After TMU — Sully Syed

1. How did your degree influence your career choice?

I joined the School of Computer Science knowing that my aptitude in software development and electronics meant it was a strong choice for a career for me – plus, of course, I really enjoyed it. Computer science is an incredibly wide field, so I used my third and fourth year of the program to dabble in a variety of areas – databases, computer security, robotics, artificial intelligence and web development – before making up my mind on what to concentrate on after I got my degree. I ultimately chose web development, but the foundational knowledge I gained in the other areas was surprisingly relevant and useful as well.

2. What are some skills you developed through university?

The software development industry today is built around small teams of usually just five to 10 individuals pooling their talents and intelligence to create products. That dynamic was far from being a surprise for me because of how the Computer Science program at Ryerson University was structured, as I repeatedly worked on group projects that began with a market or customer study and ended with a daunting (so it seemed at the time) presentation to the entire class of the group's work. After two or three years of this, walking up to a crowd of a hundred or so wasn't daunting at all; it was a joy to get to talk about what we'd been working on for half of the year.

3. What do you wish you could tell your university self?

That not everyone learns the same way, and to not stress about doing things the way everyone else seems to be doing them. Only in university did I discover that I'm much less a watch-a-lecturer learner than I am someone who absorbs knowledge through reading it myself and often writing sample questions until a concept feels like it makes sense. I felt hopelessly behind my peers in classes until I came to this realization and made the necessary adjustments. I've been using the same strategies and structure to learn ever since.

4. How did your experience at TMU help you find your first position after graduation?

I'd already been working professionally as a software developer contractor for a couple of years before I graduated, and I tend to think that my prior experience was the major factor in getting my first office job. I surely wouldn't have had nearly the same skillset with working in that little three-person development team without TMU, though.

5. In your experience, what are some attributes of individuals who are most successful in your field?

Computer science, and software development in particular, is really just a very pure form of problem solving. You're presented with a real-life business problem and it's your job to come up with a technical solution.

First and foremost, the best of us absolutely love problem solving of any kind and for any topic under the sun. The second most important attribution for career success in my opinion is related to the first: you've got to get good at putting yourself in the business person's shoes so you can thoroughly understand the business that you're trying to solve a problem for. That takes a degree of humility and empathy that takes a while to achieve, but is also essential if you want to excel, because how do you plan to solve a problem if you don't first understand the question?

6. If you could start all over again, would you change your career path in any way? Why?

I spent of a bunch of time at the start of my career trying to become a specialist, as I'd observed highly specialized individuals achieving great career success by targeting a niche of their choice. If I had a second go-around, I'd perhaps make up my mind on becoming a generalist much sooner – something my industry is now embracing happily (see: countless ads on Facebook for training to become a 'full stack developer'). Life's about the journey, though, and I don't think I'd really do things any other way.