Why I Encourage My Daughter to Pursue Information Technology as a Career?
Goal: Do creative work with no constraints on time and place for global customers.
Today, I attended Courtney, my daughter’s graduation ceremony, where she received her second degree, a Bachelor of Computer Science with First Class Honours. After earning her first Bachelor's degree, she began working at a FAANG company and pursued this degree part-time, completing it in two years.
Before attending the ceremony, I recall the time recommending that she pursue “Information Technology” as her university degree over five years ago. I even used the image below to help.
Cristiano Ronaldo said, “Just do IT”. IT: Information Technology. She laughed.
Of course, CR7 is not the reason. My daughter did not have a particular interest then, so she took my advice, and it turned out quite fine.
My recommendation is not based solely on my years of experience as a software developer (in fact, many software professionals did not want their children to do IT), but rather, I foresaw an emerging new & better working style.
Do creative work with no constraints on time and place, for global customers.
With the advancement of the Internet, Web, Cloud-based and various productive tools such as Git and Video conferencing, the above goal is possible, particularly for software related work.
Table of Contents:
· Work Anytime, Work Anywhere
· The Term now exists for the goal I set for my daughter: Digital Nomad
· My Preparation for My Daughter
∘ 1. Learn End to End Test Automation at the age of 12
∘ 2. Programming in Ruby
∘ 3. Chinese Language
∘ 4. Study at a top USA university as an exchange student for 6 months (Pity, it didn’t happen because of COVID)
∘ 5. Chinese Calligraphy for meditation
∘ 6. Be open-minded with technologies
∘ 7. Writing
∘ 8. Do Creative Work — build app
∘ 9. Automation and Continuous Testing
· ChatGPT’s Answer
Work Anytime, Work Anywhere
I’ve spent over 20 years working a 9–5 job for others. Besides the usual work issues like office politics and meetings, commuting alone feels like a waste of time, i.e., life.
Most work is repeated like the below.
I think a truly ambitious software professional typically goes through the following options:
Permanent Employee
A fresh IT graduate has so much to learn. A better approach is to work at a top IT firm for 4–8 years, gain experience from high-quality peers, and earn a good salary.Contractor
Quickly apply tech leadership to various projects.Micro-ISV / own start-up
Few can reach this. One reason is that they were not ready. One shortcoming that many failed to realize: no E2E test automation (see this real story).
It is my hope that Courtney could reach Option 3, or at least Option 2 in working anytime & anywhere style, before 30.
The Term now exists for the goal I set for my daughter: Digital Nomad
Digital Nomads are individuals who leverage technology in order to work remotely and live an independent and nomadic lifestyle.
It turned out that my thinking was ahead of its time. I’m quite proud that I began preparing my daughter over 10 years ago when she was still in middle school.
You might have seen the news that more and more countries announced “Digital Nomad Visa”.
The result (the future) is unpredictable. As a father, I have been putting some effort for this, well before the term “Digital Nomad”.
My Preparation for My Daughter
The journey began when she was around 12 years old, a time when rebellion and schoolwork often posed significant challenges. Through the ups and downs, especially in this smartphone age, introducing more to a teenager’s learning plate wasn’t without its hurdles.
Two lessons I’ve learned along the way:
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