My name is Josh Tick and I have been studying Information Systems with a focus on Cyber Security at Riverside City College. IT has always interested me, and I have been taking classes in many different areas of the field. Cyber security became my focus when I started keeping up with big occurrences in the cyber security community. My involvement in these courses at RCC led to my relationship with Network Kinection, the company that helped me land an internship at a local software company named DataGenix. They have a program called ClaimScape that handles claims processing and health care benefits management for health benefits payers, TPAs, and healthcare insurance companies. I began my internship with software testing while I familiarized myself with the programming aspects of the software. As I began doing more programming tasks, I was given small assignments such as formatting, small bug fixes, and minor improvements. The programming classes I took at RCC helped prepare me for this by teaching me logic and problem solving while coding. Since I only took the basic programming classes and DataGenix uses a different programming language, there was a lot I had to learn as I was assigned new programming tasks. After interning for 3 months, I was offered a part time job as a junior programmer. They were willing to work around my school schedule and I enjoy the challenges and experience from the job, so I accepted the position. Most of my tasks now involve client requests and critical bug fixes.
Even just as an internship, this gave me an opportunity to explore a new career path and what to expect when working in an office environment. If given the chance, I would highly encourage any student to try interning. The experience and knowledge gained is invaluable and can go a long way to kickstarting a career or in giving you an edge in the job market. In order to land that internship or entry level position, it’s important to have a strong, updated resume. This is the first impression that you leave on a potential employer so it has to highlight your best qualities that the employer would like to see in an employee. I also believe in preparing so you have a strong interview. It's pertinent that you show up looking professional, dressing at least as formal as you would have to for the position. The most important thing to do is just to go out and get your name out to employers. Networking, even if you are not ready for that position, can help you out in the long run. It can never hurt to know people and having your resume out there is what will get you interviews and options when it comes to getting that job or internship.
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