Nowadays technologies are on every step of people lives and for obvious reasons the IT field needs specialists to make it work efficiently. Therefore there are a lot of job opportunities in IT companies and they are not afraid to hire developers who are still studying, giving them a chance to improve themselves as specialists. And I am one of them, I am a 3rd year student at Kaunas Technological University and I work part-time for an IT product development company Xplicity.
IT’S DIFFERENT THAN I IMAGINED
I have been working and studying at the same time for almost a year now, I started in a start-up company as a Ruby on Rails developer. After half a year working there I was approached by the HR Manager at Xplicity with an offer to work as a developer for their project- Migozino, a personalized social network magazine, and I accepted it. In my first year of studies I was always imagining how it is in IT companies, I thought that it must be similar to university, but once I started to work I changed my opinion. It was a completely new experience because most of the time the products being developed are large scale products and they require a whole team to make it happen. So it doesn’t matter if you are an amazing specialist you do have to have “team spirit” and “team personality” in order to successfully develop an extensive project.
COMBINING IT STUDIES AND WORK
It is no secret that working and studying simultaneously requires a lot of time and sometimes you need to sacrifice your free time. It might be worth it though because you gain a great chance to improve your skills and you learn how to plan your time better. Another valuable thing is that the IT companies have senior specialists who are better, have more knowledge and practice in the field. Therefore you get a chance to learn from them, gain new practical skills and ask for help when needed. Working while studying helps you to gain that practical experience universities often are not able to as well as you learn how to apply the knowledge you have. Of course, studying and working at the same time has its drawbacks too, personally for me it is the free time. Sometimes I feel that I lack free time from both university and work. But I think studies and work at the same time helps you to improve as a specialist and once you graduate you’ll be better and more competitive employee in the highly competitive market of IT.
AN ALTERNATIVE TO WORKING WHILE STUDYING- SUMMER ACADEMY
In the recent years IT companies have started to organize academies for IT students. It is a set of courses where in most cases the employees of the company teach the students. The employees teach new skills, introduce the company and its culture and present inside projects to the students. This initiative is extremely useful, because students have a chance to see what they are capable of, get practical experience and they get to know the company. Usually after the courses the best ones have a chance to become part of the company. Isn’t that awesome!? (Yes, it is!)
C# ACADEMY AT XPLICITY
Also Xplicity is hosting such an academy this summer – C# Academy, and there are many reasons why participating is an excellent decision. Xplicity has intelligent and experienced software and web developers who want to help you to learn! During the academy you’ll have a chance to learn more about technologies like C#, .NET, Agile (scrum), JavaScript and more. Besides you’ll get a look inside the company, how work is done in an international company, how projects are developed as well as how we take breaks and how we relax- table Foosball, Xbox, board games, cakes and laughter is a part of our jobs. So if you want to learn more about software development, join the academy this summer. By the way, the best ones will go to the Netherlands to visit one of our clients- Login VSI and might be offered a contract at Xplicity. Don’t miss a chance to be the one!
JUST GRADUATING IS NOT ENOUGH
If you really want to be a great programmer, program architect, tester or any other specialist you have to learn every day. You have to constantly improve yourself, because technology is changing so fast and if you won’t be able to keep up with the pace of it you might not succeed in your specialty. Therefore students should search for self development opportunities all the time, like internships, academies and even a job. Because it is a great feeling to become better at what you do every day.