How did you become interested in your current career path
Npower student at Harlem location learning basic IT Fundamentals. #technology #IT
8 answers
Maureen’s Answer
I actually "fell" into my current career path. I was temping as an administrative assistant and did a great job in the department so they offered me a full time job to help the analysts with coding invoices and to learn accounting. I've had great mentors and the desire to learn and have gone far in my career. Follow what makes you happy and find a job that will help you do that. Also just because to study a certain field doesn't mean that is what you always have to do, I changed careers. Went from dentistry to finance!
sanu’s Answer
I got attracted to my current career path after attending a career seminar where they showed us a small demo of the technology that they were working on and the impact they were having in the technology space.
Monica’s Answer
I actually went to school first for Marine Biology prerequisites because I thought that was what I wanted to do but it didn't come natural to me at in in the science courses. Thinks just didn't click. It was more difficult for me.
Life happened where I had to switch locations and then I found an IT Computer Science program. I know that the IT industry seems to pay well enough to live comfortably.
However, one eye opening thing is that your schooling doesn't end with college, to stay relevant you will need to take courses to stay up to date with the industry.
Do your research and ensure you know what field and the longevity of that career within the climate of the industry.
Shaurya’s Answer
I am a network consulting engineer working for Cisco. I became interested in this path during my undergraduate degree college where I was pursuing Bachelor of Engineering in Electronics and Communications. We had a subject which covered computer networks and the curriculum was quite theoretical. Thus I explored outside college curriculum and found out about a very practical course - which was CCNA. During my summer training, I made a point to also go through that course and pass the test to be a CCNA certified. That was a great boost to my aspirations in the networking field. I eventually managed to work my way up and get a job in Cisco as network engineer.
Shaurya recommends the following next steps:
Victor’s Answer
By trying different things, I tried to work on all the fields that interested me before deciding which one I like the most and followed it after, and all were very different at that time. If you are still studying you can try to work on things you like and try, then you will see which one will give you the most satisfaction.
TAC’s Answer
I always followed my passion. Hard work and passion to do whatever a person want to do will aid in being successful. In addition, take the passion and combine your hard work to the next level by doing TAFE, Certifications and Uni Degree.
Kushal’s Answer
Exploring multiple options within the career path to understand what part of it gives motivation and self satisfaction. The intent to be a SME shows you the path forward. When you read about certain topics, you get exposure and then you need to understand which topic you like the most to read over and over again.
Thank you so much for your response. It was able to help me out on how to explore more in what I want to do
Nicole
Terence’s Answer
As an example, within a company, there may be 10 jobs that you could do with your general skillset (say - technical, programming type jobs), combining that with your personality (say you prefer to help customers and in teams, vs. working in front of a screen all day) you may narrow down to 5 jobs, and your interests (you feel challenged by overcoming big problems) may help you further narrow it down to 2-3 jobs (in this example, technical jobs that lead to product management roles). It's likely you could do any of those 5-10 jobs, but the 2-3 you narrow it down to would be the ones that you'll have the most success with as it's a blend of your developing skills and your own personality.
This is how you build a career path, as the jobs you're able to narrow it down to will be related and give you more insights and experience in that field. As you gain more experience and you grow, your view may shift. Using myself as an example, I knew I wanted to get into tech (interests), but not on the programming side (skills), I also realized I did a great job of figuring out multiple parts of a problem and figuring out a solution (personality). I took the opportunity to go to business school to round out my technical background so that I could go towards product management. While there, things shifted again when I realized I was the best at managing people (vs. projects/programs) vs. my classmates. I was able to put this all together into a career managing technical people (instead of managing product lines) and building teams in the software industry.
Things may change along your career, but as I mentioned, thinking about your skills, personality and interest together help you narrow down possibilities. Hope that helps.