That’s a bit of a cliché opening, isn’t it…
Anyways, hello there! My name is Taidgh Murray, I’m (currently) a final year student in a computer science degree in the National University of Ireland, Galway. Although, I’m planning to get a Higher Diploma in Software Design & Development (That remains to be seen however).
If you’re reading this, welcome! I recently decided to purchase a website, to better understand how web development works, to host any and all programming files in an interactive manner, and to direct potential employers towards when they ask to see what kind of work I get up to. I decided to also begin writing some blogs intermittently on various topics that might interest me, or anything that I’m knowledgeable about. Or even just a way to jot down my thoughts and ideas in a concrete form.
This post is more so just for me to play around with some of the tools WordPress has to offer me, and give a bit of a flavourful description of myself. I thought I might talk about my experiences as a programmer going through University. It’s also a good exercise for my writing muscles, which have been sorely lacking since Secondary School (Read: 4 years ago).
As a programmer, it’s difficult for me to gauge just how ‘good’ I am. Lectures are usually on the slow side, and my test scores are undoubtedly in the top percentile, but there’s a real issue in school learning, in that you never really get a feel for how to apply these ideas in the real world.
My Bachelor’s is peculiar. Unlike most in the Computer Science (CS) field (which is typically under a College of Engineering or Informatics), mine is sprung from the College of Science, specifically the School of Mathematics. The upshot of this is that my experience has been vastly different to most CS students, both figuratively & literally.
In a literal sense, being in the college of science means that I missed out on a 6 month placement scheme in this IT industry I want to get into. That’s not to say I’m starved of experience in the world of work, or indeed Programming experience, but I did miss out on an important chance to get develop some connections. In other words a networking opportunity.
Different does not always mean bad though. I could wax lyrical all day about the idea of the ‘Butterfly Effect’, but the bottom line is that many of my experiences in the course I ended up doing was positive. I doubt I’d have bought this website, so I can practice my skills on my own time if I had gotten into the College of Engineering & Informatics. The work experience I did get, while non-programming related, allowed me to practice a lot of other valuable work skills, like my communication skills (A skill which I feel many IT graduated are severely lacking in). I feel I was forced to work much harder and push myself further to try and keep my self competitive with my peers.
Most importantly, I was able to explore many different sectors of work. It’s very easy, as an IT Student, to be railroaded into that one sector. That’s not to put blame on them, it is still an exciting sector to be getting involved with, and the bubble is far from bursting. But I, forcing myself to say ‘Yes’ to as many work opportunities as they came up, got a deeper understanding to branch out from just Software Engineering based work.
A quote from Japanese author Yoshihiro Togashi sums up my University Career aptly;
Yoshihiro Togashi
“You should enjoy the little detours to the fullest. Because that’s where you’ll find the things more important than what you want.”
Good work Taidgh