Database Architect

>> So my name is Guy Lohman [assumed spelling], and I work for IBM research, and I work on -- research in databases. Well, I don't work directly with clients. I'm doing research in -- in the -- fundamental research in how to organize information and how to retrieve it fast. And so, you know, my job entails being familiar with the literature, coming up with new techniques, prototyping those techniques, and so forth. But I manage a group of about five Ph.D.-level computer scientists who are working with me, and we all work on it together as a team. Busy day is, well, is every day. It's having phone calls often with our colleagues in the development divisions in the early morning hours because we're on the West Coast and they're on the East. We have design meetings or status meetings with the team. I have one-on-ones with the team, other phone conversations. I don't get much time to read the literature, which is what I most enjoy doing, and I occasionally get a little -- a few minutes here and there to do that. The major differentiation in industrial research is the gratification of getting stuff into products. Compared to our brethren in academia, we're doing much the same thing in terms of publishing in the literature, but we have the option of getting products into -- getting our research into the products, and in fact, that is really the most gratifying part, you know. When a customer actually calls up and yells at you, you know that they're using your stuff and they're depending on it, and that's very exciting.