Changing the world one click at a time
THINK you got what it takes to be a geek? The Urban Dictionary ( www. urbandictionary.com) cleverly defines “geek” as “the people you pick on in high school and wind up working for as an adult”.
Gone are the days when geeks were the people with ill-fitting yellow pants and bigframed spectacles.
Today’s geeks are the people able to hold a 20-minute conversation on iOS 6 versus Jelly Bean.
At Monash University Sunway campus, the School of Information Technology welcomes the best brains, including geeks, and trains this elite group to be future movers and shakers of the IT world.
The present and the future are all about Information Technology. Students use it while still in kindergarten, and college students can’t be without a computer when preparing their assignments. Corporate players need to use PowerPoint when presenting their proposals to clients to create a more professional message.
But going way beyond that is to understand how technology is able to change every facet of life; then, the School of IT trains you how to create the technology to change the way people live.
In any career today, be it in finance, law, engineering, medicine, business, or entertainment, it requires a command of technology. Monash IT graduates have many and varied careers including medical consultants in India, TV producers in Malaysia, criminal identifiers in Australia, entrepreneurs in Vietnam, oil industry executives in Bangladesh, and software engineers in China.
Information Technology is about making things that are useful to others. The thing about IT that can be both frustrating and exciting is that it constantly changes and is updated. IT magazines would be guaranteed of content to feature as there is always a group of inventors somewhere who are using current technology and brainstorming on how to improve today’s gadgets and create more items that people suddenly realise they cannot live without.
Besides job satisfaction and opportunities, IT degree holders receive attractive salaries. The Annual Robert Walters Global Salary Survey reports chief information officers earn an average of between RM350,000 to RM420,000 a year, IT Consultants earn RM95,000 to RM130,000 a year, and Help Desk Support Analysts earn between RM40,000 and RM45,000 per annum.
Today’s IT classes are run by lecturers who need to be 10 steps ahead, be deep in the know of the latest trends in the industry, and be purveyors of this profound and respected field of technology.
Monash University Sunway campus recognises the importance of students to have good communication with current industry players, and runs the Industry Insight Program where top players from the field of Information Technology are brought into the university to speak to students about the working world and all that they may experience out there, as well as what will be expected of them.
These sessions benefit the students who get to ask various questions to ensure they have the correct idea of the field they are interested in or even not interested in.
The industry players also have something to gain in this situation – they are able to get the best students and be the first to offer them a position in their companies.