In October, my alma mater – the Pennsylvania College of Technology – celebrated fifty years of offering IT programs.
As a 2005 graduate of the Data Communications & Networking program, I was given the opportunity to speak to fellow alumni, professors, and current students about my experience at Penn College and what I’ve been doing for the past eight years. I joined seven other alumni, including the former CIO of Penn College and professionals from the likes of Dell, Cisco, Geisinger Medical Center, and Susquehanna Health.
Although I’ve worked with professors daily in my career for the past six years, it still felt a little odd at first to be greeted by and to talk with my own professors as a colleague rather than a student. I’m sure I was a little awkward about it at first, but I eased up as the day went on.
As I don’t really enjoy talking about myself, by far my favorite part of my presentation was sharing some bits of advice that I’ve picked up along the way. I wasn’t really aiming for ten, but I guess you can call this my top ten pieces of advice to today’s IT students (and reminders for myself):