About Leigh Ishikawa Expertise I can answer questions about certifications, technical skills, and realistic job opportunities.
Experience My speciality is QA, but I have been involved in development, release engineering, configuration management, technical publication as well as human factors aspects of software development. I've done some offshore management in UK, and recruting non-residents in USA, but I am not expert in off-shore recruting efforts.
NOTE: College/Highschool student are always welcomed to ask questions!
Expert: Leigh Ishikawa Date: 7/31/2007 Subject: Career Advice/Suggestions!!
Question Hello, my name is Mark. I'm 17 and I just started college here in Fremont, CA. I'm going to Devry University for Network and Communications Management. First off a little bit about me. I've had a strong interest in PC Tech and Gaming ever since I can remember. I enjoy reading about new tech and seeing charts and comparisons. I do have a passion for this industry. I want to start young as you can see. I don't want anything to hold me back. I'm holding off on the girlfriend thing for a while and I don't really care where I'm living. I'm chasing that money in a way I guess.
I'm just looking for more info on where I can go with my BS when I get it. Salary, Job Opportunities, Job Environment, and so on. I don't mind working the long hours and I'm very passionate and dedicate myself to something I love, such as PC's. I guess I just want a little bit more info on what I'm getting myself into.
Answer Tech in a fun field. I think you have realized that after watching/hearing about the dot com boom, what tech jobs are really like, and it's tough.
During the dot com boom, a lot of people had an egotistical and self serving mentality that they can dictate how things went. But that's not how tech firms were for years. Being in the tech industry since early 90's, I can tell you that it's long hours with mostly poor pay until you get to a senior position within the teams. And that is indeed difficult.
There are several types of jobs, but most fall into two types of job. Demanding, and repetitive jobs. Demanding jobs are challenging and will drain your life, if you let it. But the good part is you can learn a whole lot in short amount of time. A repetitive job is where people do the same thing over and over again. Some are process intensive (dealing with people and beaucracy), or it can be manual labor of punching in, or just doing the same/similar taks over and over. The latter usually has fixed hours, people are always complaining but the good part is you will definately have life as your work life is horrible. And most fall in somewhere in between. But successful people will tell you that you can take the job from the latter and turn it into something positive with great effort. Most of the effort is fighting the people who want repetitive non-thinking task because they don't want to think, or they can't.
So here's an advice I would give to you as a friend.
1. Get a degree from a well known university. College is not just about learning the trade. It's an experience to open your mind to all kinds of things. That includes meeting all kinds of people (who are learning different things), and taking classes that you will never have a chance to otherwise. (Like geology, anthropology, history, film, business and so forth). It's not just about getting out of there and starting to work. Trust me, you will have plenty of time to do that.
2. Job opportunities. As someone who's been doing this for some time and having watched people get layed off (including my father), I can tell you that there is no such thing as sure thing. An average person will go through 3 major career changes in our lifetime. Fortunately for me, I hadn't. I do very well in my field, and I love what I do. But I'll be frank with people that I am lucky. Most people aren't fortuate enough to make good living at what they like. That's because most people don't know what they want. Or what they want don't bring in good money.
3. A life advice. You are rushing to be an adult. That's stupid. Like I mentioned earlier, you will have plenty of time to make money.
4. What you should be doing. Well, if you feel like "I'm ready to live my own life" (which is often what people mean by "I want to work"), then my advice to that person is this. Happiness starts and ends with knowing yourself. Nobody in their right mind would say "Darn it, I wished I spent a couple more hours at the office doing x." when they are on their death bed. So, you should be spending your youth figuring out what happiness means to you. And that leads to the next advice
5. You are an emotional, ever changing creature. How you saw yourself 5 years ago, was different then how your saw yourself 10 years ago. 5 years from now, your view of the world and yourself will be different. But I can tell you that your only regret in life is not doing what a 17 year old should be doing. That is spending time with friends, and being a teenager. And that includes chasing girls. Some of us had to grow up fast because of our environment. But you should still do the things everyone at your age is doing. As stupid as it seems, it's important. Because skipping it will hinder you in your life later.
That said, it sounds like you are passionate about technology. And I think that is the reason why my advice is you should apply to colleges like Cal Poly. If you can't get in, don't worry. Get good grades for 1 year, and transfer. That should be your highest priority. Because you are at the age where your mind is like a sponge and you can learn everything you can. And honestly, the most important thing right now as a friend talking to you is to tell you that nobody but yourself can answer these questions. And your options are limited only by your capability to look beyond what you were taught as a young adult and forumate your opinion. I think you should take a lot of science courses like algorithms, and physics and see what you want to solve.
And that's because right now, you ARE the next generation and you ARE supposed to be having bigger dreams then getting a job and making the salary. You ARE supposed to be dreaming about solving the world's problems. And that will be determined by the quality of people who you are surrounded by. As long as you are surrounded by people who think like you, you will be stuck where you are. So for me, I say go to a big univerisity with all kinds of programs and talk to them and see how much there is out there.
Don't worry about jobs as industry changes. Just be agile enough to go with the flow. I'm glad to see that you are being proactive. But being someone who had planned his life early as my parents taught me to be that way, I learned for myself that if you are a deligent, hard working, humble individual, one can get themself out of most bad situation given time.
Print this out, and take it to someone older, and ask what they think. I am sure people have told you about going to college and all and you are thinking "Why should I bother, I know what I want.". But what I hear is "Given what I know so far, I know what I want.". I was forced to take business degree, but I ended up in technical field. But I am very happy with the fact that I went to a big University and I was able to meet so many people. Even though I wished that I had taken a different degree, I wouldn't change that experience. As much as it's important that you grow professionally, it's important for you to grow as an individual. And for you, the latter is far more important then you can imagine.
But do think about what I have said and come back and let me know.
