I.T. is not only for Geeks
Towards the end of January, our students in Transition Year received a visit from Joanne & Catherine, two people who work in Facebook in the social media & Technology Industry. They work in partnership with C.W.I.T: Connecting Women in Technology. They gave a talk about I.T & its relevance to modern career paths.
Some of the points they gave:
• Lots of travel involved.
• Social, flexible & positive atmosphere.
• Industry growing exponentially.
They then showed a video revealing unusual facts about social media: Babies called “Facebook” & “Twitter” in the Middle East, New Yorkers learning about Earthquakes on the East Coast of America on Twitter 20 seconds before they felt it.
In Facebook, they look for people with the following types of skills:
• A “Can-do” attitude.
• High Integrity
• Well Balanced
• Listen to others
• Risk Taking
• Team Work
• Openness
• Flexibility
• & Self Awareness
They send recruits to America to train in these social skills &, in particular, the ability to give feedback. They promote a casual work environment; featuring meetings over pool tables, scooters in the corridor, informal work attire & casual work spaces. This is representative of most other tech companies.
There are many disciplines required in Tech companies. While they still need engineers, user support, programmers, etc., there is also a big need for marketing, finance, H.R. & even chefs, artists & many more.
In summary, the speakers asked us questions, concerning possible careers: “What are your strengths?”, “What do you like doing?”, “What experience do you have?” & “What does the job market look like?” They ended the talk by inviting the T.Y. group to visit their new Dublin Offices in the future. All of our year was excited about the prospect of visiting them & gave a round of applause to the speakers for their interesting & enlightening presentation.
For a short Video of the visit click below: