Outstanding alumni: “I feel the university as my home”

Gonzalo Guzmán is a Computer Science Engineer from the Catholic University of Maule, and in the framework of the Labor Expo organized by our Study House last September, together with other members of the company where he works, 3iT, he gave a talk to fourth and fifth year students of the career, telling their experience and providing new knowledge of the world of work.

Communications UCM.- When he graduated, Gonzalo asked himself how to continue, a question that many graduates ask themselves when they leave the University.

After a career that ended on time and in which he stood out, five of the six years he was named with the scholarship of honor, one of the options that seemed most natural was to continue with his studies, so he decided to start the Master in Computer’s science.

“When I graduated I did not know which side of the field to go to because I had done a very specialized thesis in the scientific part, I knew that I could go to the academic side, also because I always liked the subject of teaching. I began to realize, as the years progressed, that if I wanted to go to the academy, I would have to, yes or yes, pursue a Master’s degree and then a Doctorate”.

However, once the path had begun, Gonzalo understood that working as a developer in a company was a possibility that he needed to experience and decided to put the master’s degree on hold. In times of pandemic, looking for work became a double challenge because, in all possibilities, he had to move from Talca. Finally, the company that sheltered him as an intern during his student days opened the doors for him to apply.

“What led me to do the internship in that company was the Hackaton. I was part of the winning team of the competition, which were programming days organized by the 3iT company and the winners had a paid practice in their facilities”. Added Gonzalo

It was 3iT where he finally got a job after completing the necessary technical tests for the position. In this regard, he told us that there was a lot of supply, but doing the technical tests was a bit stressful. “You did them and in the end you thought: ‘I did it well, but surely someone else did it better’”.

By then, the pandemic had facilitated remote work, so Gonzalo was able to achieve everything he was looking for, a good job position in his area and from Talca, since the company is located in Santiago.

“Now I am working as a software engineer, sometimes as a developer, at the 3iT company in Santiago, remotely from Talca. I have only been working for a short time, but my work team was already evaluated as outstanding. The company recognized us for our performance.” He expanded.

sharing experiences

Students of the last years of Computer Civil Engineering had the opportunity to share with Gonzalo and other representatives of the company where he works, a space to exchange experiences and knowledge.

“We tell them about our personal experiences, with the career and the world of work. Also, make a technical talk on how to enhance the IT profile. The presentation was a talk with hard data, how to get to logical thinking for the construction of algorithms. Think like the machine thinks, understand elements or theoretical aspects that are relevant when starting the world of work”.

Aware that many recent graduates feel overwhelmed by the uncertain future, “I talked to them about how to identify what one wants to do after graduating, the classic impostor syndrome, insecurity with my knowledge. I wanted to reach the students that way. I think that they never gave me a talk where they admitted about the insecurity of their knowledge because when you go to talk to other people, you always tend to appear confident and take care of all the details, appear successful, but nobody counts the vicissitudes inherent to the process that they are often negative. I wanted to tell you that many times things are probably not as gray as you think, and that we have all been through it,” said Guzmán.

Finally, Gonzalo told us that the University feels like home: “For me, the experience of going to university will always be pleasant, I don’t think I will feel nostalgic unless I spend a lot of time away, but I wouldn’t like it, I would like to keep in touch I hope so”, said the UCM Alumni.