Studying in the University of Applied Sciences felt nothing different than studying with earlier educations. Only differences have been that the courses progress faster and the reports should be more formatted, but other than that it feels the same as in any other study place.
When I was graduating from the vocational college in ICT-technologies, I started to look for possible jobs. By looking through multiple offerings it became clear that most places required bachelor´s degree of their applicants. Due to this demand, I was driven to start studying Information Technology (IT) program at Xamk.
STUDYING IT AT XAMK
Xamk offers IT program completely in English. Since most of the IT documentation and tutorials are written in english, it felt natural to complete these studies with a language which is most commonly used in this field.
Studying in the University of Applied Sciences felt nothing different than studying with earlier educations. Only differences have been that the courses progress faster and the reports should be more formatted, but other
than that it feels the same as in any other study place.
The most interesting have been the practical approach with studies, especially with networking. It’s great that we have access to different networking devices which we can use to experiment anddo labs with. They also keep this equipment updated, which allows to study newer technologies with these devices.
I would recommend this IT program for those who are interested in data networks or data center environments. The courses are mainly centered on these topics, but it’s also possible to choose optional studies which focus on other IT related topics.
WORKING LIFE
There are lots of IT jobs available, but most of these are centralized around larger cities in Finland. Here in Mikkeli the situation isn’t anything great as there are just a few companies which offer different IT services, so getting a job or training place might become a challenge.
But there are exceptions, for example some students from my class are already working as programmersduring their studies here in this area. And if there are no jobs available locally, it’s always possible to start searching for jobs abroad.
In the future, I wish that I got to work with network engineering, where I would be responsible for the networking infrastructure and its devices. Hopefully I would also get to work with implementing new technologies, for example the Software Defined Networks (SDNs) which are currently being developed into the market.
As for any further study plans, after graduation I would like to gather more working experience from the field before advancing any further. I see it best to put the current knowledge in use to see where I should be advancing and where it’s possible to improve my skills.
Erik Janhunen, Bachelor of Engineering, Information Technology