Senior Internship - Week 4 Journal Entry

How has my education prepared me for my career goals? How will I keep learning after graduation?

A major part of my learning by going to school at Olympic College has been learning healthy ways to, well, learn. I have never been the best studier or the best at retaining information, but naturally, when put in an environment like a college, I have had to grow and adapt to perform at the level I want to perform at. An example of how I've grown in regard to how I approach learning is how I treat coding. Before I attended Olympic College I had already had a love of coding, but I couldn't figure out how to learn a language. I tried to pick up JavaScript and teach myself, but I feel like I lacked the discipline to realize my goal. After attending Olympic College, though, and learning nearly a dozen coding languages I feel like I could pick up any programming language in a few weeks.

I wish to enter the IT workforce as capable as possible and that wouldn't be realistic if I didn't attend college. Formal education provided me with the structure I needed to build foundational skills that ANY IT job would at the bare minimum require.

Another major ramification of attending Olympic College has been getting a job at the college's IT Help Desk. It has allowed me to get my foot in the door and to learn about technology and a professional IT environment before even finishing my degree.

Once I graduate, though, I will undoubtedly learn less per week than I am right now. I know I will miss it, too, because education has provided me with consistent growth. Who will I be if I am not still growing, I ask myself. So, I want to keep learning. But how? There are two resources I fell in love with during my time at OC: CompTIA TestOut and DataCamp. They are incredible at teaching skills, and like my Professor Becker, perhaps spending time taking these courses and learning is a much better way to spend my free time than mindlessly scrolling on my phone.