Quite a few people often think that working in this field is “cool” and “fun.” While it can be, it does present some interesting challenges especially to bright and talented people. This talk will be a discussion about the perception of what the students think is involved in the field compared and contrasted with the speaker’s 15 years of experience working for too many companies before finding where he belonged. The goal is to set adequate expectations for people interested in this field and to allow for Q&A with an experienced practitioner that wants quality people to be working in this field.