ACS SA Member Journey with QuQing (Frank) Ling
3 December 2021
This month we highlight a wonderful ACS SA Member Journey story. Frank attended our September Career Development Workshop and has recently secured his first Tech job in Adelaide. Frank shares with us what helps him keep his inner peace and how he managed to secure that all important first job.
1. Tell us a little bit about yourself (Course you studied, university, hobbies):
I have a Master's Degree in information technology (IT), and my focus areas are web development and software engineering. I finished this degree at Flinders Uni. I chose my university because it is a very reputable and practical school helping their student to gain more employability, and I wanted the chance to increase my chance to secure a job in the field as I have no working or academic experience in IT. And it turns out that my Uni is really good at this. Especially, the career hub and its horizon award project help me to gain more insights into this industry. Without this help, I would not know what I am supposed to know while finding a job.
While I spent most of my Uni time studying, attending career events, coding for my own projects, doing part-time jobs and socializing with local societies, I only kept one hobby which allows me to keep my inner peace in this busy life. This hobby is fishing. Normally, fishing is a waiting game but I have my own style. I am actively searching for different types of fish and trying to make different tackles to solve the problems that I have met, like windy days, rocky bottoms, turbulent currents, etc. Whenever I am facing the blue ocean and searching for the trace of fish, my brain gets the rest it needed from my busy life.
2. Tech changes fast. How do you keep your tech skills up-to-date?
Yes, the tech is changing so fast that it might be exhausting to pursue the goal of being updated. I am trying to but I have not yet achieved that. I normally use YouTube, Linkedin Learning and Udemy to learn new skills and check what is new that has been invented in my field. Also, some of my networks from this industry helped me to understand new trends. However, it is still not sufficient to say that I have all the updates that I needed for my future work. In this point, I believe that as a worker in IT, we always need to learn what is needed for our project while it is impossible for us to own all the most suitable skills before we start a new project. So I guess it is cool that we do not know and we sometimes do not own up-to-date skills. What is important for us is that we have the ability to learn new skills needed and we are searching for more suitable tech for new projects.
3. How has ACS membership, in particular, the ACS SA Career Development Workshop, supported you in your journey to a tech career?
The ACS SA Career Development Workshop helped me a lot. It is like the final key handed to me to secure a position. While I was fully prepared as far as skills, internship experiences and professional development, I just simply could not get a job before I got the insight of recruitment from this workshop. After this workshop, I started to question what merits the recruiter would be looking for in me as an employee but I do not own. I started to enquire with my networks and search online tutorials. I prepared for my interview more appropriately. That is when I finally got my first job in tech here in Adelaide.
4. What is the greatest advice that helped you land this job?
After getting all the insights about the local recruitment in SA, I believe the most important advice is “think from the recruiters’ perspective.” It is only a piece of hollow advice without all the insights, so it is important to attend the Career Development workshop to get a full understanding about this important piece of advice.
5. Why would you encourage your peers to become ACS members?
Because ACS is the best way for international students to get industrial connections and obtain insights into this field. If one has missed this chance, they would need to go a long way to get those benefits.