opinions, views, advice from Bene https://www.facebook.com/events/169251693275082/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular

1. #RealTalk: The
public slides
Bene Garcia, C2T4

2. Forward from the Bene
I don’t have the usual profile of a speaker.
I’m pretty left field.
I have removed a lot of details and side
comments compared to the original. I
welcome honest feedback, it would be
much appreciated. My details are at the
back, reach out to me if you want to.
Last, I trust that you’ll use sound judgment in
distinguishing, good advise from jokes.

3. Disclaimer & general facts
These are all my two cents worth of personal
advise and insights. Feel free to either
follow, object, disregard, whatever. I don’t have
experts to back up everything I said. My
intended audience are undergraduates in IT.
If you have the urge of becoming a psycho
serial killer just because you feel like it, or think
that I’ve influenced that… You need help.
That’s not on me. I’m tolerant and accepting
but I’ve got my own issues.

4. Dedication
Some people are early bloomers, some are
late bloomers. But beware that some don’t
bloom at all (UP graduation speaker).

5. Intro: Bene’s big picture
Manila has changed. Opportunities for IT locally and globally
has also increased. Globalization has a negative connotation,
but the Philippines got the long end of that stick; primarily
because of the BPO industry. It is now recognized as a huge
dollar earner. It’s not just about the voice side, but IT jobs like
programming are also on the table. That is the opportunity for
the country, and we need to continue to prove that we are a
great venue for these technical jobs. Manila has won a hard
fought battle over voice… we are now the clear choice for
English speaking services.
As for programming and other analysis/ knowledge based
jobs, we’re a long way from number one. That’s where
everybody comes in. Manila offers what the world is hungry for:
talent. And the best paid crowd is the IT crowd

6. Misconceptions and
conflicts
Let’s explore some scenarios and whatever…

7. Academic vs Job specific skills
I disagree with the notion that a university degree is
outdated by the time you graduate.
You’re not just a programmer. Your time at college
gives you a venue to explore IT at a very deep level. It’s
how you get the flexibility that will be valuable to you.
That’s what you should be after in a university degree. If
not, get a short course and certificates… seriously.
You will learn job specific skills on the job. My opinion: it’s
your future company that needs to teach you those
skills. Your superiors and predecessors made tons of job
manuals to show you the procedures.
If they didn’t, accept that life is unfair, then you be the
person who’ll take the high road and start the manuals.


8. The soft-skills vs hard-skills
Soft skills was traditionally attributed to a
management career path and sales. And
technical skills to technical people… be
both, be well-rounded enough.
It’s not a challenge, it’s a reality. Even if you
are technical, you deal with people.
Inversely, even if you are a people
person, you need technical skills in your
chosen field.

9. A degree vs certifications
IT made certifications popular, and there
are uses for it. Certifications provide a
segmented and gradual proof of a person’s
competency. In fact, certifications was
intended for people in the US who can’t
afford the expensive US college degree.
My advise, combine it. After you have
picked a specialization later on, get
certifications for it.

10. Why do I need this subject?
Think of your subjects as career paths… what
you learn in 4 years (or more… not judging) is
what a non-computer science person goes
through in 4-10 years to prove their stuff.
Real Example:
Some Computer Science graduates start at the
bottom. One entry level IT job is the “data
encoder”. But those guys, 15-20 years later, are
now the big bosses.

11. Experience vs Potential vs
Credential
There is no conflict with these three. You will
continue to feature your
experience, potential, and credentials
through out your career… even CEO’s and
Board members are selected.
You haven’t worked before, so your grades
would stand-in for your experience.

12. Graduate school: early, late,
never?
Let me change my answer: the earlier, the
better.
Most graduate level degrees would look for
some years of experience. They’ll be better at
evaluating you, than me. But if you can get in
tomorrow, go for it. It is becoming competitive in
the job market, so an edge would be great.
The people who don’t want a grad degree are
usually concerned about giving up a great job.
I’d tell them to do something part time. As for
price and time/commitment, it is an investment.

13. Tough questions
Audiences are usually shy, so let me ask the
challenging questions

14. Talk numbers, how much?
I’ll make this non-public

15. The tax effect and the 30K
mark
While your salary range is below 30k, the
increase in your salary is dampened by taxes
until you break through 30K. It’s a tax thing. As
your salary increases, so does your tax.
Philippine income tax system has not changed
its brackets. Minimum wage gets less tax, 30K
(more or less) already gets the maximum! So
when your taxes becomes static, you’ll then
appreciate the further increase in your salary.
This is why HK and SG is so attractive: higher
pay, much lower taxes. Flipside: cost of living.

16. Globalization in IT
Globalization also means you’re gonna
compete with the best schools in all
continents. You may not feel it, cause you’ll
focus on your work and company. But your
company fights tooth and nail to get the
juicy projects.
Quality commands premium, but quality is
constantly measured. Don’t rest on your
laurels

17. IT is too hard!
There are other promising and hard career
paths: Medicine, Law, Rocket-Science, selling
fishballs…
Any job/role/ career would have it’s own
difficulty. Pick the hard choice that’s
acceptable to you. Your work is not your life, but
it will affect your life.
Tip:
Those harder career paths also pay well…. But
we are all governed by salary brackets. For
IT, the ceiling on that bracket has been moving
higher; because demand has been increasing.
When there’s demand on other careers their
ceilings also go up.

18. Is there another IT bubble?
My opinion: no. The IT bubble of the 2000’s was
a stock price issue. It affected the US job
market, cause some start-up companies closed
and opening your own company became a
bad idea. As an industry, IT suffered from
perception issues after the bubble.
From what I’m seeing, large corporations are
constantly updating, because of the edge it
gives them. That drives internal or external IT
projects. Start-ups are also more innovative now
and less focused on the IPO. More importantly,
both streams are discovering Manila.

19. I want the IT promise. But
what’s the path of less
resistance (easy way out)?
Get a programming certificate, or any IT
certificate; graduate from any degree.
Practice your IT certificate
What you won’t get:
A network that knows how good you are
The deep technical view of computer science.
Less job and grad-school credential for CV

20. It doesn’t need to be this hard!
Tough luck, it is. Any “marque” program of a
university is meticulously constructed to
churn out the best practitioners.

21. Bad grades after graduation
Fast track: get a marketable programming job, stay a
few years.
Java – great general platform, but try to specialize in
EE or ME.
SAP – still in-demand for large organization
Mobile – this is a new field with a few practitioners…
demand is high
Other technical but non/less-programming options:
Network admin, System
admin, Security, Database, Business Analysis, Project
management, Testing…
They lead to a great IT career.
Technical last resort : (opinion is non-public)

22. Is programming the only path?
No. A lot of Computer Science graduates
from my time are no longer programming.
It’s a great start, it’s a great option, but it’s
not the only option. Saw the nonprogramming option in the previous slide? A
lot of us are doing that. We’re still
technical, still using com sci concepts here
and there. Still understand code.

23. Company man vs
Entrepreneurship
If you’re up to it, why not do both? It’s not
easy, but it’s not impossible either.

24. Is it all just money?
That’s up to you.
What you want, and what you prioritize will
change. At this point, you don’t know what you
don’t know. It’s natural. Also, chances are, you
still don’t know what you want.
You don’t have to decide now. Life will give you
chances to change your decision. It always
does. But life will ask you to pay with time.
Me, I see that my life becomes easier when I
have more money. Of course I also factor in
how hard it is to get bread.

25. Survival techniques
Undergrad living would be better if you only-

26. Mange upwards- prof relations
Your prof is your boss in the subject. Follow
their lead in the X weeks of the term. Ask
questions. It’s ok if you don’t get it, just ask
the right way. If you have a different
opinion, it’s ok to express it. But get a feel if
the crowd is up for a debate. It’s ok to have
a difference of opinion.

27. Hone your skills:
Practice, practice, practice
If it takes 10,000 hours to polish talent, you
have a lot of time during college.
Programming is not the only skill you have.
Find you top 3 or 5, then enhance that. Talk
to profs and talk to seniors (meet them
through orgs), ask them for tips.

28. I want out!
Let’s do the flip side. Let me recommend some
other promising paths… these are not the only paths
to success

29. The regulated, traditional
professions, core science
CPA, Law, Medicine, Engineering… others.
When you’re government certified to do
something, it pulls attention. Strategy for success
here should come from a practitioner, not me.
Also, if ASEAN integration pushes further, more of
these certificates will be recognized in the
region.
Math, Physics, Stat, Chemistry
These are fundamental sciences, which make
them flexible to different career paths.

30. How I cope with existential
problems and my Ramon
Bautista inspired answer:
Kung tutuusin, wala pa akong napatunayan
tungkol sa life, love, liberty, and property.
Thankful na lang ako na pinanganak akong
gwapo on the inside kaya nalalampasan ko
ang mga pagsubok ng buhay


31. More options
Psychology, education,
What about HR work? There was a boom in HR demand, not
just in Manila but in SG and HK (Jobs are also moving there…
the more technical analytical jobs). Adult education is
becoming popular in Manila as well.
Business Management
If you don’t know what you wanna do, but know that you’ll
work for a big corporation. Business Management is the most
portable degree that I know of.
Advertising
It’s actually becoming more technical. They’re now relying
more on hard data, large data. What’s the state of it in
Manila? I’m not sure, but Google and Linkedin are here for
that market.

32. Building values, behaviors
and skills
Optimize your undergraduate experience, practice
and learn these things now.

33. Self mastery/ self leadership
This is a popular buzz word in the corporate
world, but it’s true and valuable.
For now, observe and learn your styles…
your
communication, learning, teaching, leading
, analysis. Then you can learn how to do
other styles later on. Adaptability is a great
weapon in your tool kit. It’s also a sign of
maturity/ development since you’re taking
on the challenge of adjusting to others.

34. Join orgs.
Effective communication, leadership
skills, project management, team managementall of them are skills. They can be learned. Some
people are born with it, but everyone is
challenged to enhance it.
You don’t learn ridding a bike by reading a
book. Practicing will get the skills. Interact with
people. Get some tasks in the orgs and these
skills will come out.
Remember, even if you get a technical
role, you’ll still interact with people.

35. You start at zero
I got this from Charles Barkley. Transitioning
from one stage of growth to another
requires that you reassess yourself, and retool yourself.
After getting into an org/company/ect…
people pay attention to your contribution.
There’s rarely a super-fit role for anyone.
Everyone adjusts and it’s a big reason why
learning never ends.

36. Motivation and support
Find it, get it.
Everyone goes through a hump. Everyone has
their own special way of dumping and dealing
with emotions. What matters is how long you
stay there.
Learn the distinction between what you can
control, what you influence, and what is beyond
you. Beyond the quality of your work, it directly
impacts the quality of your life!
Perception directly affects your life
experience, so it makes sense to be positive.

37. Save
This is one of my personal advocacy.
In the Philippines, saving is highly influenced by
family values. Some families don’t practice it.
They say it’s impossible, and I disagree with that.
A straight how-to-save answer is not enough.
Your needs will change, but try to practice 80-20
on your money. More complicated and
targeted methods would come in later.

38. Contact details
 Linkedin
ph.linkedin.com/pub/benegarcia/17/1b8/37a/