Tue Oct 11, 2022 I had the most incredible opportunity to attend the “Talk Story with Tech Professionals” event organized by the Pacific Asian Center for Entrepreneurship (PACE). I met and chatted face-to-face with 20+ CEOs, software engineers, company founders, product managers, and cybersecurity experts from companies and startups such as Google, Microsoft, Activision Blizzard, Amazon, and many more. There were a lot of golden nuggets that the tech professionals disseminated to the students; One was given to me when I had a chance to talk story with Edward. Edward works at Amazon as a PMP certified Project Manager with an MBA in Project Management (30 years of experience) and is an Air Force veteran (Chief Master Sergeant/E-9 retired). I asked him what students should do during their free time to be better equipped and stand out against their competitors once we start applying for jobs and he mentioned getting certifications. One certification that he highly recommends for us to look into is PMP.
As I went home after the event, I briefly researched the certification Edward mentioned. The PMP certification is a widely acclaimed project management certification worldwide. The Project Management Institute (PMI) promotes standards in the project management landscape. The PMP certification is for project managers in all industries as it illustrates that they understand a universal language of project management and can be utilized in any project worldwide. The exam gives its holders a chance to earn more money since PMP holders make 20% more than the industry average.
To conclude, having the chance to interact with the Tech Professionals has given me a more comprehensive understanding of what opportunities we can take right now to better our chances of landing the career we want once we graduate.
Here is a link to PMI if you want to check it out! https://www.pmi.org/