Now on the serious side. Ok you’ve finished uni and have gained employment in an office job in your career path or at least something interesting. What to do next?

Whether you are in your desired role or not, the process of developing yourself has not finished, in fact you are probably less than half-way there despite your recent three years at university.

I recommend finding a professional organisation for your industry if one exists. Becoming a member of a professional society can do a number of things for your career. First of all, you can get recognised in your profession and commence your path to become a certified professional. It allows you to come into contact with peers in your industry. Thirdly, you are then more aware of continuous education opportunities.

While it’s great to have a degree, so do most people in professional employment. Getting certified, taking on further studies and creating networks will help you excel much faster than your average graduate.

Once I graduated, I joined the Australian Computer Society (ACS). Due to the degree I studied, I was able to get recognition straight away. I became a certified technologist and ICT practitioner. As long as I continue to invest 20 hours each year in my personal development, I will eventually be granted the title of ‘professional’. In this time, I’ve become aware of what types of work exist in my industry and have attending interesting lectures.

A professional isn’t automatically a professional just because he/she was able to pass all the units in that course and receive a degree. Having an external body recognise your industry qualifications compliments those letters that appear on your business card after your name.

In my last year of studies, I was so desperate to have a post-student life that I didn’t contemplate going back, not until I had spent a few years in the workforce.

After working in the public service for 15 months, I’m still unsure of when to pursue further formal education. I have been told that it’s best to work for a few years as a career path will become clearer once I have some industry experience. This makes sense as then I’ll be able to decide whether I’d like to specialise in one area or study a new stream altogether. It also allows me to explore what options are available to study while I work.

At this point in time, I’m not sure what area of studies I’d like to pursue. One interest is to learn more about accounting and ensure I have financial knowledge to complement what I’ve already learned. It’s known that once you get to the managerial level of ICT, budgets and cost come in to play much more. Being financially literate is an advantage when justifying expenditure and conveying ideas. The only issue with studying accounting is that I may be planning too far ahead.

So the other study streams I think are plausible would be to pursue project management or business analysis courses. While both are expensive, they would be a step in the right direction. Prine2 or PMP courses would be great to have under my belt. Similarly, specific courses relating to business requirements and business analysis would put me in good stead also.

I’ve seen people complete their Bachelor’s and post grad diplomas all at once before entering the workforce as a graduate. While this would be desirable, I didn’t have any fuel left in me to continue studying at the end of my degree.

I hope to check back in a year’s time to see how I feel about it then. Maybe I’ll have some courses under my belt by then. Here’s hoping.

As university degrees attempt to become more workforce oriented and practical there is an enourmous bias towards the Windows operating system and all of its applications.

At our faculty there were around 4 windows computer labs to 1 linux lab. I did have some Linux interaction in a operating systems unit but the tasks were centered around process scheduling, forks and threads.

In another unit I was lucky to make a presentation about Linux as a desktop system . Most of the class listened with amazement as if I were introducing mircrowaves for the first time. My teacher knew more than the rest about Linux however, I got the impression that his knowledge had come more from magazines than first hand experience.

I once convinced a Software Engineering student to install a version of Ubuntu Linux on his PC. After a slow install and a mix-up with the partitioning decisions, he quickly uninstalled everything and went back to his more comfortable and fully modified Windows XP setup.

What is causing all of this? Is Microsoft Windows such a solid operating system that it eliminates the need to try an alternative? Is the international workforce so dependant on Windows, that other options are a waste of time? Or are we, the young university students, just too lazy and too scared to try the unknown?

Whatever the cause, you wont lose an arm or a fortune by trying Linux as a desktop. There are multiple avenues you can take to avoid the migration risk.

• You can install a version of Linux onto your Windows system as if it were a program and see how it goes. This is called Wubi Linux.

• You can reboot your computer with a live linux cd, this will allow you to run linux without installing or changing anything.

• If you are more daring, you can install Linux as a dual-boot having the option of starting your computer with either Linux or Windows each time.

I can understand that the office workers and general community would be hesitant to try a new operating system, especially if you can’t buy it in stores out of a box and if it isn’t free but if you are an IT student… what is wrong with you guys? You should be trying out new stuff, testing the alternatives and make a real comparison. If you have enough experience with Linux the chances are you will make a big difference at your future workplace if you can push some elements of the office to use open-source applications.

It might be sad but I think the only way users will take Linux seriously is when Google release its version of Linux aimed at netbooks next year. http://www.pcgameshardware.com/aid,691901/Chrome-OS-First-pictures-of-the-Alpha/News/

To the skeptics who view Linux as a useless fad, two things. Try Linux first, compare it to what you currently have. Secondly, do you really enjoy waiting 3 minutes for your computer to boot despite the fact you have 3GB of RAM and an Intel Duo Core processor?

Here is an article detailing Microsoft’s admission that Linux and the Open Source movement are threats to their business.

http://blogs.zdnet.com/open-source/?p=4604
http://www.itwire.com/content/view/26746/1231/

Below are two articles I have already published on this blog for people who are willing to dual boot Linux with Windows.

http://rbravo.net/2009/06/11/open-source/partition-your-hard-drive-for-multiple-operating-systems/
http://rbravo.net/2009/06/12/open-source/dual-boot-windows-vista-and-kubuntu-linux/