Driven by a passion for technology, Nick Soo aspired to make his mark in the ICT industry. Enrolling in UCOL's Bachelor of Information & Communications Technology, he soon discovered the door opening to an exciting job opportunity.
"I've always been good with technology and wanted to work in that space. I spent three years working at Vodafone (now One) before COVID-19, and decided I wanted to upskill, so I enrolled for the
IT Essentials certificate at UCOL. After that, I decided I might as well keep going and I did the
Bachelor's degree too.
"The skills and knowledge I learnt from the certificate made it a lot easier for me to do the degree. It really helped me, especially in the first year - my grades were amazing!"
Nick says what he enjoyed most during his time at UCOL was the hands-on experience.
"The second and third year have been a lot more practical, which has been awesome. I really enjoyed the programming class and playing around with coding, as well as web development.
"Going into the degree, I actually wanted to be a programmer, but as my study progressed and I experienced different courses across UCOL, I realised that my passion actually lies in data analysis.
"As a data analyst, I've learned that the job is all about how you interpret data. The value really comes from the conclusions you come up with based on the data you're looking at. It's really cool being able to help solve problems and watch your solutions come to life."
Nick experienced this first-hand during the final semester of his
degree while completing his internship at Levno, an agri-tech company that develops monitoring solutions for farmers.
"For my industry project, I helped create a dashboard using data from Levno's sensors. The team wanted to understand how different farms were performing in terms of milk quality, and use this data to identify lower-performing farms and see what they could do to improve them."
The team at Levno knew what they wanted to achieve with the dashboard, but they weren't sure if their concept would work. Nick helped them turn their idea into reality.
"I took the historical data they'd collected over the years and transformed it into the milk quality dashboard and proved their concept. The software team are working on its development now. It's so satisfying to see it coming to life."
With a background in farming, Nick found his internship at Levno to be a natural fit.
"I grew up on a lifestyle block herding cows and sheep in Foxton. It's been cool to be able to follow my passion for IT and apply my skills to an industry I've grown up in.
"I'm in the final weeks of my degree and I'm excited to get into the industry. My Levno internship was the perfect foot in the door, and I'm starting a three-month paid contract as a data and business analyst with them soon. I'm hoping it turns into a permanent position!"
Nick said he's felt incredibly supported throughout his internship.
"I'm an introvert, so being thrust into a team environment was intimidating for me, but everyone was so welcoming and friendly. It made it a lot easier for me. I've never been afraid to go up to someone and ask for help with something.
"My data analyst lecturer from UCOL has been super helpful throughout my internship, too. He always provided me with everything I needed to progress and helped me come up with solutions to any challenges I was having."
For potential learners considering a career in ICT, Nick says to give it a go.
"Whether you enjoy programming, cybersecurity, or data analysis - go for it! There are so many opportunities in
Palmy for ICT learners. It's a great time to get into the industry."