Information Technology Daily Life

Have you ever wondered what your future might be like? Well, I have, and I am always curious about it. Whether it is going to be fun or is it going to be a nightmare. On my first blog post, I mentioned that Information System originally was not my first choice of major, yet I finally decided to get into this discipline because I want to have a promising future, a job that could give me top notch lifestyle.

As I only have a limited insight to the working environment, I interviewed one of my friends, Cameron Taslim, who has been working first hand at Consensus Corp for about 18 months. Cameron, like myself, is also an Indonesian. He graduated from San Jose State University with a Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science. You guys might wonder why I chose someone from Computer Science when I obviously have explained before that Information System and Computer Science are not the same thing. The reason why is because he is not working as a software programmer right now. He is more into the Information Technology department which handles the company networking system, both software and hardware support; his job is to purchase IT related equipments, setting projectors and meeting rooms, assisting people who have problem with their softwares, emails, building security cameras or alarms, and many more things that are related to IT.

So, what is this Consensus Corp, you might ask. Not many know about its existence, which I also did not at first, because they used to be called LetsTalk.com inc which is a popular cell phone re-seller company. Brightstar corp has just recently taken over them and is planning to change the whole system of the company – from their company name, their products, and the infrastructure itself. Previously, LetsTalk inc was a cell phone re-seller company which sells similar things like any other well-known cell phone sellers such as AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, and Sprint would sell. One thing that makes LetsTalk different from other popular cell phone sellers, however, is that LetsTalk does not offer any call services, they basically only sell cell phones but in a much cheaper price than those other sellers. Take for example, someone who wants to buy Samsung Galaxy III from Verizon, T-Mobile, or Sprint might need to pay something around $200, yet LetsTalk offers the same phone for only $70, so you would save a lot of money if you decide to buy the phone from LetsTalk. The only downpart of LetsTalk is that they do not carry Apple products. LetsTalk used to be exclusive to only online business, but after Brightstar took over them, they now have a physical place which is located in Embarcadero area in San Francisco.

Cameron lives in San Jose area, so he commutes from San Jose to San Francisco almost everyday. It is about 50 minutes drive to Embarcadero BART station, and then he would walk from there to his workplace. I asked him about how he feels about his job – whether or not he enjoys it. He told me that he enjoys his job right now, but would love to work in a software programming company since he is originally a computer-science guy. Cameron then explains that his job does not relate with anything he learned in school. When he first entered the company, he needed to learn everything from basic. He even told me that after working there for 18 months he only knows a fraction of things that he should do in his department. This is true to a lot of people. Many think that school would prepare them for the real job, but it turns out that it is not necessarily true. What would probably better prepare us for what is coming up is an internship at a company where we can get a hand on experience working at the field. I then asked about the average income one would receive working in this career; Cameron told me that because he is a newcomer, his annually salary is about $60,000 which is not bad for a starter compared to other jobs. I was curious with the advantages and disadvantages working as a full-timer compared to part-timer. Cameron said that the obvious benefit of working as a full-timer is the working hour. A full-time job would have a much more working hour than a part-time job, resulting in better income for full-timers. Also, aside from the hours, working full-time means employees will receive medical benefits that the company would provide, which is one thing to aim for when looking for a job. There is a disadvantage, however, of working full-time job – because employees are paid annually, working overtime does not mean they would get paid extra.

Next, I asked Cameron about the relationship between employees at his workplace – whether it is more of a horizontal or vertical. For those of you who do not understand what horizontal and vertical relationship is, you could click on this article, Differences Between Horizontal & Vertical Organizations by Arnold Anderson, Demand Media which would help you a lot in understanding the differences between the two. Cameron then answered that it is more a horizontal relationship due to the fact that they are a re-starting company, so that there is no real hierarchy between the managers and the staffs. In most cases, the manager would work together and help them in order to achieve the outcome they have targeted, which is good to hear since it seems to be less tension at his workplace.

Sadly, that was all I could ask him because he needed to finish up his work, however, I received a lot of useful information about the work field. Even though I have never worked here in United States before, yet Cameron's explanation gives me an idea of how real working place would be like. Right now, I feel a little anxious knowing about how our school education would not help a lot in our work life. However, that does not reduce my impatience to immediately enter the working environment.