language.

Amazing Technologist / Great Communicator

I find it fascinating that you can be a highly distinguished engineer and still be very conversant and thoughtful, that you can invent programming languages and compilers that millions of developers use. Anders is quite unique in that he can communicate at the appropriate level of his audience, giving honest answers with a sense of humor.

What traits / quirks / personal passions do you bring to your role as an Evangelist

I bring a great deal of problem solving and development experience to my presentations. My goal is to educate and motivate while still having fun. I am a huge fan of standup comedy and attempt to make my audiences laugh but give them real value during presentations.

Real World Experience

I bring real world life experience from field engineering, where it is important to think about performance and diagnostics. I’ve worked at the Microsoft labs where large companies come to test their applications and see how they perform under heavy load. I’ve taught advanced .net debugging, where we try to determine why applications crash, run slowly, or use too much memory. I’ve conducted architectural reviews, helping customers design their software better.

What's one thing most people don't know about you?

For the most part, I am self taught. I actually have a finance and accounting degree from UC Berkeley and worked in finance for quite some time as a money manager. My interest in computing originated from the days of developing financial models to construct high return, low risk portfolios of stocks and mutual funds.

Books, Books, and More Books

But I have a massive collection of Computer Science books. I have studied algorithms, compiler and language design, and various other classic computer science topics.

Thrills

I am an avid thrill seeker, riding motocross in the Sierra foothills, Harleys to Hoover Dam, streetbikes in wine country. I have skied in blizzards at Squaw Valley, boogie boarded in huge surf in Hawaii, rock climbed in Yosemite. I am older and wiser now so now it is about taking calculated risks.