The Polytechnic University of the Philippines – Santa Maria Bulacan Campus reached out to me to be their main Keynote Speaker for the annual iSITE (BSIT) week celebration.
Going back to when I was a student at the same school, IT week is one of the most exciting parts of the year. The games, no classes, tech competitions, and of course the chance of joining the free seminars or talk of several outstanding IT professionals.
Every year the organization invites professional that can share best practices, tips, and knowledge on how to deal with the real-world IT Industry, for us students those are a sneak peek of what we will encounter after 2-3 years.
Those talks are instrumental in how we do things today as IT Professional. The practical tips and best practices are really helpful in shaping our early careers.
Now, being invited as the main Keynote Speaker. It’s my time to give back.
Being a freshman in IT Industry is not a walk in the park. You will face rejection after rejection. On that note, I focus my keynote on tips on how to jumpstart their career in the IT industry.
Let’s start.
You’re in PUP to learn – Not to compete, not to get awards.
Everybody wants a flat 1 grade, I’m lying if I say I didn’t pray to get an ‘uno‘ in my programming subjects.
Good grades are good, as long as you actually learn your subject. When I say learn, I mean you do not memorize your lessons for the sake of passing your midterms or final exam.
Learn that you can explain the lesson to your classmates with ease.
Because no one will remember what your grades are after 1-2yrs of graduation, even yourself.
Choose your forte
IT is a huge field. It’s a big industry. There are hundreds of career fields that you can choose from. Having that said, you don’t need to learn everything, just choose your forte and master it.
IT professionals are paid by specialization. Take me as an example, way back in college my forte is PC Troubleshooting and Web development (Front end), however, these 2 fields are different. So, I have to choose 1.
I choose web development, and I pour so much effort and time to be equipped and knowledgeable in this field. And this paid off, I land my first job as a Front end web developer.
Imagine if a use my time to master 2 different fields. I’m sure I will not have the same skillset for web development because my effort and time will be divided into two.
What I’m just saying is, we can learn 100 fields, but we must master 1.
Find a company that can give you growth
This one is one of my favorites. Being a fresh graduate from PUP was amazing, and the dream to bring your family out of poverty is our topmost priority.
So many of us will push for a job that can bring money rather than growth as a professional.
Which is I really understand. However, if you’re looking long term, we, Iskolar ng Bayan should choose growth over money early in our careers.
Find a company that has a mentor, a company that can give your enough experience in your chosen field rather than a company that just pays salary — even if you do nothing.
It’s so critical that the first 5 years of our careers we used it to learn and experience necessary things. It will be your foundation for the next 10 to 30 years.
Get out of your comfort zone
Most of the fresh IT graduates are covered by fear. The fear of rejection and fear of trying new technology on top of what they learn from school.
‘That wasn’t taught and discussed in school’ and ‘I only know the basics of that technology’.
In my experience, only 20% of the technology used in the industry has been discussed in school. So, stop saying that you know nothing about a certain technology because everyone also starts with 0-20% knowledge only.
You need to experience things for you to learn them fully.
If you don’t get out of your comfort zone, you will end up watching your batchmates succeed while you don’t.
Be a better person every day
It’s a simple tip but not everyone can do it. I’m using this mantra since I graduated.
Learn something new every day.
In today’s world, every piece of information is one click away. You don’t have any excuses. You can be anyone. I always make sure that I learned something education, useful on a daily basis.
It won’t be noticeable in few months, but it will give you substantial growth over time. Imagine learning 365 new things, lessons, techniques, and life hack in a year.
That’s amazing! Now, imagine doing this for 5-10 years straight.
It’s always great to be part of young students’ life even in a short period of time-sharing these practical tips.
I hope that I bring value and I’m praying that all of them will overcome all career challenges.
Like my IT professor – Jayson Hermogenes said before, there’s no ‘difficult’ in IT only ‘challenging’.
Article by: Jae-Mar Arenque – PUP SMB Alumnus
Managing Owner – Pinfront Digital