UP,CLOSE AND PERSONAL: IT INDUSTRY TALK

It was on the 21st October when Uniten hosted IT Industry: Up, Close and Personal career talk at DK1 in the afternoon. The main purpose was to expose the students to the reality and the demand of the industry. The speakers were from three (3) different companies being HP, Time Engineering and Internet now. And these companies were represented by Mr.Ilyas Sapiyan, Mr.Vernon Wong and Mr.Devanandan Batumalai, companies being Internet now, Time Engineeting and HP respectively.

The first speaker being Mr.Ilyas Sapiyan whose presentation was titled “What they don’t teach you in College” broke the ice by highlighting that it’s not enough if you do not have soft skills. He said it’s one of the areas many fresh graduates do lack. Also, he shared his experience on writing a good resume that allows puts you ahead of others. Moreover, he offered tips on developing software and said that students should be brave and bold enough to face the industry. It’s not for the faint hearted, because we will

have to deal with people, people with different attitudes and ways of doing things. It was his inspiration also that stood out, when he said we have to take challenges as lessons learnt, apply them and be cautious as we move on our daily basis.

The second person to take the podium was Time Engineering. Her talk was focused on the difference between working life and student life. It’s where she said that attitude of self-development and willing to learn and take extra step is the key to succeed. Which is quite true because the environment is different and can be radical when you are supposed to work long hours. Change is important to accommodate new beginnings and curiosity will open your eyes as you take it to another level. She detailed few careers that exists in IT and summed up by sharing IT industry characteristics.

And lastly, HP representative Mr. Devanandan Palmer Batumalai took over. He emphasized on the company’s history, how it developed. This was made fabulous because his presentation was lively as it included videos. In the videos, we were able to relate and connect as he talked about the business development and what gives them a competitive hand among other competitors. And to bring his curtain down, they gave few presents to those who answered questions.

All in all, it was a very beneficial session, where a lot was shared in a short time. It’s a very massive knowledge which we as students need to have because, sometimes were clouded by our studies and tend to forget to open another eye to see the demand of our industry. OS being reminded was important. It won’t be enough if we will be lacking some soft skills like they said; companies need people who are well grounded.