Product Design Engineer, Dwight Jones joins Media Producer, Justin James Lopez, to discuss mentorship and the challenges of being a young Black engineer in the tech world. Let’s hear his story!
Dwight Jones is a Product Design Engineer at AWS Applications for Just Walk Out Technology by Amazon. Hailing from Richmond, Virginia, Dwight’s job at Amazon involves embracing problems with both an engineering and creative perspective. Prior to AWS Applications, Dwight has been a research assistant, world traveler, and self-described “foodie”. In only his early twenties, Dwight aims to bring a young & ambitious set of eyes to the Just Walk Out organization as they work to provide the best technology possible for their customers.
Customer Obsession and Thinking Big is a way of life for Dwight at his job every day. Creating the next generation of how people shop isn’t exactly an easy thing to pull off, but Dwight has never been one to back down from a challenge. In his first 6 months at AWS Applications (Wow time really flies), Dwight was involved in the development and launch of Amazon One Enterprise, a secure, palm-based identity service for enterprise and building access control. Currently, Dwight resides on JWO’s Entry/Exit team where he works on the development and launch of authentication systems that support the overall Just Walk Out Technology.
When he’s not building the future of retail technology, Dwight is hanging out with family and friends, travelling to new destinations, or more recently working on his “one new recipe a week” goal since moving to the west coast. Community is at the core of what Dwight describes as a “Healthy balance of Work, Play, and Love”. He embodies this mindset through his involvement as a member of Amazon’s Black Employee Network (BEN), a lifetime member of the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Incorporated, and the National Society of Black Engineers. Although at the start of his journey with Amazon, Dwight is excited about showing up with an attitude of “Enthusiasm” (his favorite word), each and every day at AWS Applications.
Dwight Jones:
I’ve listened to Black Stories before and I’ve heard all of these amazing people talk about their stories and everything, and then I feel like a child that’s coming on here. I’m fresh out of undergrad, fresh out of Virginia, as hard as that sounds. And I’m just coming on here talking about my experience as a product design engineer. I think a lot of the times I’ve found community in the people who have taken me under their wing and been willing to mentor me, especially if they’re people of color.
Justin James Lopez:
Hey, everyone. Welcome to another episode of Amazon’s Black Stories, where we highlight the stories of Black designers, researchers, and creative minds from all around the world. I’m your host, Justin James Lopez, and today I’m joined by Dwight Jones, where we talk about the importance of being your own champion and betting on yourself. Let’s hear his story.
So Dwight, thanks again for joining us for this episode of Black Stories. I usually start these episodes by just giving the guest an opportunity to introduce yourself to the audience so that we all know who we’re talking to and then that sets the stage for the rest of the conversation. So why don’t we just go ahead and learn more about who you are?
Dwight Jones:
Yeah, of course. So hi, everyone. My name is Dwight Jones. I’m a product design engineer for AWS applications on the Just Walk Out team.
Justin James Lopez:
Nice. So what is the Just Walk Out team?
Dwight Jones:
So Just Walk Out is a project that incorporates cashierless stores and cashierless shopping, the idea being that you’re able to walk into a store, scan a QR code, hover your palm over Amazon One, which is our new payment system, or just scan a credit card and walk into a store, grab what you want, and as the name implies, just walk out.
Justin James Lopez:
Yeah, just walk out.
Dwight Jones:
Yeah.
Justin James Lopez:
It feels like I’m stealing whenever I use that. I’ve used it quite a bit.
Dwight Jones:
Yeah.
Justin James Lopez:
I am getting more comfortable with it but if I’m being honest, I think that growing up as a Black and brown person, it’s difficult to wrap your head... I don’t know if you had that same experience.
Dwight Jones:
It was the same. I know exactly what you’re about to say.
Justin James Lopez:
It’s hard wrap your head around grabbing something with cameras looking at you and then walking out of the store. I understand what’s happening, but it still, it feels like, “Man.”
Dwight Jones:
Even like myself as a Black male, the first time it was introduced to me when I started working on the team of, “Hey, you just need to come into the store, go through this gate. There’s a bunch of cameras watching you but don’t worry about it. Just grab whatever you want and walk out.” It’s not the most comforting thing to hear as a Black man.
Justin James Lopez:
The cops are waiting for you outside.
Dwight Jones:
Right.
Justin James Lopez:
So you work on this and as a product designer.
Dwight Jones:
Correct.
Justin James Lopez:
What exactly does that mean? What role does that function play in the work?
Dwight Jones:
Yeah, so by degree, I’m a mechanical engineer and kind of combining the mechanical engineering side of Just Walk Out and the product design part is I have to blend my creative side with my engineering side to be able to come up with solutions that are best for our customers. As we know, Amazon and AWS is all about customer obsession. I really have to tap into my hard scientific side, my hard mathematics side at some points, but then also to tap into my creative side and the side of me that really just wants to play around with different things and engineering principles to be able to create the best solution for our customers. So specifically, I work on the Entry-Exit team, and that’s a team that designs the gates at the front that open and close. So in doing that, a lot of the times I need to think of creative ways to solve the problems that are coming towards us.
And part of being a product design engineer rather than just the word engineer flat is tapping into your creative side and being able to figure out what needs to be done, how it needs to be done, and how are we going to get it done and how is it going to best serve our customers.
Justin James Lopez:
Yeah, I think the million dollar question here is how did you even decide to do that? This is not specifically Just Walk Out, I guess we can get to that later, but how did you decide that this is what you wanted to do with your career in this space?
Dwight Jones:
Yeah, so when people ask me how did you become an engineer, I always go back to middle school. I decided to take a wood shop class and I loved it, absolutely loved it. I’ve always been a math and science guy but then also too, I’ve tried to tap into different creative sides along my career and along my life, even though I’m only 22 years of age. So when I got the opportunity to come to Amazon and AWS as a product design engineer, that first word really got me interested. It’s like, okay, so I’m not a regular engineer that has to deal with numbers and mathematics every day. I have to sometimes take a step back and look at a design and look at a concept with a creative eye and see, does this make sense? Is this going to work? And then I’m able to use my engineering skills that I’ve built up over the past 22 years, I like to say now, and be able to propose a solution for it that physically and scientifically is going to work.
Justin James Lopez:
Yeah. So you started as a young researcher.
Dwight Jones:
Oh, yeah.
Justin James Lopez:
So it’s really interesting. And you mentioned being younger, so you’ve just embarked on your journey here at Amazon, right? But you were an intern before.
Dwight Jones:
Correct.
Justin James Lopez:
So when you were an intern, how did that experience of graduating or looking at graduation, having these internships during the pandemic impact the decisions that you had to make as far as what do I do with my career? Did it at all or were you just hoping that it phased out before you graduated?
Dwight Jones:
I think the pandemic affected everyone in a different way. For me, I still tried to stay true to what I wanted to do before COVID-19 and the pandemic. So I’m a huge traveler. So one of the things is that I was always open to travel. And I grew up in Virginia and when I ended up getting the call that I got the job at Amazon and the internship at Amazon, it was great news and they automatically said, “You’re going to be relocating to Seattle, Washington.” And I was like, “Wow, that’s a long ways away.” So with that, I think the COVID-19 pandemic, while it allowed me to constantly refine what I wanted to do in my career, I still was able to stick to what I’ve always set out to do and set out, as far as goals go, as far as aspirations and as far as career opportunities go. And Amazon’s been a great help with that. They’ve been able to navigate that area so well and it is just honestly such a great opportunity for me to still be on the team through an internship and then as a full-time engineer.
Justin James Lopez:
Yeah, I think it’s multi-layered. And this is a bit of a loaded question so I’m sorry about that. But multi-layered it’s in the sense that you have this overarching pandemic but then within that there’s the little micro-avalanches, if you will, that were caused by the pandemic, right?
Dwight Jones:
Right.
Justin James Lopez:
And what I’m talking about right now is to stop being coded and be direct. What I’m talking about right now is you were an intern and then you’re here now. So you received a return offer...
Dwight Jones:
Correct.
Justin James Lopez:
... To come back. And then in the space of having a return offer and coming back, the industry of just mass layoffs where you just start to see these companies, large companies, not just Amazon, but all of these major players that historically have seen so much growth start to see so much almost depositing of debt, as far as talent debt. How did that impact you as a person who’s just getting ready to enter their career, taking those first couple of steps and then going, “Hey, I don’t even know if I’m going to have a job,” or did that go through your head at all?
Dwight Jones:
Oh, yeah. To say the absolute least, it went through my head a lot. It was a really interesting time because for the longest time, my goal through the internship was, I just want to get a job at Amazon. I need to do whatever I need to do to get a job at Amazon. And then when I finally got the offer letter and had the opportunity to say yes, I took a little bit of a break. I went and saw my family. I went back to Virginia to get ready to go to school so I was able to see a bunch of friends and connect with folks. And I still hadn’t said yes to the job offer. And then right around when I said, “Yes, I’m going to come back to Amazon,” that’s when you start getting all of those newsreels where it’s like, “So-and-so company, Amazon is having these mass layoffs and everything.”
And it took a pretty big hit mentally at first on me because I’m starting to think now back to every single micro-interaction that I had during my internship and thinking, am I good enough? Was I good enough to be able to survive this time and to get through this time for them to be able to have faith at all still that I’m still going to be able to deliver once I’m a full-time engineer, by the way, fresh out of college?
Justin James Lopez:
Yeah.
Dwight Jones:
And I think one of the things that really calmed my nerves during that time was back to all of the experiences and all the successes that I’ve had as an engineering student, engineer albeit, where I’ve just been able to put my head down and work as hard as possible. And even though failure may have been around the corner or messing up or getting a question wrong on an exam may have been around the corner, I was still able to pick myself up and continue on.
Justin James Lopez:
That’s a beautiful lesson to learn. I’m sure that there was a lot more chaos in your mind than that output...
Dwight Jones:
Sure.
Justin James Lopez:
... But I think it’s a beautiful lesson to walk away with because I imagine what you’re feeling, this idea that there’s... What I’m hearing is there’s this sense of imposter syndrome...
Dwight Jones:
Yeah.
Justin James Lopez:
... Which we all go through right? But there’s a sense of imposter syndrome then amplified by the fact that there’s people that you were working with, maybe mentored by, that won’t be there. And then you’re wondering, “Am I going to get that call?”
Dwight Jones:
Right.
Justin James Lopez:
At any point did you think, “Maybe I should have a plan B”?
Dwight Jones:
Yeah, I think in general it’s always good to have a plan B, especially just in the life that we live in now. But for me, I was just so dead set on wanting to come to Amazon. I blindly put my faith in the fact that I had worked so hard during the internship, worked so hard during my undergraduate career, that everything was going to be okay. That’s what I kept telling myself, is that you’re going to end up going to Seattle. Come August, you’re going to graduate and you’re going to have a great time. And even though sometimes you see more and more newsreels of, “We’re going to have X amount more layoffs,” I just kept thinking back to that. I just kept getting to work. I have a habit whenever something is a little bit murky in the water of just opening up my laptop and getting to work or sometimes I’ll just open up my phone and play video games on my phone or something like that just to take my mind off of it.
But in the times when that wasn’t available, like I’d be in class, for example, I’d just say, “You know what? I’m here. I’m enough and I’m going to get through this and I’m going to do well and I’m going to be in Seattle and I’m going to have my dream job at Amazon.” And low and behold, look at us now.
Justin James Lopez:
Yeah, yeah. So moving to Seattle, moving away from family, how difficult was that for you?
Dwight Jones:
I’m still trying to convince my mom to be okay with letting her only child move across the country.
Justin James Lopez:
You’re an only child?
Dwight Jones:
I’m an only child.
Justin James Lopez:
Yeah. So I can relate to that. I’m not an only child but I was the first child in my family to move away to go to college, move away, all of that stuff. And it’s something that I’m still having to deal with, right? You miss moments.
Dwight Jones:
Yeah.
Justin James Lopez:
And that’s heavy. But it sounds like you’ve been settling in really well when it comes to just shifting. Now, the question that I’m thinking now is you having that experience, and we had that moment at the beginning where you mentioned what you did and I’m like, “Oh, it feels weird,” right?
Dwight Jones:
Right.
Justin James Lopez:
Because this is new experiences for.. I’m sure it’s not just people from the African diaspora that experienced that. I think there’s social economic determinants around why certain people feel that uneasiness around grabbing things and walking away.
Dwight Jones:
Yeah.
Justin James Lopez:
But when it comes to that, even as a tester, you felt that way. In your field, how many Black product design engineers do you know?
Dwight Jones:
I can’t lie. Not a lot. And I think a lot of the times I’ve found community and the people who have taken me under their wing and been willing to mentor me, especially if they’re people of color, especially if I’m just scrolling through our internal phone tool at Amazon and looking to see, hey, what does the Black community look like out here and what does the Black engineering community look like? And then what does the Black product design community look like? The fact of the matter is that there aren’t many people that look like us but to myself, I take that as my own responsibility to excel and do the best in every opportunity that comes my way, whether it be at Amazon or whether it be outside of Amazon.
Justin James Lopez:
What are some of the things that you do to help mitigate that perception or how people perceive you, specifically within corporate America, but just in general, what are some of the things that you do?
Dwight Jones:
One of the things that I always like to give an example of is how I dress and how I look. If you see me walking down the street going to work, you’ll probably see me dressed up very nicely, usually in a shirt, slacks and a blazer. And if you know slightly about the culture working in tech, that’s not necessarily expected. Sometimes people always like to crack their jokes at it. But one of the things that it really puts into my mind is that, look, there are not a lot of folks that look like you out here and there may be a lot of people who don’t look like you who are seeing someone in your position for the first or of a very infrequent time. So when they do lay eyes on you, that’s what you’re going to see. I had a professor my freshman year of college who was African-American. He’s a great professor but he was always super, super hard on me. I really didn’t like him for the first semester. But one of the things... I love him now, by the way, if he’s listening to this.
But one of the things that he said that always stuck with me, especially as a Black male entering in, was every time you walk into a room, it’s an interview. And it just made me stop and think. And that first day when I was getting ready, putting on a shirt, tying up my tie, that I’m that Black male. And even though I’ve already interviewed at this company, I’m still walking in every day to folks who are looking at me and who are going to build up a mental repertoire of Dwight and that is going to be the best example that they have of me, if not anything else. Hopefully there’s more positive interactions for them to build upon but they’re going to say he dresses professionally and he takes his job so uber seriously.
Justin James Lopez:
Yeah, I think that we differ in that way. I think I have seen you on campus here in Seattle and I think I’m one of the people that have made fun of you for having a suit on but I do appreciate the logic there and just the thoughtfulness that goes into how you present yourself. Because for me, being in the content creation space and having, I guess more time, not saying that this needs to change or should change or whatever. From my perspective, I think that I don’t know that I ever really cared much about the way that I want to be presentable, make sure that have a haircut and look sharp and all of that stuff. But I definitely look just a random creator wearing all Black with pops of color, just moving around, baggier clothes.
Dwight Jones:
Part of the experience of being a Black male in corporate America is not being too Black. So while I say I wear a shirt and tie and... Well, not a tie, but I wear a blazer, I wear a shirt, I wear slacks, and I wear dress shoes to work every day. There are some days where I will dress more casual and I might rock a pair of jeans and some Jordan 1s in the office and stuff like that. And that’s not because I’m just decided I don’t care what anyone thinks about me today, that’s still genuinely who I am. My hair still genuinely grows to the sky because I’m a Black male. My shoulders are broader because I’m a Black man and everything like that. I’m still unapologetically and enthusiastically Black. Regardless of how I might talk or how I might dress, I’m still Black, nevertheless.
Justin James Lopez:
Do you ever feel pressure of being perfect or because of that though?
Dwight Jones:
Oh, yeah.
Justin James Lopez:
I think that there’s this idea where we... I’m so happy and proud to be who I am.
Dwight Jones:
Right.
Justin James Lopez:
And I genuinely believe that. Even every culture that I’m mixed with, I’m proud of all of them. It’s who I am. And it took me a while to get there but now that I’m there, I’m like, I’m in love with who I am.
Dwight Jones:
Yeah.
Justin James Lopez:
However, I can’t ignore that there is those looming thoughts in the back of my head where I’m like, “Can I actually show up as my authentic self? Can I genuinely show up as who I am?” And I think I’m getting closer to that at work. I’m getting closer to being able to just be like, “You know what? That’s Justin. He says what he feels.” And it’s not like... I don’t use the slang that I used growing up because [inaudible 00:17:34] is a thing.
Dwight Jones:
Yeah, it is. It absolutely is.
Justin James Lopez:
That’s a thing. And I think it plays its role. I think that there’s a role that it plays and it’s significant but I also think that there’s a line that once you cross it, it can feel like you’re not doing yourself a service, right? You’re almost hurting yourself.
Dwight Jones:
Yeah.
Justin James Lopez:
Do you feel that way?
Dwight Jones:
I feel that way partly because I went to a PWI all throughout undergrad and everything so I was a minority in an engineering program that is predominantly not. And then when I get to a professional world, it’s not like it’s one-to-one, it’s completely the same as being at a PWI. But I definitely see myself sometimes switching and not talking like how I normally talk or trying to talk in more of a professional button up your tie, very sophisticated voice. And I want to try and scale down but still keep the professionalism in every part of it and still have my authentic idea, the idea that Amazon hired Dwight Jones to be a product design engineer so Dwight Jones is going to show up every day to be a product design engineer. And the idea that I’m comfortable enough to showcase my authentic self as a Black male, even though there aren’t that many of us. And I do definitely have to say my team is so welcoming.
Ever since I came to my internship when I’m back on the same team as I was, there’s never been an instance where I’ve ever felt not welcomed as a Black male, even as the only Black male on my team. I think everyone has welcomed me with open arms and open minds about what I think and what I feel. Even though A, I’m only 22, B, I have a couple months of experience now, they still are like, “We believe in you and we want you to succeed.” And that’s something that I’m truly grateful for on my team and I think it’s very commendable of them to take that initiative.
Justin James Lopez:
It hits hard because I don’t think that we talk about it enough how these interactions, and that’s what I was getting at with can you really be authentic? That’s why we’re creating this space with things like this. We’re not solving anything with this podcast, right? But it is at least giving us a space to feel comfortable talking about our journeys, talking about the things that we really feel so that other people can learn. You might not feel comfortable talking to your coworkers about this but they can hear the conversation and they can say, “Oh, wow, I hadn’t thought about that,” right?
Dwight Jones:
Mm-hmm.
Justin James Lopez:
I appreciate the vulnerability and the candor there because it is a difficult topic to talk about when it comes to being authentic. How authentic can I be while still making sure that I’m not being threatening, I’m not coming off as someone that is a threat by just existing in space? How do you strike that balance as an individual? But I think that you’ve done a good job of that with when it comes to the different principles that you hold in your own life. And even as a younger adult coming into corporate America, you’ve been able to really find stride in how do you meet your coworkers where they are, how do you show up to people that have never met you in a new space at that, right? Because Seattle’s very different than Richmond, Virginia.
Dwight Jones:
Oh, yeah, it is. To say the least.
Justin James Lopez:
I was raised in South Jersey Philadelphia area not far from Virginia when you consider the distance here, and it was a huge culture shock for me to go, “What?”
Dwight Jones:
Yeah.
Justin James Lopez:
But I think that you found kind your stride there.
Dwight Jones:
Yeah, it’s all just a learning process too. I’ve been in Seattle now for a total of about eight months if you want to count my internship. And like you said, Seattle is a lot different than Richmond, Virginia. But it all comes down to community, whether it be the community of friends I made out here while I was interning, the community of my fraternity brothers, shameless plug, by the way, roo to the bros.
Justin James Lopez:
Roo to the bros.
Dwight Jones:
And it all comes down to community and the people that you interact with. There are going to be good people, whether it is Seattle, whether it’s Los Angeles, whether it’s Richmond, Virginia or whether it’s Miami, Florida. Whereas the weather may be different, and trust me, it is different here in Seattle, it all just comes down to the people who you interact with on a daily basis even if it’s more infrequent than daily. You might only be able to see your close friends every week or every month because everyone’s got personal lives and everyone’s got personal obligations. But I think one of the things that has really allowed me to fall in love with Seattle is the people around me have been able to support me and help me in every endeavor that I’ve embarked on and been like, “Yeah, you can do it.”
Or in times when I’m thinking to myself, “Oh, maybe this seems a little out of reach or I don’t know if I’m going to be able to accomplish this, though I really want to do it,” I’ve had people out here just be like, “No, you can do it. What do you need? I got you. You’re good.” And that’s what it really ultimately comes down to, it’s just community.
Justin James Lopez:
Yeah. That leads me to another thought. There’s always this idea of being unique, which I gained my inspiration from so many people. When I was in grad school, my teacher would always say, and I think he’s not the person who said it but he quoted this, but I can’t for the life of me recall who said it. But he said, “If you steal from one person, it’s plagiarism. If you steal from many people, it’s research.” And the way I look at that is from the idea of being unique, of being your own self as an individual. You’re really just an amalgam of all the people that have inspired you, have influenced you. So for me, if I tried to just emulate one person, then I would just be a carbon copy of someone else. But I actually take inspiration from a lot of different people. And that, taking bits of here, bits of there is what has created the unique presence that you interact with. And then there’s semblance of it.
If we go through the list of people and you know who they are, then you go, “Oh, I can see that. I do see how you take inspiration from them.” Who are the people that inspire you?
Dwight Jones:
So going back to my example of how I dress in the morning, I can immediately think of my father. I grew up in the suburbs of Richmond, Virginia and I can remember as far back from when I was in elementary school, I would walk down the stairs and my mom would be making breakfast for me, getting ready to go to school, and I would just be sitting down, reading a book usually or watching a show on whatever device there was. And right as I was about to leave the house, I would always see my dad walk down the stairs and he would always have on a dress shirt, slacks and a blazer. And I can remember that as far back as I can remember anything. So sometimes when I get ready in the morning and I like to think that I’m unique and I’m different, like you said, you definitely take inspiration off of the people who you grew up around and who helped shape who you are. For those people, like my mom and my dad, I was able to draw on them for that specific reason.
But then for other people as well, when I’ve been away from home, whether it be in college or when I’ve been away in my internship, whether it was in Seattle or any other place, I think I’ve drawn from every interaction that I’ve had with people, even if I were to classify it as positive or negative. And I’m able to really take all the sum of those experiences and shape them around to how I want to use them and how I want to portray myself going forward in my life. And I think that’s just one example but it’s constantly happening every day with the interactions that I have with people.
Justin James Lopez:
Yeah. No, I love that.
Dwight Jones:
Yeah.
Justin James Lopez:
How has that played a role in your life outside of just the more acute example of how you dress? How has that played a role in you as a product design engineer, the work that you do, the habits that you’ve picked up? Have you noticed that the people that... Because you mentioned being attached to people that take you under their wing. Are you ever worried that you might pick up bad habits as well as the good ones?
Dwight Jones:
I definitely would think that but hopefully I’ve had enough experience and maturity to be able to say, “No, I’m going to be able to filter those bad habits out.” But I think as a product design engineer, it really comes with repetition. No solution that you’re ever going to work on is going to be the same and no problem is ever going to be the same. It’s going to require a unique solution and a unique way to fix it. Sometimes when I was working through stuff in my internship, I would go to my mentor and say, “Hey, I’m having trouble working through this one problem I’m having with my project.” And he would just be like, “Why didn’t you just do it this way?” And I would try to wiggle my way out of that situation and say, “Because I didn’t think of it.” But while that’s a funny interaction, think a lot of the times when you have that repetition of having folks lean on you and give you that nudge forward, it allows you to just build brick by brick, your own experience.
So then next time when a problem that’s similar to the last one that I had comes through, I’m able to say, “Oh, I did this last time because my mentor in my internship said this and it worked really well so I’m able to build on this solution a lot better.” So that, and then other just opportunities that I’ve had at Virginia Tech with research and everything like that has just given me the opportunity to excel in my profession, even only at about four or five months of being a product design engineer full-time.
Justin James Lopez:
When you think about the next, say five years of your journey, because this is interesting. Usually I have folks that are on that are looking back at their career after 30 years but you’re just getting into your career. When you look at the next 5, 10 years, what are you really excited about?
Dwight Jones:
I’m really excited about what I’m able to work on and who I’m able to inspire. A lot of the times I have people reach out to me, whether it be over social media or they’ll text me because we were close a couple years ago, and they’ll be like, “Hey, I’ve seen some of the stuff that you were doing on LinkedIn or just elsewhere and I just wanted to say it really inspired me to take on this opportunity or to press that submit button on an application. And I just wanted to say thank you.” And again, that really makes my day. I’ve figured out that those experiences that I have with other people of me just living my life trying to get better and get 1% better every single day, and at the same time, being able to inspire other people to do that in their own lives, in their own endeavors is something that I really enjoy.
So to answer your question, 5 years, I can’t tell you, but I really hope it’s in a position where I’m able to inspire others and I’m still taking risks in my life that are going to benefit myself to the point where others will look at my experience that I’ve had and say, “You know what? I think I’m going to be all right. Even if I just work maybe a little bit harder or I go in a different direction, I think I’m going to be okay.” I really hope to have the opportunity to do that in the future and that’s what I’m building towards outside of any sort of professional or academic goals that I have.
Justin James Lopez:
Yeah. We’ll have to have you back...
Dwight Jones:
In five years. Oh, man. Yeah.
Justin James Lopez:
Yeah, and see how well this aged. Dwight, thank you so much for joining this show. I think that your journey, while just beginning, I think is still very inspiring, and I think that this is going to be really helpful as you have people that maybe are in that mentoring position that are looking to understand more about the perspective of someone coming into this space. And also someone, to your point earlier, that hasn’t hit the submit button and is afraid of what might happen. I think this is a testament to what may happen if you just bet on yourself. So thank you.
Dwight Jones:
Yeah, no problem. It’s an interesting time to be a new grad and everything like that. So like you said, in five years, who knows where I’ll be? But I definitely hope to at least inspire someone to continue to be themselves and to continue to drive further and reach all their goals and aspirations, have the best life possible.
