Talented Youth
This morning I was part of a professional panel speaking to “Talented Youth” and their families about the professional world; the students, apparently, came from all over the Atlantic. It's a cool program, organized by Johns Hopkins and William & Mary, that helps high schoolers on their search for colleges and initial career choices. The kids all seem very bright and I offered to try and hook some of the interested ones up with summer internships etc; we'll see if any are bold enough to take me up on the offer! I even demonstrated a quick c# app and showed a little source code to thrill the more technically minded in the audience . . . the others were probably bored to tears.
I feel a little odd representing the entire “Technology“ profession, and maybe in the future they'll expand the panel some. For what it's worth, I like to think I did an adequate job communicating the pace of change and what it's like working as a “Technology Professional.“ Physicians have to learn the human body one time, and have many years of schooling to master the topic, while computer professionals have everything changing on them every year or two -- it's a constant learning process for us developers.
I also felt obligated to discourage the high schoolers from feeling a lot of pressure to lock in a career choice at age 18! I know very few people who knew what they wanted to be “when they grew up“ at age 18 -- give me a break -- that's the age to explore new things. I also emphasized studying abroad and doing internships while in your college years, there's lots to learn outside the classroom.
There's something really cool about the enthusiasm of the high schoolers . . . it helps me re-energize as I get back to work after Devscovery last week.
Happy .Netting!