I was invited to speak at RMIT Vietnam on its Application Day. The target audiences of the speech are those who are considering applying for the IT program at RMIT and may not be very certain about the opportunities the IT career may bring. Because the IT program at RMIT is very software development-focused, so you will see a focus on software development in the speech. Also, as it was meant to be a 5-minute speech, I did not spell out all the details as well as many aspects (like challenges of the IT career) in the speech.
Below is the transcript of that speech. Note that the speech was delivered in English, so I will publish the transcript in English. Also, I left out the boring introduction about myself in the transcript. Without further ado, enjoy the reading.
Good morning. My name is Buu. I’m here as an RMIT Vietnam alumnus. I’m going to talk about the misconceptions that many people have about the IT career. And throughout my speech, I hope to make you have a clearer and more accurate picture about what it’s like studying IT and being an IT professional.
1. IT is difficult. You probably have heard people said things like “learning IT is much more difficult than learning commerce, accounting, and so on,” or “you need to be excellent at mathematics to become an IT expert.” I disagree. Find me a person who thinks a major, say commerce is easier to learn than IT, I will find you another person who thinks dealing with the computer is much easier and joyful than things like accounting, law, and marketing. The thing is, each career has its own challenges and some career is more suitable for some people with certain personalities than other careers. So, the keyword here is not difficulty, but suitability. If you possess characteristics that are suitable for the IT career, I can guarantee that you will find studying IT not very difficult and at the same time very joyful. That’s my personal experience and many of my colleagues. So, if you have pretty good analytical ability and you are interested in the computers and its technologies, it may be the case that IT is a suitable career for you.
2. IT people have low pay. You may also have heard that people in IT are not paid well. That’s not true. The truth is, like any other career, if you are the top of whatever things you do then you can receive the top pay. As of today, it’s not unusual to see a very good software engineer who is paid about 1,000 dollars per month. And if you are really good, after a few years you can step up playing a managerial or architect role and receive even bigger pay. Or if you don’t want to work for other people and you have a great business idea, there’s nothing stop you from setting up your company. And guess what, IT people seem to be good at building successful companies. Bill Gates was first and foremost a programmer before being a businessman. Google’s founders were graduate students at Stanford when they had the idea that the world needed a better search engine.
3. Studying IT only lands you into programming job. While it’s obvious that many people graduating from the IT program will start their career as software engineer, there are a bunch of other options for IT graduates. They can work as business analysts who are responsible for working with the clients to understand their business needs and help bring that understanding to other members. Or they can work as software testers who are responsible for the quality assurance of the whole project life cycle. And of course, if a person possesses sufficient managerial capacity, after a few years working in the industry, he can land into a managerial job. And that’s not everything, there are a bunch of other jobs for IT graduates including database administrator, software process engineer, researcher and so forth. The point is, there is no short of interesting jobs out there waiting for IT students and programming is definitely not the only choice.
4. IT people deal with computers, not people. If you’re afraid that your only interaction during work is with a computer then let me be the first to assure you: that would not be the case. Most useful software projects are done by teams and each member needs to be a good team player to be effective. Besides, in many companies, esp. outsourcing companies, engineering team will work with clients from foreign countries like the US. In such cases, engineers with good technical and foreign language skills will typical be sent to those countries to work directly with the clients. And they obviously need to do a lot of interaction with their clients to get the job done. Finally, depending on the role that you are assuming in the project. If you are a business analyst or project manager then there are a lot of client-facing, documentation, communication and possibly marketing duties that you would have to take on. So, the key takeaway of this is: yes IT people do work a lot with computers, but they also need to collaborate with many other people to really get anything done. Therefore, if you already have good skills in English, presentation, marketing and so on you already have a big leverage in the IT career.
That’s it. The four misconceptions about IT careers. I hope my talk has clarified some of your concerns and give you a more accurate idea about the IT career as well as the opportunities it may bring. Let me conclude my talk by sharing some personal thoughts about the IT industry as a whole. Nowadays, software has blended itself into almost every aspect of life. From the embedded software running in your iPhone and television to the line-of-business applications which are helping users pay electric bills online, helping doctors and nurses take better care of their patients, and Internet applications like FaceBook or Google which make it easy for people to collaborate, contact, and retrieve information, software are in one way or another affecting our lives. One of my most admired industry thought leaders, Alan Kay, once said “The best way to predict the future is to invent it”. I can’t help thinking that with the significant role of software in today’s world, IT people are those who have the best opportunities to make an impact to the world and sharpen its future. That’s it for my speech today. I wish you success in everything you do. Thanks for listening.
Good evening. My name is Tai. I’m here to post a first comment
“…each career has its own challenges …”
I am totally agree with this point. My wife, who is an accountant found it difficult to learn IT. My self, who is a software developer found it’s difficult to learn Accounting.
IT ppl have low pay, I have one example to support this point:
I am working in IT, see my friends, who work in other industries, have higher pay than me. My friends, on the contrary, found that I have better pay than them.
Thanks guy,it’s a great article. Everything you said absolutely right,and IT people who are volunteers to make the revolution, so it’s suitable with people who have a real passion….goodluck!
If you join outsourcing companies, you’ll never have opportunity to make an impact to the world, trust me
@Tai:
.
Very good points
@Minh:
Yeah, passion is the key. I wrote further about that particular characteristics in this post: http://www.buunguyen.net/blog/on-interviewing-beyond-technical-competence.html
@Jelda:
Do you really expect that people will trust you even when you don’t provide any supporting data or reasoning behind your thesis?
The idea that outsourcing is not good, outsourcing is not innovative and so on is, well, another misconception. And yet, I keep hearing about it from very junior IT people to more experienced ones. This misconception is something I will demystify in some future post.
For now, I’d be interested in hearing if you have more things to support your statement.
Good points, Buu! Everyone has to make their own choice(s) for many things including career. Suitable ones should help them to advance their lives. Also, there is a Vietnamese saying “Nhat nghe tinh, nhat than vinh”. You pointed it out right… Good post! Tks!
This post received quite a number of comments, some of them are lost because of this incidence. My apologies for those whose comments are lost.
@Anh Hung: you’re absolutely right.
Great speech Buu. I’m glad to see you have advanced so far in your career in both technical and people skills. It would be interesting for those who work with you. Keep up the good work.
@Duy: thanks for the nice words
. I hope my colleagues find it interesting working with me, cos’ I find it great working with them.
Well I consider that your published content is rather thoughtful with plenty of insightful info. In Any Event, was curious whether you would like to interchange contacts with my site, as I am searching to establish contacts to further spear point and get better web exposure for my website. I don’t really mind you putting my web links at the homepage, just approving this web links on this respective page is good and adequate. On the other hand, would you be kind enough reach me at my site if you are interested in the link exchange, I would really value that. Thanks and hopefully to get a reply from you soon!
the demand for embedded software these days are getting higher and higher.*”.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=140457499974&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT
embedded software is a more simplified and application specific version of PC Softwares,::
embedded software is quite in demand these days coz more devices use microcontrollers “”
would like to drop a line of text and say thanks a lotfor this and please don’t stop writing.
What you’re talking about is completely truthful. I know that every person may not guess the same, but I just must admit that you say it in a way that everyone can understand.
People often stand unnecessary pain without taking painkillers. It makes pain more difficult to control. That’s what i want to say here.
I trust you plus it certainly likely to help number of people.
Thanks for any other great article. The place else may just anyone get that kind of information in such a perfect method of writing? I’ve a presentation subsequent week, and I’m at the search for such info.
I just couldn’t depart your web site prior to suggesting that I really enjoyed the standard info a person provide for your visitors? Is going to be back often to check up on new posts
Would you be captivated concerning trading backlinks?
We happen to be truly comfortable in which Raymond can cope with his investigations through the suggestions this individual received with all the web site. It is now and again perplexing to simply be offering information that numerous another people have been marketing. We realize we’ve the writer by way of thanking because of this. The type of illustrations you get, the straightforward internet site navigation, the actual friendships a person help to engender ?ê? it’s everything amazing, and it’s also making the child and us all believe that this issue will be pleasant, which is incredibly mandatory. Appreciate just about all!
I conceive this site contains some very superb information for everyone : D.
I’m usually to running a blog and i actually recognize your content. The article has really peaks my interest. I’m going to bookmark your site and keep checking for new information.some tips here rent website
Such a wonderful written report! No idea how you wrote this text..it’d take me days. Well worth it though, I’d assume. Have you considered selling advertising space on your blog?
I just stumbled upon your web site…Thanks for great site!
I have to appreciation for the efforts you’ve made in writing this publish. This has been an encouragement to me. I’ve transferred this to a friend. thankyou
A really remarkable Post. Several thanks for sharing you?e wealth of Info with us Right after Once once again. It? no wonder your weblog does so well. Your site is nicely thought out, graphically impressive and full of excellent Assistance. Kudos.
My coder is trying to convince me to move to .net from PHP. I have always disliked the idea because of the costs. But he’s tryiong none the less. I’ve been using WordPress on a number of websites for about a year and am worried about switching to another platform. I have heard good things about blogengine.net. Is there a way I can import all my wordpress content into it? Any help would be greatly appreciated!
What i don’t understood is in fact how you might be no longer really significantly far more well-appreciated than you might be right now. That you are very intelligent. You realize thus considerably in terms of this matter, produced me in my view consider it from so numerous numerous angles. Its like ladies and males aren’t involved until it really is 1 thing to do with Woman gaga! Your personal stuffs outstanding. Always take care of it up!
This is the first time I visit your blog and I wanted to tell you it was a very beautiful and your articles were well written
Lubię sposób w jakitworzysz posty. Będę subskrybował.
The Blog is very much informative regarding the IT and Commerce link up.
I’m working in Prestashop Development.
Gives thanks for expressing this kind of with people, extremely beneficial.
Post całkiem niezły, dodaję tego bloga do ulubionych i będę odwiedzał częściej
When I originally commented I clicked the “Notify me when new comments are added” checkbox and now each time a comment is added I get four e-mails with the same comment. Is there any way you can remove me from that service? Thank you!
uCmsQpyjRv ugg boots cheap nGyeCjbqUy http://www.incompany.com/event/95498/
This is really a extremely beneficial read for me, Have to admit you might be 1 in the most effective bloggers and my seotons I ever saw.Thanks for posting this informative article.
Appreciate you for sharing these types of wonderful content. In addition, the optimal travel in addition to medical insurance system can often eliminate those concerns that come with visiting abroad. A medical emergency can quickly become very costly and that’s certain to quickly set a financial weight on the family finances. Having in place the suitable travel insurance package prior to leaving is definitely worth the time and effort. Thanks a lot
I like your way of Postging. I bookmarked it to my bookmark website list and will be checking back soon.
One thing I would really like to say is the fact that car insurance cancelling is a hated experience and if you’re doing the right things as a driver you will not get one. Some individuals do receive the notice that they are officially dumped by their insurance company they have to fight to get more insurance following a cancellation. Inexpensive auto insurance rates are usually hard to get from a cancellation. Having the main reasons pertaining to auto insurance canceling can help owners prevent sacrificing one of the most crucial privileges accessible. Thanks for the strategies shared through your blog.
movethatblock.com The Zune concentrates on being a Portable Media Player. Not a web browser. Not a game machine. Maybe in the future it’ll do even better in those areas, but for now it’s a fantastic way to organize and listen to your music and videos, and is without peer in that regard. The iPod’s strengths are its web browsing and apps. If those sound more compelling, perhaps it is your best choice.
Hey! this is really good post! I really enjoyed reading it. I will bookmark this site to return later. Looking forward to it. Thanks!
hey your blog design is pretty nice, fresh and spotless based on updated content, make people feel peace and that i always enjoy browsing net.
You could definitely see your skills within the paintings you write. The sector hopes for more passionate writers like you who aren’t afraid to say how they believe. Always go after your heart.
Hi there! This is certainly my own initial thoughts below so i merely want to offer a fast yell outside and point out I seriously like examining your sticks. Kudos a ton!
hello, i’m come here..
http://www.sacs-lancel.com/sacs-¨¤-main-lancellancel-sac-premier-flirt-pink-spciale-p-727.html
360 & Spherical Video Facilities Pan Tilt & Remote HD Camera Employ
Beneficial post. Remember to keep up the really good work.