Knowing what you want to do when you grow up is overrated.
I just went to the UQ Careers Fair. Scary place. Lots of massive companies, like Suncorp, BP. Big names like Qantas, Commonwealth Bank. Lots of big engineering companies. Lots of government stalls, from the army and the intelligence service to every federal government department I can think of, to the Brisbane City Council. Queensland Transport and Queensland Rail. UQ itself.
Stuff of interest to me? Well. Not so much. A few good software development places. Again, a couple of big names. IBM, Canon (the research section), Red Hat. The TechnologyOne guy said interesting things.
But I don't think I want to do just straight software development. Oh sure, it's interesting, but... In that respect, Canon was the most interesting thing I saw there, because I'm more interested in research and development, I think. I don't want to be working on the next iteration of communications billing software (or even worse, maintaining the current one). I'd rather be helping to figure out how to do something completely new! I think I've said before that artificial intelligence fascinates me. Perhaps the best thing for me to do is just to keep on working on my degree, and get into postgrad research at uni. I think there are lots of possibilities there. I just have to wait until the end of next year, and then I can start honours and see what I can do! Next year I'll be doing the big IT project, which may also be good. We shall see...
And now for something completely different. I'd like to wish my best friend from Melbourne a happy birthday! She's 21 today. If you read this, Alison, happy birthday!
PS. Does anything exist with less friction than the scroll wheel of a mouse in the UQ ITEE computer labs? I like scroll wheels. I use them a lot. If the outside of a scroll wheel has no friction, it's not very easy to use it.
So if you go into a UQ ITEE lab and see fingernail marks in the scroll wheel of a mouse you're using... that might very well have been me.
Stuff of interest to me? Well. Not so much. A few good software development places. Again, a couple of big names. IBM, Canon (the research section), Red Hat. The TechnologyOne guy said interesting things.
But I don't think I want to do just straight software development. Oh sure, it's interesting, but... In that respect, Canon was the most interesting thing I saw there, because I'm more interested in research and development, I think. I don't want to be working on the next iteration of communications billing software (or even worse, maintaining the current one). I'd rather be helping to figure out how to do something completely new! I think I've said before that artificial intelligence fascinates me. Perhaps the best thing for me to do is just to keep on working on my degree, and get into postgrad research at uni. I think there are lots of possibilities there. I just have to wait until the end of next year, and then I can start honours and see what I can do! Next year I'll be doing the big IT project, which may also be good. We shall see...
And now for something completely different. I'd like to wish my best friend from Melbourne a happy birthday! She's 21 today. If you read this, Alison, happy birthday!
PS. Does anything exist with less friction than the scroll wheel of a mouse in the UQ ITEE computer labs? I like scroll wheels. I use them a lot. If the outside of a scroll wheel has no friction, it's not very easy to use it.
So if you go into a UQ ITEE lab and see fingernail marks in the scroll wheel of a mouse you're using... that might very well have been me.