This is the second part in a four-part overview of the College of IST. See Part 1 of “I’m (Mostly) Self-Taught.”

Even if you have the skills to get going in the real world and get an IT job right out of high school, it’s probably worth your while and tuition dollars to get that BS in IST. Since IST is the love-child of business and IT, some valuable business lessons are to be learned from IST.

You can use your connections amongst your fellow IST students to enhance your college experience, career, etc. in a number of ways. What immediately comes to mind is the knowledge among IST students. Odds are, you’re not the singular most intelligent student at IST, and even if you are, you can learn something from someone at IST, whether it’s from a professor, instructor, researcher, or another student. It’s amazing how much faster another student can point out an mistake in your code or diagnose a problem with Linux than you could by yourself and Google. In fact, it’s a lot easier to get “hands-on” experience from a colleague than to try to puzzle something out yourself.

The business side of IST sometimes gets overlooked by students who may see it as irrelevant. It’s important to learn business standards that are used in the industry: SOA, SAP, UML, best practices, and others. Yes, it’s terribly boring to learn about data normalization and O(n log n) sort times, but if you plan on creating a high-volume database, knowing them will give you an edge in an interview or other business setting.

A major part of IST also revolves around problem-based learning, with group work. For some reason, just mentioning this at the IST Future Forum or the Pro Expo will make company representatives’ eyes light up in wonder and excitement. Okay, the effect is overstated, but the simple fact of collaborating in groups to solve problems is an essential facet of the business world; demonstrate that you can work with people of various abilities and find solutions.

David Adewumi wrote a great article on the value of social networking at IST, and I agree with him on every count. There’s an intrinsic value to knowing individuals who are “in the loop”. In the process of making friends, you’ll probably meet subject matter experts, genius programmers, technological prodigies, and brilliant innovators. It’s also great to know who can lead, who can manage, and who is willing to sacrifice Thirsty Thursday to get a project finished on time. On the less formal side of things, you’ll get beta invites to the latest-and-greatest web apps, private testing, closed groups, and a multitude of benefits you can’t find online.

Finally, being at IST means that many companies, from small startups to huge enterprises, will be trying to court you. Getting your resume and your name out among businesses can pay off tremendously. The Pro Expo and Future Forum enable you to sell yourself to many different companies. It also give you a chance, in the one-on-one talks, to distinguish yourself as a person who can back up what is on the resume.

Next week: why the College of IST? Free stuff, that’s why!

Tags: connections, social networking

Categories: Opinion