ACS Event Report

STUDENT DETAILS
Student Name: Yogit Dhakal
Provider ID Number:
ACS Member Number: 3326574

EVENT DETAILS
Topic: ACS Young IT Professionals
Speaker: Angela Lee, Henry Louey and Clare Mann
Date: 20th April 2017
Event Venue: 11 Harbourview Cerscent, Kirribilli Club, Lavander Bay, 2060
CP Hours: 6
SFIA Alignment: Professional development (PDSV) – 5

ACS – Professional Year Program – ACS Event Report Template

Event Introduction

I attended ACS Young Professional Half Day Conference organized by Australian Computer Society for IT
students on 20th April, 2011. The event was target for students in their professional year program giving
them an opportunity to meet their requirement for attending 3 ACS events worth 6 CDP hours. The
event was categorized as SIFA category of Professional development (PDSV) – 5.

In the event, I met different people across different professions with whom I had chance to talk and
exchange experience. Some experience I exchanged with fellow students were about student life as an
IT student, International experience, talks on Professional Year program and plans, exchange of plan on
securing a IT job in future, talks on what skills sets to impress on interviews and so on. Further, I had
talks with some IT professionals, who were students but already working on IT jobs. They advised me on
how to prepare effective resume, how to determine which stream of IT to select as future profession by
comparing my skill sets, and advised me to get enrolled on some professional certification course to
improve chances of getting a job.

The event was also helpful as professionals expressed their Australian experience of being IT
Professional. One person I talked to was Mr. Rabin Karki, who worked in a Web development company,
that he didn’t want to disclose details due to his work compliance. He was a fellow student enrolled in
Professional Year program, but has been working in IT profession for 4 years already. We met while
walking towards the venue, where we talked about what we were doing currently, and I asked him
advices on securing a IT Job in Australia. He gave me different advices but the advice that strike me was
to put aside all other things out of priority and be committed to improve skills and having positive
attitude.

The event had 3 speakers talking on 3 sessions of different topics.

- Angela Lee on Expectation Vs Reality (Session 1)

- Henry Louey on Vendor Certificate or Academic Qualification? Why not Both? (Session 2)
- Clare Mann on Skills and Mindset required to secure your next job or contract (Session 3)

Session 1: Expectation Vs Reality

This speaker of this session of workshop was Angela Lee, who works in cyber security department of
Common Wealth Bank. She came to Australia from Singapore as an International Student, and expressed
her international student experience and challenges she faced in Australia. She presented what
differences she faced with local student in terms of expressing ideas and cultural differences. Further,
she talked about feeling on disadvantage due to difference on lifestyle, her motive to study in Australia
and being an international student. However, she also talked on how she converted her disadvantage of
being non-local to her advantage. She inspired student to convert the fact of being international student
and utilize it to express cross culture experience to local here and be more friendly to them and try to
understand cultural differences. This will help students like us as we have knowledge of different culture
and society, which will become advantageous on global platform. The key part of her talk was the
inspiration of being focused on our dreams and doing hard work to achieve success.
ACS – Professional Year Program – ACS Event Report Template
Session 2: Vendor Certificate or Academic Qualification? Why not both?

The next session was by Henry Louey on differences of vendor certification and academic qualification
and how to utilize them on being successful in professional life. Henry is a public speaker and business
development executive has more than 25 years of experience in ITC education and training. In this
session, Henry talked about a common topic among ITC student, where some student believed
Academic qualification to be advantageous while some prefer Vendor Certification effective on cracking
jobs. He talked about both type of qualification and explained that both have their advantages in their
field. We learned that academic education is more about understanding concepts and creating a
background, while certification is more on learning core skills in a particular field. He expressed to
students that after successful qualification it is essential for students to do some certification to achieve
success in jobs. The key message by Henry was to utilize both types of qualification as a student to be a
better professional.

Session 3: Skill and Mindset required to secure your next job or contract

The final session was by Clare Mann, who is a psychologist by profession. She talked about the skills and
mindset that we students need to prepare to be successful in jobs. Her talked about her experience at
different levels in professional life, and her exposure, where she has realized the importance of soft
skills and a proper mind set required in this global world of today.

She talked mostly on the importance of communication skill and a right attitude at today’s world in a
professional life. She talked about standing out as a knowledge expert and be a valuable product to
business owners. She talked about being progressive in professional life and being a global product
rather than sticking to old school rules. She inspired students to stand over the new technology barriers
and create a strong mindset to be successful.

ACS – Professional Year Program – ACS Event Report Template