I learned that I still have a lot to learn!
Intro to post-college graduation life
My little sister, Espe Adzem Mjl just graduated from High School in spring 2016 and was getting ready to start the college experience on the fall of 2016. I took her on a multiple cities summer trip as my graduation gift to her. We decided to take a road trip from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia for that weekend.
Halfway through the road, we made a stop for gas, as we were walking out the gas station store; I asked her “do you wanna drive for the rest of the road?” to which she replied: “I just got my permit! I never drove on a highway before!.. and I’m not comfortable driving a full-size sports car for the first time on a highway.”
At that moment, it hit me like a ton brick! I realized that is exactly how most of us feel when trying to apply for a job after graduating from college. I saw the similarities between getting a permit and getting a college degree. 4 years in college got me a bachelor degree, 5 attempts and many DMV permit test practice got my sister a permit.
Getting a driver’s permit did not mean she knew how to drive a car but It was proof that she has the basic fundamental knowledge required in order to learn how to drive. It was nothing but a restricted license given to a person who is learning to operate one or more types of motorized vehicles on a public road.
Why getting internships before graduating College is very important
When we are about to graduate, we are filled with mixed feelings and expectations. There is a feeling of excitement and accomplishment in one hand and the uncertainty of what the future hold on the other hand, whether we feel confident enough or not in our ability to confront the next step after graduating plays a bigger role in expectations we have on ourselves and the probability of succeeding in a professional life.
Albert Einstein said, “learning is experience, everything else is just information”. David Kolb stated, learning is the process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience. The knowledge acquired in classrooms prepared us by giving us an overview of what to expect in a workplace. However, those expectations are subjected to change depending on the need of companies or their domain of expertise.
The feeling of “knowing” which most recent graduates have, can be very harmful. Especially for those of us who graduate from prestigious national or regional universities with a higher GPA. Often what limits our learning ability is that we believe we already have “knowledge”.
The challenges I faced during my internships were real-world testes of my knowledge, what I thought I knew about my field of study in theory put to test in practice. After ruining into difficulties and issues, that feeling of knowing was put to test and shaken which opened me up to “learning how to learn.”
As a Computer Science and Information Technology major, I came to realize the need of continuing to learn outside the classroom in order to be up to date and keep up with new technologies and everything else in the IT industry which involved every day and at a fairly fast rate.
A career, a long-term job that one is passionate about is for many a professional goal. An internship is a better way to find out what we are good at and the probability of turning a job into a career. My expectations from my internship were mixed and a bit uncertain. I wanted to find out more about my abilities and competence. I was more focused and concerned on what I was able to accomplish rather than what the actual job position had to offer me.
However, the job position itself was very important as I was looking for career development while exploring my field of interest. The outcomes of my internship were key factors for my personal and professional development. After completing the tasked and projects assigned to me, I felt confident enough and ready to consider software engineering or any other job position related to software development as my career choice.
The most important lesson I learned from my internship was that “it’s better to know how to learn than to know.” When we know how to lean it becomes a part of our mindset, a way of thinking that helps us navigate through situations and problems we encounter at work or daily life.
Brain Herbert said, “the capacity to learn is a gift, the ability to learn is a skill, but the willingness to learn is a choice.” The IT industry is by far the fastest growing industry, I realized that I was going to be a student for life. It’s imperative to develop the ability and the willingness to continuously learn new information systems and technology, programming languages, and different software development tools in order to be a successful software engineer.
If you enjoyed this story, you might also like “So, you wanna find your passion!?”
Your ability to learn is not fixed, it can change with your effort! Cheers!!!
