We have been fortunate to join a company that is fast becoming a force to be reckoned with, in the ICT industry. Our current positions, as BET Software graduate trainees, is an opportunity that most of our peers are searching for, and yearn for daily. The industry that we are in requires experience, and we are the fortunate ones to be receiving this experience.
The past two months have been those of a transition. From being a student to being an employee in a corporate environment, we have encountered different challenges that we have had to overcome.
Most of these challenges have been within our expectations, and thus have been easier to overcome. . But, some have required a bit more effort. Although we are faced with change, the willingness to adapt has been crucial.
Change in Mindset
Within the first month of being graduate trainees, our mindsets have had to change, and be more aligned with what is referred to as the “real world” – in other words, the corporate environment.
For example, when we were students, it was easy to wake up in the morning and decide not to show up for class, and probably lounge around, or hang out with our friends.
If we had a designated task, we could easily not do it. It was easy to complain about the workload or come up with whatever excuse we could throw at our lecturer at that time.
Now, things have changed. We are mandated to be present every day of the week unless we have an urgent matter to attend to. I mean, we did sign a contract after all.
All the information we have been gathering over the years is no longer for marks. In the corporate world, we are engaging with real-life technologies and systems.
This transition has required us to change our attitudes, grasp as much information as we can, and realize that we now have an opportunity to build on our knowledge, and have an impact on the company we work in.
Time Management
In this short period, we have had our time management tested. This has been one of the biggest, and most challenging adjustments from being a student to becoming a graduate trainee. We, now, have a particular set of hours we need to adhere to.
We have encountered deadlines already for tasks at work, whilst we are being exposed to different departments within BET Software’s Software Development Life Cycle. An incident occurred where we took on more work than we were able to do – not realizing the intensity of the workload.
We had to account for how we used this time, and for our inability to meet deadlines. We’ve had to quickly learn how to identify, and prioritize assigned tasks according to their importance, and we’ve had to be aware of the allocated time for delivering each task.
Adaptation
Change is not an easy thing to adapt to. We’ve had to adapt to the fast-paced ICT industry environment leaving behind our varsity mentality. We’ve had to be open-minded about working in Teams, and have had to acknowledge that we are more than capable of digesting the information we are exposed to and that we can apply this amount of knowledge.
Initially, the use of daily technical jargon, and familiarising ourselves with the current systems at BET, was overwhelming, but we are gradually learning to get accustomed to the BET Software All-Star way.
Despite these minor hiccups, we are grateful and appreciative of this opportunity. An interesting challenge is going to be having to choose which department to be a part of at BET, since the ICT industry is so broad, and BET Software has a lot of options.
It’s now our responsibility to continuously research the current trends, and evolution of technology to be correctly positioned to make the right choices for the future.
Mbalenhle Bayeni and Samukelisiwe Zulu
Mbalenhle Bayeni (left) and Samukelisiwe Zulu (right) are BET Software's Graduate Trainees
