CST 300 Final Presentation

I participated in the first weeks presentation for CST 300 with Karen Wisdom.  I'm glad I was able to get it over with on the first week.  Not only did I get it over with but I was able to start on my paper in the process.  I don't have too much of my paper but I have some of it.  This week I was able to catch up with a lot of my projects and homework.  It relieves me of stress that I had and allows me to focus on what's important, my projects.  Now that I have my presentation over with I can focus on my Internet Programming class and get the coding started.  I'm also able start my homework I have on Byun's homework.

Highlight of the week was my internship.  I had my second day Tuesday and am really learning a lot.  My first day consisted of quality assurance and I didn't feel like I was being challenged.  I think that they felt that and because of that, they switched my job.  Now I have a really interesting project that I have no idea how to do but know I can.  I can't wait to get started on it next week.  In preparation for that day I'm going to research the subject and learn the basics so that I have an understanding of what I'm getting into.

Friday

This was an interesting week.  I started my first day at my internship.  Language lines services is a nice company and it's close to home.  I'm looking forward to this summer because I'll be able to work full time.  Every company has something to offer and I hope I gain knowledge from this company.  I started this past Tuesday and they have me doing Quality assurance work.  They have an old system they used for quite some time and they're merging all that data onto a new system.  My job is to go in both systems and compare the information for each account.  I have to make sure that the old data was moved over to the new system and then I have to call the system to make sure the new data works out properly.  It was a good first day and I'm definitely looking forward to the others.

We're coming closer to the last couple of weeks of the semester.  I feel like I'm always trying to catch up with my assignments.  I'm in the CSIT-in-3 cohort and I can't afford not to pass a class.  The class I'm worried about is my CST 300 class.  We have tons of reading and assignments and I have to constantly check to see if something is due.  I have so many projects going on at one time and I'm always playing catch up.  This is by far is the most difficult semester I've had so far and I'm looking forward to the next spring semester, my last.

7 Habits of highly effective people

Being able to live a more meaningful and fulfilling lifestyle.  That's success.  Whether your rich or not I think that your success comes from happiness.  I'd be happy with the 2 million in the bank that's accumulating 4% every year, I'd be happy with that.  

I was talking about the definition of success and we came up with a different definition.  It's being able to be debt free, travel around the world, and have enough money in the bank to do things with your family.  That's our definition of success.  I personally want to be able to go on vacation with my family for a month and still have my job when I come back.  I think leaving to another country would be nice too.  Leaving to Spain for a year would be nice to do, that or another country.  

We had a good lecture about knowledge and skills.  My definition of knowledge is knowing things in theory and knowing things out of practice is when you have the skills.  

We also went over what our definition of habits are.  I think that habits are things you do repetitively and natural.  It's not a habit if you have to forcefully do it.  Habits are things you do repetitively.

7 habits of highly successful people is a really good book.  I read it about 7 years ago and it was really helpful.  It helps you see things differently and shows you what to do to get to those goals.  I think that one of the most important habits is sharpening the saw.  Especially in the tech world we're going in to we need to always sharpen the saw because there are so many new languages that are going to be released and we need to keep that competitive edge.  

One minute video

I've created a video, well more of a rough draft to a better video.  Basically, I introduce myself and talk a little about the program that I'm in.  I'm in a 3 year program created by Hartnell College and and California State University of Monterey Bay.  I also talked a little about me being a Computer Science Major with an emphasis in Software Engineering.  It was only about 30seconds to 1 minute
so I couldn't pack to much information about myself in that amount of time.  I then went on to talk a little about the languages that I've learned along with several languages that I want to learn.  This was an interesting assignment because I've never seen myself on video and now know what I look like when I'm up on stage giving a presentation.  Overall this was a good assignment and made me really want to practice more before presentations.  

One minute video

Silicon Valley

Today's presentation is one of my favorite presentations so far.  We had Jacob Heuser come in from the Silicon Valley and he talked several topics however, the talk about finances was most interesting to me.  I've always wanted to make six figures and now that I'm studying CS, six figures is tangible.  Jacob explained what the pro's and cons were when making that 100 thousand salary.  For starters he said that you would make 100 thousand but the cost of living in San Francisco is higher.  Small apartments can go for $4,000 dollars.  That makes a big difference in how you live.  It might be better to commute from Gilroy or somewhere closer that doesn't cost as much to offset living expenses.  I still think I'd take a job in San Francisco to have that on my resume and so that I can possibly get a better paying job closer to home.  It's a sacrifice I'd be willing to take.  Another thing Jacob talked about was planning your future.  Some people move around from job to job trying to make more money but sometimes it's better to just stay where you're at for a couple more years and get that experience so you can take it with you to the next company.  I agree with that.  I plan to get the most out of my job as I can so that I can move on to the next with the most knowledge as I can.  I have to build the most self worth as I can working where ever I end up.

Beyond Undergrad

In today's Friday lecture we learned about graduate programs and the preparation it takes to get there. Of all the lectures this Friday's was my favorite.  It was my favorite because I learned a large amount of information regarding the graduate school process.  I didn't know when to start applying to these programs and would have probably started the application process to late.  Now I know that I need to start prepping for the application process as early as this summer.  That goes for studying and prepping for the examinations that I'll have to take.  That's another thing I learned.  I didn't know that there were different examinations that I had to take depending on which major I decided to pursue.  I'm not sure what program I'll go into next but I feel like I want to take the Berkeley data science program.  I feel that taking that program will really help launch my career.  If I don't go to that I'd like to take the IT management program that CSUMB has.   Another really useful piece of information that I learned was that I probably shouldn't try to get my Phd.  There's no big difference in money in comparison with a bachelor or masters.   Being an effective team member is really important because it might help in the future.  It's what could make you or break you.  An example of what not to do is what the lady that Professor Tao was going to hire.  She didn't get hired because she wasn't an effective team member.  She met all the other requirements except for that one, one of the most important qualities a potential employee should have.

Reflect time management

After reading the time management strategies I learned that it's useful to use blocks to close off big chunks of time for certain task or events.  I currently use this strategy in my calendar planner that I have on my phone.  I have my computer's calendar linked to my phone.  What I did was block off all the time I'm in classes and the description of all those classes.  I also have the study times blocked of along with my Friday Cohort Enrichment.  

Another thing that I read on the article that I already do is prioritize my assignments.  So that I don't fall behind I use the sticky notes application that I have on my Mac and post sticky notes with descriptions of the assignments that I need to complete or that I need to review.  The high priority assignments are the ones that I put on the sticky notes because they're the first thing I see when I open my laptop. 

I think I'm pretty good at identifying resources to help me.  I'm constantly getting help from the tutors.  I was derailed for a bit with the transition to CSUMB from Hartnell and I really took of advantage of the tutors time by meeting with them once a week in order to  catch up.