Hello guys, kenalin nama gua Glenn lulusan Informatics Engineering from ITHB 2015. By God’s grace, gue berhasil lulus kuliah lebih cepat, 3,5 tahun, dan sekarang gua bekerja sebagai Product Manager di Tokopedia. All of that doesn’t come easy, in fact cukup banyak harga yang perlu gua bayar untuk bisa get employed in my dream job. But it’s worth it.
A little bit of my journey in college, sejak kuliah, gua udah mulai bekerja sebagai Mobile App Developer in a small company sejak semester 4. Then, gue juga spent time untuk bisa jadi freelancer yang sempet pegang beberapa projek BUMN dan korporat. Also, I joined some competitions and got nominated as the 3rd winner of Amazon Web Service Competition in the same time with my graduation in my 3rd year of study. From that each milestone of my life, makin lama gue dapet bigger opportunities, growing network, etc. Bukan hanya itu, as my knowledge and experience makin nambah, my value also increased, till I can join Tokopedia as a Product Manager.
If I got the chance to share my experience to you, I want to share some tips for you to fight better in the marketplace after finishing college:
1. Get a part time or freelance job while you are in college
Having several working experiences while kalian masih fresh-grad itu bakal bikin kalian stand out banget compared to other fresh-grads. Moreover, dengan kalian sudah berpengalaman ada di dunia kerja waktu masih kuliah, kalian akan tahu what knowledge and skill that is matter for you.
2. Active in organizations and join workshops
Truly, to be active in many organizations dan sering ikut workshops helps me a lot in my communication, negotiation, and networking skills, which is very useful waktu di dunia kerja nanti. I experienced it first hand with my duties di Tokopedia.
3. Curiosity x Ambition
Your knowledge and experience will boost significantly if you have these 2 things. Dua hal ini bisa terlihat by the free or paid workshops yang kalian ambil, those weekends yang kalian spend for the online courses, and those freelance jobs yang kalian jalanin sambil tetap mengerjakan tugas kuliah.
Investing your time and energy to career or business while you are in college can accelerate you after graduation. BUT it doesn’t mean kuliah kalian harus di tinggalin lol. So how can we do both?
My trick to achieve that is by committing my weekdays only for 2 things: first is study, and second is career.
Then, I spend my time for the family (make sure you discuss this first with your family), play time, hangouts with friends, and else on the weekends. Karena konsepnya kerja sambil kuliah, yang di korbanin bukan study time nya, tapi play time nya. 🙃
All of that said, lastly don’t forget to pray and believe in God’s guidance in your journey while in college. Let’s do our part and let God guide our way! Bright future for y’all!
Over and out!
Glenn Hizkia Naftali