The Long Way Around
There was a time when I believed every successful career had to follow a straight line. Mine never did.
I started with Electronics and Instrumentation Engineering, fascinated by how things work beneath the surface. That curiosity eventually took me somewhere I had never imagined; I moved to Rome to study Aerospace Engineering. During my master’s research on Gas Core Nuclear Rockets, I found myself diving deeply into nuclear engineering. To truly understand nuclear propulsion, I had to learn an entirely new discipline from the ground up. What began as an aerospace project became one of the most rewarding learning experiences of my journey.
Later, another question began occupying my mind. Building technology is one thing, but how do you build organizations that can turn ideas into reality? That question led me to the UK, where I pursued a second master’s in Engineering Management. During that journey, I explored supply chain management, learned project management, discovered software development, and gradually found myself working at the intersection of strategy, technology, and business.
Looking back, my career almost looks random. But it never felt random. Every field quietly prepared me for the next one.
Electronics taught me precision. Aerospace taught me to think in systems. Nuclear engineering taught me that solving one problem sometimes requires learning an entirely different field, and that the best solutions often lie beyond the boundaries of your own discipline. Engineering management taught me that great ideas only matter when people, processes, and decisions work together. Software development taught me to build, while strategy taught me to ask better questions before searching for answers.
For a long time, I wondered if I was doing too many different things. Then I came across a quote that has stayed with me ever since:
A jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one.
I understand both parts of that quote now.
There is immense value in mastering one craft. There is something deeply admirable about becoming the person everyone turns to when a difficult problem appears. If I could give one piece of advice to someone starting their journey today, it would be this: find that one thing you want to become exceptional at. Depth creates impact.
At the same time, I no longer believe that exploring different paths is wasted time. Every discipline I stepped into changed the way I think. It taught me to approach problems from angles I would never have considered otherwise. It made me comfortable learning unfamiliar things, adapting to new environments, and connecting ideas that rarely belong in the same conversation. Looking back, I don’t see unrelated experiences; I see a collection of perspectives that continue to shape the way I solve problems today.
The biggest gift, however, wasn’t academic.
It was human.
Those years allowed me to live in countries that once felt impossibly far away, walk streets I had only seen in photographs, and build friendships with people whose cultures, perspectives, and stories reshaped my own. Many of those places were once dreams. Some still are for millions of people around the world. I don’t take that privilege lightly. Every conversation, every city, every challenge left me with something far more valuable than another line on my resume; it changed the way I see the world.
Today, I don’t define myself by a degree, a job title, or even the different fields I’ve worked in. I define myself by curiosity. By the willingness to learn something completely new. By the courage to begin again, even when the path isn’t obvious. And by the belief that every experience, even the ones that seem unrelated, is quietly preparing us for work we haven’t yet imagined.
Maybe my path wasn’t the shortest.
But it became uniquely mine.