Catherine Romero: Always Bet on Curiosity

Some careers follow a straight line. Catherine Romero's is not one of them, and that is exactly what makes it worth talking about. In this episode, Jessica sits down with Catherine Romero, a former manager, mentor, and dear friend who quietly left an engineering career at Boeing, secretly enrolled in law school, helped take Amazon public at Perkins Coie, and is now back in an engineering role at Microsoft using AI to help solve some of the world's biggest problems. **Episode Threads** - How Catherine secretly enrolled in law school without telling her parents - Going from engineer to lawyer and back to engineer again - The work inside Microsoft's AI for Good team: a Vatican history project, a global weather model, and food security mapping with the UN - Why Catherine, having lived through PCs and the internet, is not afraid of AI - What Catherine noticed in Jessica's interview 13 years ago and what it says about standing out as a candidate - How to earn enough trust with a client that they invite you to join their team - The founding of IPLI and the story of one participant who made it to partner after spending years living in a car in the Bronx - What the legal profession needs from the next generation as AI reshapes entry-level work **Connect & Visit:** - Catherine Romero - Jessica Nguyen - Evolving with Jessica Nguyen