When I meet other tech students or connect with them on LinkedIn, the first question they ask me is how I ended up in Tech. That's because when you browse through my experience what you will see is a list of Administrative and Marketing experiences that have built up over the years from my first job as an Administrative Assistant at a Police Station up until my current role as a National Secretary. What they won't see is the little things that happened behind the scenes that led me to the journey that I am on today and so as I write this article this is my way of inviting you into my story so you can understand exactly what led me to where I am today and where I plan to go tomorrow. Welcome to my GQ Interview. Make yourself comfortable. Mi Casa, Su Casa. Can I get you anything? A glass of lemonade? A sandwich? Alright cool let's begin.
My First Experience with Technology
My earliest recollection of my experience with technology begins in the early 2000's. My Aunt and Uncle who I would stay with in the summers had relocated to a new area and they had gifted my older cousin, Mark a computer. Now, where I grew up owning a computer in that time was next "to being a billionaire". Now I don't quite remember if it was a second hand computer or if it was brand new but if it was new I probably need to ask my uncle when he was gonna tell me he was a billionaire.
What I do remember about Mark's first computer however is that it looked like a metal book. I had never used one before but Mark and I were best of friends and so naturally when I visited for the summer he readily took out his new favorite gadget to showcase to me. It was a Dell laptop. I don't quite remember the model but as expected it used the Windows Operating system and so I remember playing games like Purble Place and Solitaire on it almost everyday that summer. Literally.
Mark and I were kids so naturally we loved the idea of using technology as a means of entertainment or as we put it FUN. But what we were soon about to find out was that tech could be used for so much more.
Mark's Challenge
While playing with the neighbor's sons Mark found out about something a younger me couldn't quite fathom: The Internet. A whole new world where tech extended beyond just gaming capabilities. Our neighbor's son had told Mark that the way to connect to the internet was through this signal called WIFI. And so Mark, now had a challenge for me. My mission, if I choose to accept was to connect us to the WIFI so that we could use the signal to access the world called the Internet.
Now this is the part of the story where I reduce my uncle's billionaire status to millionaire because as you would've guessed -because we weren't already connected-we didn't have WIFI and so my mission was to connect us to our neighbors' WIFI so that we could access it.
After toggling around the laptop for a while, I figured out where the network connection settings were, watched as the computer loaded the different wifi network, selected our neighbor's and entered the password we received. And just like that we were able to connect to the Internet. And so my curiosity, initiative and willingness to figure things out on my own landed me the worthy title of my family's "Defacto Tech Support"; a position I will have for the rest of my life😂.
Here and There
As the years went by I started using technology more and more to solve life's problems and complete tasks. From writing resumes for family members using Microsoft Word to troubleshooting electronic devices such as phones, laptops and TV's , I would soon realize how natural it was for me to help people solve their problems. Others thought that this would make me useful in Customer Service, Management or just general people-centric roles. My family thought it would make me the perfect doctor or nurse and well me, I just thought it would make me good at whatever I chose to do.
IT was never hard for me in school but it was never something I truly paid attention to. Once in the eight grade when we received a test that my teacher said almost the entire class had failed, I was surprised to see a B. I remember being told I did well but never really thinking "Hey I would really try this". By the 11th grade I would've attended a summer business program at University of California Berkeley and I would have my eyes dead set on studying and working in the field of business. I liked leading presentations, teaching, writing reports and business plans, talking to people and creating solutions to their problems. And so this was it, it had to be. I had finally found my golden ticket. So what happened?
The Solidifier
In 2020, I started college as a Marketing Major and well I found that there wasn't much excitement in my courses. It felt like my summers spent at Berkeley, paired with running a business club led to me wanting more. I liked practically applying business concepts, not just reading or writing about them and so I found that my internships or outside exposure to the field brought me more excitement than my course itself. Sometimes the concepts I learnt felt redundant and so I found myself having moments where I started questioning if this was really what I wanted to do.
And then came guidance. I had a meeting with a professor at my school and we spoke about my concerns with my major. I told him why I liked business which really came down to two P's- People and (solving their) Problems and well he asked me if I had ever considered IT. We stayed on the call for about an hour and we discussed topics I could look into and from there I'd like to say the rest was history. At the end of that semester, I had to withdraw for financial reasons but I left that semester with something great: a seed planted and a desire to learn more about the field of IT.
The way I see the world has never been the same from ever since.