What's your job about?
I was a Developer in my past projects. I was the one who writes the code, designs the forms, the User Interface, and builds the report – so the features and functionalities of Microsoft Dynamics ERP will work. I also code, literally. Now, I am a member of application support. We interact with production business users, we face the clients, investigate and provide solutions, whenever we encounter errors in production that may affect the business, like causes of delay in a business process that might lead to profit loss. In my past project, I was in the back-end. Now, in my current project, I am in the front-end.
What's your background?
I was an intern in Hitachi way back in 2017 [with other interns]. Our internship lasted for six months. We worked so hard as an intern because we know it will be hard to look for a job after graduation. So, even on Christmas break, December 22 onwards, we still come to work. Because of that, our former supervisor saw potential in us and he endorsed us to be absorbed as a full-time employees. After a couple of months, we became part of Hitachi from April 30, 2018, until now in my third year. We only had two weeks of vacation then we proceeded to work immediately. What I like most here in Hitachi is when we achieve milestones, we have dinners and blowouts. They really show that hard work pays off.
Could someone with a different background do your job?
In my opinion, if you finished with an IT-related course, regardless of specialization, you can definitely do my work. If not Information Technology or Computer Science, I think they will have a hard time in handling it. This job requires knowledge in programming. There are also a lot of pre-requisite steps to learn the process and flow. For this job, one must be really patient especially in reading the code. You might be overwhelmed so you need to be patient for you to be able to understand. Logical thinking is also a must. It is also important to follow the best practices especially being organized, you will have to gather a lot of tables and classes. So, you need to be organized otherwise your program will be affected and it might mess up.
What's the coolest thing about your job?
What I am really looking forward to are the moments when the project reached its Go Live, it’s a very joyful moment. Sometimes projects take years before we Go Live, then when the time comes the business users were able to use it, the project is also already earning. As a developer, those are what we consider the coolest thing. The feeling that we have done a very good job and that I improved as an individual and that we overcame the obstacles.
What are the limitations of your job?
The only drawback I can say right now is that I must work on weekends sometimes. There are times we need to extend hours, preferably when the users are no longer around so there will be no hindrances. We also have an on-call schedule even on our day off. I really must set, organize, and plan my personal errands because of my weekend work. In a month, there will be at least two or three-weekend works, however, the day off is compensated on another day.
3 pieces of advice for yourself when you were a student...
Study hard on your college years. Back then, I enjoyed my freedom so much that is why I was just very chill in my studies. I am just thankful that I was able to graduate on time. Also, you should study hard especially in your Math subjects. Like Mathematics, usually, it will be problem-solving in IT so if you are used to solving math problems – it’s somehow the same when you are in programming. It is also important to continuously learn in IT, every year there are new things to learn so you have to keep up.