We reached out to students in New York
Networking meeting of Shapers of Tomorrow Chevening Alumni Mentorship was organized on 24.02.2022.
The online event proved that meetings leverage networking within the programme participants, exchange of ideas and approaches and are very good to further ease the mentoring process itself. In a day of a war starting in Ukraine lots of registered do not appear, but attracted about 25 participants and was extremely interesting.
The topic of discussions was “The future of digital in our lives, IT, Cybersecurity and Technology careers”. The programme management team members and prominent keynote speakers led the conversation.
Roumiana Atanassova and Majlinda Aliu, mentoring management team members shared feedback from students and recent graduates. To have mentor who has already experienced in the field of study is one of the most important things for professional development. It proved that it is even more valid now as it was easier before to establish network and to connect business world. The Shapers of Tomorrow mentoring programme is an excellent opportunity for both Chevening network to stay connected and give back and for students to shape their future.
The world is flat now for digital jobs, Goran Angelov, Founder and CEO of IBS Bulgaria pointed out. If you are a doer, you can find your job in this industry even if you are not software engineer. And Bulgaria is excellent opportunity because of the lifestyle, flexibility, the option for skiing and going to the beach and the development potential. Two professionals from IBS were chosen as IBM champions.
We have a gamechanger already in the cybersecurity area, Lyubomir Tulev, director at Digitall. Things are rapidly changing, malwares doubled and at the same time business is moving to online We are doubling the team, constantly looking for new members. Internet was started with World Wide Web but at that time nobody cared about security. Cyber security is an issue now. The current trend is that more companies are going into metaverse. Nike is opening the first virtual store in metaverse. Avatars will try clothes and trainers. The focus needs to be on security perspective around metaverse, having everything unified and incorporating cyber security. Companies outsource it. The blue teaming is more and more common.
Earning potential vs flexibility and other benefits is what professionals consider today, Boyka Docheva, Chevening, Global HR Partner at IBM pointed out. Comparable offers is what today makes the IT job market competitive. IBM is expanding diversity in professional areas from junior to senior positions, including cybersecurity and in tech and business management and sales.
We face huge deficiencies of staff, Milan Sekuloski, Chevening, Senior Technical Advisor, USAID Critical Infrastructure Digitization and Resilience Program, DAI Center for Digital Acceleration shared. Not only for IT people, but also lawers for dealing with recovery payments, political scientists understanding geopolitics, 5G vendors dealing, sales and communicators to make business understand the importance of cybersecurity. This is the thing which very few people can do. If you can, you will get well paid.
We lack the basic knowledge of cybersecurity. In is obligatory to pass an exam for driving license course, but no training for navigating in the digital motorways.
The questions part included students all over the world with student from New York participating. We talked about where is good place to work for if you have political science bachelor and studying master in cyber security, how quickly you can enter cybersecurity career, personal cyber hygiene etc. The key messages from this session are:
- Do not be afraid, try things!
- Have a mentor
- Build soft skills – short term professional opportunity is also good as you can observe how people behave and you can shadow professionals.
- Build networks – on LinkedIn for example. Show your presence and produce content.
- Have transferable skills other than technology – for example data analysis.
- Show potential to learn.