2nd Year & The Future.
2nd year for many students is a pivotal time in their lives. Not only is It an important year for learning the intricacies of their chosen course, but a year of exponential personal growth and understanding in their self and their surroundings.
It's refreshing to enter 2nd year after realizing how insane 1st year of university is. To put it simply, students start to become comfortable with who they are. They learn to be themselves. For me, it is the perfect opportunity to piece the jigsaw together. I'm recognizing what i'm aiming towards when I graduate, and i'm recognizing and acting on my strengths and weaknesses.
Fancy MEETING You Here.
For the mentoring scheme, I was paired with Gianluca. I appreciated that I was very lucky given Gianluca was a graduate from the same course I am studying, Computer Applications & Software Engineering. I looked forward to each meeting because it was great gaining an insight into the industry from a really enthusiastic, positive individual.
I am also really glad for the chance to organise meetings, reflect on those meetings, follow up on discussions and most of all learn. Being responsible for setting up the meetings increased my organisation skills and social skills without a doubt.
We met in November, December, and March in his workplace, Workday. I loved the place! The design was relaxing and instantly put you in a good mood. The December meeting covered January because of exams, and February was reserved for a work Shadow day. Each meeting record goes into more details.
"Workday wants their team to bring passion to the job, believing that by making their workplace fun its staff will bring some of that energy into their efforts. In fact, they believe in it so much one of their core values is fun."
Hello There!
DCU woohoo
What even are cats?
February was Short. February was Great.
Experience Needed!
Look at my lovely CV.
It even has pink in it!
Reflection
My aim here is to show you and myself that I had fun while doing the mentorship program. I got involved to the best of my abilities and really seized as many opportunities as I could to better myself. If it wasn't for this scheme, I suspect that I would never have participated in a beginner's Ultimate Frisbee tournament in Belfast, or attended a coding event in J.P Morgan, OR signed up for cooking classes with DCU Healthy Cookery School. The scheme truly did help me explore new projects and situations, and I'm glad that I was able to leave my comfort zone. Quite an interesting comparison to 1st year when I think about it.
Looking back at last year, I felt that 'I had my head in the clouds' and that my vision was very narrow. There were systems to help me but I never had the intuition to find and use these systems. From no fault but my own, I underwent a pretty lackluster year full of too much worry. I was my own worst enemy. It would be a lie to say that I no longer worry but I have tools to resist any anxious thoughts now. So it's comforting knowing that 2nd year really was the turning point for me in grasping where I stood in the world.
It was beneficial to say the least taking advantage of the program and attending the numerous workshops made available to us. I have a more complete CV now and I have ideas on how to improve it in the future. As well as the workshops, the meetings themselves were very valuable. I came away from every session blown away by Gianluca's knowledge and looking forward to the next meeting. Reflecting on the meetings, I recognized that I developed many useful skills incidentally.
This portfolio is a way to acknowledge my growth so far in my studies and say thank you to my past self for taking the steps to change. There were many influences, visible and invisible, that developed my character over the past year and this scheme was one of the absolute impacts.