My Guiding Principles for Year 2009

Year 2008 marked my return to the IT industry (click here to read a previous post on this) since relocating here to Davao city.

For year 2009, I plan to be more focused and involved with IT.

Based on my actual IT work experience in the past, there are several areas of IT I can participate in, e.g SW development, Quality assurance, Human resource development, etc. I can opt to work for an existing IT company here in Davao, work as a consultant, or maybe even put up my own company. But I believe in starting small, and doing all you can to succeed in every step.

I have decided that the most fulfilling for me would be to get involved in the Human Resource Development (knowledge, skill, competency) side of IT. Naturally the main core of my activities would be trainings and seminars, but they would also be supplemented by the following :
* PhilNITS ==> to serve as the base standard of our knowledge and skill level in IT, and also as a tool (PhilNITS exam) to objectively measure our competency
* SW Development ==> to serve as a venue for practical application of the skills learned during the trainings, and to gain actual experience needed to become a competitive IT engineer
* HR Deployment ==> to serve as an end goal of our skill improvement activities. for most at least, the goal is to get employed in a reputable and highly competitive IT company

To make sure I do not go off target, I have the set the following as my guiding principles :
1. Earn a living for my family, and find fulfillment in what I do
2. Promote PhilNITS and contribute to it's sustainability
3. Improve and promote IT capability of Davao

Financial earning is very important, specially so because I have a family to raise. Currently, much of my efforts now are done without much regard to the immediate gain I might be getting in return. But it is my hope that the foundation I am laying down today will reap rewards for PhilNITS, for me, and for Davao in the near (hopefully very soon) future :)

Consistent with my guiding principles, I try to represent PhilNITS any possible way I can (specially here in Davao). I strongly believe that by utilizing PhilNITS (the standards it sets and the actual certification exam), we can even surpass our Asian neighbors (Japan, Korea, Singapore, etc.) in terms of IT knowledge and skill. Capability wise, we definitely have the potential. And now we have the tool (PhilNITS).

In my previous work in the IT field, I have worked with IT engineers who hailed from different cities and provinces of the Philippines. It is my observation that those coming from Davao generally have the traits that makes for a good IT engineer : technically adept, easily trainable, very sociable, and has the potential to be good leaders. I has since made it a personal mission to help develop the IT skills and promote Davao as a good IT destination.

As my initial activities, I have conducted PhilNITS reviews (contributing to the passers from Davao), shared my learnings and experiences with IT students (preparing them to be more competitive when they become IT professionals), and personally promoted Davao (to my Japanese friends and aquaintances, in my trainings in Japan, and other activities done outside of Davao). I am also actively encouraging our graduating students to excel as IT engineers, and let the world know that they hail from Davao, as they are Davao's most effective promoters.

The number one challenge I am facing now is finding similar-minded people to help me turn my plans and ideas into reality. Activating the PhilNITS-society (passers of PhilNITS) members living here in Davao would be best. As working together we can work towards having more PhilNITS passers from Davao, get more sponsors for IT skill development programs, and conduct IT-related trainings and seminars. Another option is to collaborate with teachers and students who are involved in IT, as this could have the widest reach and coverage for our advocacy of IT skill improvement in Davao. I know that alone my activities may not bring much of an impact, but I strongly believe that the day will come (soon) when we can form a group that would embrace and promote that advocacy of having a brighter future in IT, starting here in the Davao region.

2008 : The Year I Returned to IT

When my family transferred to Davao year 2006, I temporarily hibernated from the IT industry, where I worked for more than 12 years. In that span of time I got to experience and manage different aspects on an IT company, e.g. Software Development, Project Management, Offshore Assignment (IBM Japan), Quality Assurance, Recruitment and Training.

Year 2008 marked my return to IT. It was kicked-off by a 5-week training in Japan for "Bridge Systems Engineer," (click here to read a previous post on this) wherein I confirmed I still had what it takes to lead and manage SW development projects, particularly focused on offshore contracts from Japanese companies. It was good to be able to visit Japan again after some time. Aside from the very good technical learnings I got, it also provided me with a good opportunity to plan my return to IT.

Upon my return I discussed with PhilNITS for a possible tie-up to conduct some IT trainings here in Davao. PhilNITS Foundation president, Ma. Corazon M. Akol, was very kind to accomodate my ideas. Our first collaborative activity was a PhilNIS-FE review program. We found it hard to gather interested participants (our target were Davao IT professionals) for the review. But I guess the timing and situation was just right, as PhilNITS was able to secure a sponsor which allowed us to accomodate several participants for free. We even got more sponsors to be able to to offer the same review programs to selected Davao students. I think the outcome of the review was decent enough, producing all 5 student passers from Davao for the October 2008 exam. (click here to view October 2008 results for Davao)

November of the same year I got another chance to visit Japan, this time for a 3-week training on "Software Design and Development Engineer." (click here to read previous post on this) I learned many valuable information about the PhilNITS exam on this training, which I would later use to improve my PhilNITS review program. The time spent in Japan also gave me the chance to reflect on how successful my return to IT is for the year 2008. Although actual activities done were not many and only occasional, I think I was still able to lay down a good foundation for my plans for 2009.

Hopefully year 2009 would be a much busier and much fruitful year for me, for PhilNITS and for the IT engineers of Davao...