I attended the Talk Story with Tech Professionals event hosted by PACE on Tuesday October 11th. At this event 30 professionals within the tech industry shared more about their career experiences and advice on how to break into the industry. I have been to networking events in the past but never one that solely focused on the Technology Industry. I got to meet so many people and even ran into a few of my ITM 352 classmates.
I spoke with Ed Watson, a Program Management Office Leader at Amazon, and he enlightened me on people’s tunnel vision view of jobs in the tech industry. He told me people think in order for you to work in tech you need to learn how to code because you are going to code all day. He said there are so many nontechnical roles within tech that make just as much. I just recently started becoming interested in becoming a project manager one day and he had so many stories to tell about the benefits of his experience as a project manager. I learned he enjoys being a project manager because nothing ever gets old since you are constantly learning and working on new project. He encouraged me to get a certificate in project management eventually since it will allow me to stand out amongst the competition. After speaking to Ed, I am even more interested in becoming a project manager for a tech company one day.
I also got the pleasure of speaking with Michael Sommer, a software engineer at Amazon. His career journey was fairly interesting and unlike anyone else I have met before. He went to UH to get his undergrad in music and eventually went back to get his masters in computer science to get a high salary to support his family. He shared with me all the companies he worked for before and how he didn’t get into Amazon when he first applied. What stood out to me the most was his experiences working as a software engineer at Home Depot. I was curious about the company since I just recently submitted an internship application for the company, so I asked him a lot of questions about his experiences working there. He told me Home Depot was one of the best companies he has ever worked for because of their emphasis on work life balance and their uplifting environment. Michael taught me the importance of working hard for what I want even if that means trying over and over until I get it right.
This was the first PACE event I have ever went to and I am so happy I decided to go. I am used to going to business networking events with Shidler or my club, American Marketing Association, so this was a nice change of pace. Hear I get to learn so much about the different backgrounds of tech professionals from Hawaii which has inspired me to continue working hard even when things get tough. I would highly recommend all MIS majors to attend this event in the future, if hosted again.