Bring Your Child To Work Day at Visa

Today my 13-year-old daughter had a priceless opportunity to take a tour in one of the best datacenters in the world. It was part of the Bring Your Child To Work Day at Visa. She was at the Visa’s Operation Center East.

Dad, I felt like I was in the Mission Impossible movie, she said.

I was thinking about this great opportunity for a teenager, to see a high security place where even a full-time employee couldn't access during a regular work day.

In her age, I had the same opportunity to get a tour in one of the Brazilian Air-force bases, where my father used to work. That’s why since young, I dreamed about being a pilot; to conquer the skies and dominate overseas. That’s why today I live between the clouds, flying from one datacenter to another, securing the “info-ways”. Ok, it’s a quite different sky, but with the same turbulence, storms, high speed, adrenaline and adventures. And of course a Project Manager who always drives you crazy.  :-)

For her, it was about a huge amount of computers, cabling crossing pods, and giant systems for cooling and power generation. However, she was surrounded by thousands of blades and non-stop systems; tons of storage arrays and disks; routers, switches and firewalls; hundreds of hardware security modules; and hundreds of talented and high skilled professionals, the human power of Visa.

She saw high-technology, noticed every workspace in the building, spoke to a Vice President of Marketing via video-conference, and had a face-to-face meeting with a Sr. Director of Human Resources. She saw passion from my colleagues that provided the same high-quality service to make these kids happy and comfortable in a work day with their parents.

I’m not sure which kind of skies are waiting for her in the future, but I do know that opportunities like this gives wings to the most powerful entrepreneurs and passionate people in the world. So, it will happen to her along the way as well. One day, I was just a little boy delivering packages. Now, I’m a successful Information Security Engineer, working to provide security to every single transaction you generate with your Visa card. I have the pleasure to work for one of the most valuable brand in the planet. I'm blessed by the merciful hands of God.

Everywhere you want to be.