From September 2017, I have been working full-time in an Entry Level position, as an IT Helpdesk Officer, for a Mining company. Since working in this role, I have further developed my interests in Information Technology and all the areas it includes. I wish to expand my career options in IT during my studies, my work experiences and beyond. My career aspirations include and means to implement them are:

Expanding my knowledge, skills and training in IT to complement my existing IT skills and gaining the skills I lack

• Plan and organise to collaborate with our Employers Oracle Specialist in Perth to learn and gain skills in Oracle, such as giving users accesses, creating new user accounts and changing user information – this including promotions, transfers and secondments.
• Enrolling into a Minor unit of Application Development. This will help with expanding my knowledge and skills in this IT sector, which is an interest of mine. I would also like to design applications for the current organisation I work for in the future and as a hobby.
• Enrol in the Work Based Learning unit to work on a project at my existing workplace and gain credit for studying (Deakin University 2018a). This can help expand my learnings and training in IT, by analysing and identifying problems, and applying computational approaches to them (Sophie Mckenzie, SIT124 Exploring I.T, Deakin University, Module 1 Activities, 28 March 2018). As well as gaining recognition in my workplace.
• As I have a lot more to learn in IT as technology continues to grow and improve every day, I can improve my skills and training at work by assigning more Word Orders to myself to perform duties and collaborate with my work colleagues, who are skill practitioners, to solve IT problems (Sophie Mckenzie, SIT124 Exploring I.T, Deakin University, Module 1 Activities, 28 March 2018). This includes going out of the office to complete jobs and working in our Perth Office.
• Lastly, a way to expand my learning’s is to study all areas of IT, including networking, coding and website design. This can be gained by applying research through the teaching of my work colleagues, completing new jobs and projects when they appear, and reading and researching from different sources.

Ensure I experience and learn new things from many different sources, such as:

• Volunteering as a Cloud Student Mentor will be a new experience of helping and teaching new students entering into University. Becoming a volunteer, I can gain many different skills along with this opportunity, such as communicational and leadership skills (Deakin University 2017). These skills can be useful for my future career goals.
• Enrolling into the entire core IT units, Cyber Security and Application Development units to learn and gain different experiences from other sides and aspects of IT, by successfully completing modules, activities, assignments and practicals.
• Attend the Build your Employability Workshop to learn from Deakin Students who have gained employment successfully. Also to engage in the Q&A session to ask question to improve my future experiences in gaining employment (Deakin University 2018a).
• Involve myself more in collaborating in the big and small projects at work to integrate new technologies suitable for the workplace and its setting. Such as the Printer Refreshment project, the reprogramming of all Digital Handheld Radios with our Vendor Company project and introducing the new Motorola trial radios and their accessories to the Plant field. This involves organisational and management skills and interactions with internal and external personnel’s.
• Connect with many communities that share my interests and career values, and my classmates, through DeakinTalentCONNECT by inviting and following them, and joining groups. By connecting with certain communities I can keep up-to-date with their internship and graduate position offers, as well as what type of applicants they are looking for.

Develop my learnings and skills in Website design and development

• I can freely join a community group where I can network and share my interests and career values with. Meetup.com presents a group I am interested to join with, WordPress Perth. They are a group of WordPress users that share their ideas, their thoughts and explore the world of WordPress (WordPress Perth 2018). By joining this group, I can gain skills and knowledge in web design by practising and learning from the teachings of other experts, as well as from beginners.
• Begin creating and designing a blog about Lifestyle using WordPress. I will upload blog posts with images and videos fortnightly, advertise my blog on my social media accounts and research blog post ideas and ask readers for suggestions

Expand my IT career options and eventually gaining a job promotion to increase my earnings and title, such as a Software and Application Developer and/or Cyber Security Analyst

• Enrolling into my chosen Major units of Cyber Security. This will help me gain the necessary skills needed to work in the Security side of IT, as well as expanding my knowledge and interest by completely all my assigned tasks efficiently.
• Also enrolling into my chosen Minor unit of Application Development. This particular side of IT is of interest to me, and I will gain many skills from completing this.
• Showing how hard working I am by completing and closing all assigned work orders and having the right attitude at work everyday. I can work on new projects
• Attend the Build your Employability workshop to learn the ways other successful students gained their employment, and apply their skills (Deakin University 2018a) for myself to use when applying for a job role.
• Apply research by reading about methods to effectively implement security into IT with Deakin Library resources and sufficient outsider resources

Attain an IT Cyber Security Management job position, where I can direct and work with a team full of IT Professionals that I can inspire and influence them, as well as who I can learn from.       

Ultimately, attaining an IT Cyber Security Management job role is my future goal. As an IT Cyber Security Manager it involves handling the security part of a company by implementing techniques to minimise the variety of cyber threats and attackers. IT Security managers are responsible for dealing with the loss and stolen of sensitive data and reducing the next possible attack by implementing solutions and defences, keeping up-to-date with the latest IT security trends, monitoring networks, designing, implementing and maintaining plans, giving direction and recommending security enhancements (Bizmanualz, 2017).

FourQuaters is offering a full-time, permanent job to an experienced and qualified applicant to become a Cyber Security Manager with experience of managing a group of IT professionals, IT security planning and responses, knowledge of PCI, SOX and HIPAA, expertise in Cyber Security practises and implementation, strong use of security applications, testing and development, risk management experience and knowledge in security architecture, cloud solutions, frameworks and technology (FourQuaters, 2018).

This particular job, in the future, would interest me as it involves the IT area of cyber security, which this includes using sound intelligence to enable complexity to create safety and defences. It also involves the skills of a software and application developer, as well as directing and managing a team and its stakeholders.  With my list of found experiences, listed in my Timeline, I can one day achieve this career goal with the appropriate experiences and practices.

I developed my interest in IT from both my Aunty and my Partner. My Aunty has been working in IT for approximately 20 years and is currently a Senior Systems Engineer. She has taught me many different IT skills over the years – explaining how technology works and why. Her career and success has influenced me to follow in her footsteps. My Partner, also, works and has studied in the IT field for a while. His continuous research, teaching and influence have gained my interest furthermore into pursuing an IT career and to continue my studies.

Information Technology has remained an interest of mine from a very young age, from keeping up-to-date with the latest technologies and their improvements to accepting an offer for a full time job as an Entry Level IT Helpdesk Officer for a Mining company. With this particular job, I have become more responsible for all sides of IT. Since taking up the job role, I have discovered my career interests in IT such as:

Software and Application Development

I am always full ideas which inspire my desires to create software’s and applications to showcase these concepts. This particular interest is very alluring to me as it involves the creation and development of system applications, which allows people to perform tasks on computers and devices (CareerBuilder 2017). For example, web development is an interest of mine as it involves a creative mind to think and design for others use. This particular interest involves skills including problem solving, strategic and mathematical thinking, the use of logic, thinking creatively, people skills, motivation and collaboration (Wales 2014).

Organisation

I have an eye for detail and pay close attention to as much as possible. I enjoy order, security and accuracy which defines me as very well organised. I think creatively and efficiently when organised, as I like to apply routines into my everyday life activities.

Cyber Security

I like using my mind and enabling complexity to create security and order. I am always curious and I like thinking through problems logically. Cyber security involves implementing practises and skills to safeguard confidential information (Porup 2017). This means applying logical thought to create safety and command, which I find interesting and would like to implement into my career pathway.

There are many skills I have attained over my years of studying in school, at Tafe completing a Certificate IV and in Commerce at my previous University. As well as years of experience in working in Hospitality and IT environments, which I enjoyed and have a strong ability in. From these experiences I have achieved the following skills, which I enjoyed learning:

Attention to Detail and Creativity/Innovation

I have high attention to detail; this is due to my own organisational skills and past work experience in hospitality environments, where I would be assigned to care for multiple parts of a big job. With this I do things more creatively which works perfectly for me, in my personal and work life.

Research and Questioning/Investigating

I enjoy researching and discovering, as well as keeping up-to-date with, for example, the latest technologies. Every day before I start work, I read the Perth News and the IT News to stay updated on the world around me. I also like to think a lot which develops a lot of unanswered questions. I always turn to resources such as the internet, books and my Partner to investigate for answers.

Planning and Organising

I enjoy regulation and orderliness. I insist on always having a routine, which I implement in my everyday life and the activities I undertake such as work and study. Planning keeps me well organised and to not forget anything important or anything needed to be done prior to another.

Working under Pressure

After years of working in busy, popular Hospitality environments, I have gained the ability to work under pressure. I enjoy working under pressure as I get things done more quickly and efficiently. I also enjoy hearing the feedback about how hard I’ve worked and the amount of jobs I have completed in short and busy amounts of time.

Written communication

I have always found literacy a strong and enjoyable subject of mine, especially during my school years I placed myself into the highest grade and was rewarded for my writing skills. Written communication is a strong skill to have in a workplace, as it involves the writing of emails and letters to vendor companies, for example, is very important when it comes to professionalism and gaining their confidence within you.

Nevertheless, there are skills which I lack due to inexperience but I enjoy and wish to fulfil the gaps. These skills consist of:

Building Relationships

Relationships are built through communication, they “emerge through social, communicative interactions that manifest during the process of working together to accomplish organizational task” (Omilion-Hodges and Baker, 2017, p.116). Having great communicational skills can improve the ability to build relationships, which are a necessity for any job role.

For example, attending the Experience and Employment Expo is a fun way to network, meet and build relationships with others by socialising and learning. The event occurs on the 27 March 2018 at Geelong Waterfront Campus. This particular career development experience will help me work towards successful employment as I talk with other organisations and discover what type of employees they are looking to hire (Deakin 2018).

Leadership

Having leaderships skills can be a rewarding and well-recognised skill to have in studying and during employment. Effective leadership can be attained by focusing on personal and interpersonal skills (Cansoy 2017, p.68). Leadership skills are a vital key to any management role, which is an aspiration of mine in the future to become an IT Cyber Security Manager.

An example of a way to fulfil my lack of leadership skills is to volunteer as a Cloud Student Mentor. As a student mentor, I can gain skills in communication, organisation and leadership as I am required to guide new students and network with other mentors (Deakin 2017). Volunteering will help me achieve the skills I need to become a successful leader and mentor in the future, as my career goal is to run and direct a team of IT professionals.

Problem Solving

Problem solving is a skill that is essential to every workplace, as well as when it comes to studying and completing assignments. I can improve my problem solving skills in many ways such as volunteering as a tutor. By becoming a tutor it is necessary to be able to problem solve, find many teaching methods and to help improve the learner’s own skills.

This particular volunteer job as a Year 7 English Tutor includes the duties of helping them to write essays, assist with spelling and narrative work, and to teach them to understand English concepts and processes. This involves problem solving skills were I will need to find methods to help teach a young student literacy (Smith 2018). Also, this particular volunteer work would be suitable for me as I enjoy the English subject and completed the highest level of English in High School. Lastly, as a future volunteered tutor it will help me gain the necessary skills of mentoring, teaching, communication and the improvement of my own existing literacy skills to progress in achieving my careers goals.

Project Management

This particular skill is very important, especially in my sector of work and towards my career aspirations into becoming an IT Security Manager. Project management requires many different skills and are constantly reoccurring. Project management is to initiate, plan, execute, monitor and control, and to finally close the job (PMI 2018).

I can improve this skill by taking part in the New Motorola Trial Radio Project at work. I will be collaborating with many departments to integrate new and improved radio technology suitable for the workplace and the environment. This project includes:

• Initiating the hiring of new radios from our Vendor Company
• Planning the hiring by creating and purchasing the order
• Executing the job by introducing the new radios into the field with instructions of use
• Monitoring and controlling the radios by handing one to each department with feedback forms for every operator to fill out after use
• And, closing the job by collecting and summarising the radios feedback to forward to my manager and superintendent for the final decision making

The current skills I lack are requirements to achieving my end career aspiration into becoming an IT Cyber Security Manager. With the skill gap list and activities to approach, I can now resolve the issue of missing essential skills needed to achieve my career goals.