How to Break Into the Software-Defined Vehicle Space: QNX and Vector on Skills, Hiring, and Careers
Interested in working on the future of the car? This pod is for you.
On this special episode of The InEVitable, we cover topics near and dear to my heart—the people behind the cars and how to get top talent to choose the automotive industry over other technology fields. Co-host Jonny Lieberman didn’t make the trip north to Ottawa, the capital of Canada and home of automotive software supplier QNX, where the episode was shot on location at “The Garage,” the software and hardware testing space inside the company’s headquarters.
There, I met with Vector’s Karen Xiong, program manager at Vector North America, and Andy Gryc, developer ecosystem director at QNX, to discuss their roles at their respective companies, their path to becoming software engineers, and how they ended up in the automotive business. Early on, we also had a genuine “Wolverine” moment during our conversation, which is a podcast first.
At the core of this episode is the topic of what it takes to work in a rapidly changing field of software-defined vehicles (SDVs), what kind of education is required, as well as the technical abilities and soft skills it takes to advance.
We also discuss what QNX and Vector are doing to assist interested students and prospective employees in gaining an advantage in the hiring process, including outreach programs like QNX Everywhere, and the free training programs and educational assistance provided by both companies. We also discuss how prospective candidates can set themselves apart, both before hiring and once on a career path.
One of the best parts about talking with really smart people like Gryc and Xiong is that the conversation invariably branches into areas I had never considered, including whether the traditional career path of ascending to upper management is right for certain types of engineers. Perhaps the answer won’t surprise you, but it was something I hadn’t really thought about.
Another fascinating part of the discussion is when I quizzed Gryc and Xiong about AI and whether “vibe coding” was real and had impacted their lines of work. I won’t spoil it, but, as someone who doesn’t code, vibe or otherwise, let’s just say it was interesting to get insights from the folks who do.
If you’re a software engineer, computer science or electrical engineering student, or just someone keen on coding and curious about what it takes to make it in the next chapter of the automotive industry, this podcast is for you. Watch it right here or listen to it wherever you get your podcasts.
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I used to go kick tires with my dad at local car dealerships. I was the kid quizzing the sales guys on horsepower and 0-60 times, while Dad wandered around undisturbed. When the salesmen finally cornered him, I'd grab as much of the glossy product literature as I could carry. One that still stands out to this day: the beautiful booklet on the Mitsubishi Eclipse GSX that favorably compared it to the Porsches of the era. I would pore over the prose, pictures, specs, trim levels, even the fine print, never once thinking that I might someday be responsible for the asterisked figures "*as tested by Motor Trend magazine." My parents, immigrants from Hong Kong, worked their way from St. Louis, Missouri (where I was born) to sunny Camarillo, California, in the early 1970s. Along the way, Dad managed to get us into some interesting, iconic family vehicles, including a 1973 Super Beetle (first year of the curved windshield!), 1976 Volvo 240, the 1977 Chevrolet Caprice Classic station wagon, and 1984 VW Vanagon. Dad imbued a love of sports cars and fast sedans as well. I remember sitting on the package shelf of his 1981 Mazda RX-7, listening to him explain to my Mom - for Nth time - what made the rotary engine so special. I remember bracing myself for the laggy whoosh of his turbo diesel Mercedes-Benz 300D, and later, his '87 Porsche Turbo. We were a Toyota family in my coming-of-age years. At 15 years and 6 months, I scored 100 percent on my driving license test, behind the wheel of Mom's 1991 Toyota Previa. As a reward, I was handed the keys to my brother's 1986 Celica GT-S. Six months and three speeding tickets later, I was booted off the family insurance policy and into a 1983 Toyota 4x4 (Hilux, baby). It took me through the rest of college and most of my time at USC, where I worked for the Daily Trojan newspaper and graduated with a biology degree and business minor. Cars took a back seat during my stint as a science teacher for Teach for America. I considered a third year of teaching high school science, coaching volleyball, and helping out with the newspaper and yearbook, but after two years of telling teenagers to follow their dreams, when I wasn't following mine, I decided to pursue a career in freelance photography. After starving for 6 months, I was picked up by a tiny tuning magazine in Orange County that was covering "The Fast and the Furious" subculture years before it went mainstream. I went from photographer-for-hire to editor-in-chief in three years, and rewarded myself with a clapped-out 1989 Nissan 240SX. I subsequently picked up a 1985 Toyota Land Cruiser (FJ60) to haul parts and camera gear. Both vehicles took me to a more mainstream car magazine, where I first sipped from the firehose of press cars. Soon after, the Land Cruiser was abandoned. After a short stint there, I became editor-in-chief of the now-defunct Sport Compact Car just after turning 30. My editorial director at the time was some long-haired dude with a funny accent named Angus MacKenzie. After 18 months learning from the best, Angus asked me to join Motor Trend as senior editor. That was in 2007, and I've loved every second ever since.
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