Wrapping things up....

Well, what can I say? It's finally time to start wrapping the semester up. All group projects have been completed and turned in and I only have two finals to take next week! This is of course my final semester and I will be graduating in December. I can't believe this is finally happening. All of the hard work over the past few years are finally going to pay off. I'm extremely excited to end this chapter of my life and begin the next. Thankfully, I already have a job lined up as a IT Consultant at CGI. I start my new job in January! This has been a very challenging, but rewarding semester and I'm glad it has come to an end. Next thing on the list is visiting the family over Christmas break and enjoying a little time off before starting my new career.

Master the Mainframe

Over the course of this semester I have been competing in IBM's Master the Mainframe contest. I must say, this was one of the most challenging, but beneficial competitions I have ever participated in. I am a very hand's on learner and this challenge allowed me to interact with a mainframe and issue commands to the system to accomplish a variety of tasks and challenges. First of all, the contest is broken into three parts. The first part only takes about thirty minutes to complete and consists primarily of setting up the emulator to access the mainframe, logging into your account, and getting use to issuing commands to the system. The second part of the challenge is a lot more difficult and time consuming. I worked this part over the course of two months when I could fit it in between school assignments. In part two, I was able to submit batch files for processing, access the storage management facility, use IBM's OMEGAMON software to check system performance, execute programming code in multiple languages, create data sets and store files, and issue advance system commands. Unfortunately I have ran out of time to complete part three, which takes several months according to the website. The competition ends on December 28th, and all files have to be submitted for verification by that date. This competition was challenging, rewarding, and fun. I feel like I learned more from competing in this than I have learned in some of my college courses. I would definitely recommend this competition to anyone that is interested and doesn't mind getting their hands dirty while spending some serious time learning about Mainframes. By completing part two, I am able to submit my resume to the IBM SystemZ job board. This alone is worth the time and effort if you have any intentions of pursuing a career working with mainframes.

IT-oLogy Gateway Career Fair

IT-oLogy is a non profit collaboration of businesses, academic institutions and organizations dedicated to growing the IT talent pipeline, fostering economic development and advancing the IT profession. This past week, I volunteered to work at a Career Fair that was being hosted by IT-oLogy. The fair brought in multiple IT companies and recruiters that were looking to hire new employees, as well as offer internships. This was a great way for student's to connect with potential employers and learn about IT-oLogy as well. As a volunteer, I assisted with signing in guests and helped vendors set up their booths. I got to speak with a couple of employers as well, including VC3 and Verizon.