Ever since I was little, I always thought that getting good grades was the most important factor in getting a good job. During high school I barely joined any clubs or attended many events that my school held, since I would always prioritize my studies. Going into college I thought the same way, only studying to get A’s while not joining any clubs or honor societies that were offered. However, I soon found out about the significance of being a part of different organizations and societies as well as obtaining real world experience. Through the University of Hawaii at Manoa’s RadGrad website, I was able to gain a deeper understanding of what I need to do in order to be in the best position to get a good job out of college. RadGrad denoted three important aspects to grow in which were innovation, competency, and experience. In my case, my competency score was very high, since this was based on grades, however both my innovation and experience categories were zero. The innovation category was based on taking part in activities such as research projects or hackathons, while the experience category was based on having internships or business plan competitions. This was very striking to me since it clearly showed me that grades are only one third of the whole picture and what I was lacking in.
Through RadGrad I learned more about different types of computer science related career goals and opportunities. I was able to choose different tags that I was interested in to help me filter through jobs that I might be attracted to. Some tags that I added were algorithms, machine learning, data science, and artificial intelligence. Through these tags, it recommended the career goals of AI/machine learning engineer and data scientist. I had heard of data scientists before but it was the first time I heard of the job called AI/machine learning engineer. It also gave a lot of background information of the types of work this career would deal in as well as noting the other professions they would work closely with. RadGrad also had many different types of opportunities listed to choose from and learn more about. I feel many students always ask about different activities they can be a part of to better themselves and their skills, this is a really good place to find such activities. I found that Kaggle, which is an online data science and machine learning competition, might be a nice opportunity for me since it involves many of my interests and is related to the field I want to go into.
I think RadGrad is an excellent website for helping undergraduate as well as graduate students to navigate through their years at college in order to get a good job right after. It allows students to plan out the courses and activities they want to partake in and gives an estimate of whether their plan is an efficient or inefficient plan. It also shows different courses that are offered at the University of Hawaii at Manoa related to their career goals and interests to help them take the classes that will deal in the specific field they want to learn more about. I personally think RadGrad will help me to have a better degree experience. This is because I will know which classes I should be taking and which opportunities will be most beneficial to take part in with regards to the field that I am interested in. I also will be able to track my progress of being in the best position I could be in after I graduate and what I still need to work on.