OJT is over

Finally, after days of busy programming, interface and database design, our OJT had come to an end, prematurely. I say prematurely because we are supposedly to stay longer. But as the days gone by, and the classes near, we realized that thesis is eating our time and we cant continue our OJT no longer.  But this is not a bad thing after all.

During our relatively short stay in NEC (about 29 days, compared to 5 to 7 months of other OJTs), we accomplished quite a lot. We worked on an already existing platform. We are tasked to develop it using a technology though is familiar, is still new to us, the use of AJAX framework. We found out that it is a great framework, very much advantageous if implemented on websites. 

But despite this kind of success, we failed at one thing, we made our supervisor mad! We are to blame anyway, we did not tell him in advance that we are leaving, we just told him on the same day that we will have to leave! Anyway, lessons learned. 

That was a great day still, my family were here, it’s enough to call it a great day.

I hope tomorrow will be another great day.

One Busy Summer

Summer’s almost over. 

Classes are gonna start soon, again. But unlike before, where we hate to go back to classes because we want to prolong the leisure we enjoy during the summer vacations, summer right now is nothing more different than that of a regular semester. I’ve had a busy summer.  But luckily, I had the chance to enjoy a vacation in Siargao Island for one week last April. Seeing our relatives there after a long time is enough for me to call it a happy vacation. 

And then I came back to go have an OJT at NEC, thanks to our trusted friend, we got the chance to be an OJT in the Japanese company in Asiatown IT Park. Vacancies of OJT which relates to your course seems elusive these days. We had submitted many resumes and application letters to many different companies in March, and if not for Paolo, we would have not been accepted. It’s not because we are the dumbest in class, nor are we blacklisted in the guidance office or any reason that would have deprive us for an audience. Me myself, I am a DOST scholar with no failures ever since, not a Dean’s list though since my average ranges only around 1.8 to 2.1 on a 1.0 scale. So I may think sometimes, it’s not really about qualifications, it’s more on the connections, though if you really work hard and therefore have luck, you do not need some connections to succeed. 

So here we are, 6 of us, all except me are also having summer classes while having OJT, starts to work, ang aiming for at least 120 hours to at most 200 hours. 

The NEC workplace is nice. With professional people all around, with some other OJTs and trainees, student interns and with the training supervisor Sir Dominic who at first is scary but later on we found out is a jolly person, it is a dynamic working environment. One thing I don’t like in the beginning is the eerie silence. I’m not used to it. I know it’s a workplace, but at least some soothing background music will be enough. But as time goes by, as we become more comfortable to the place, it gradually became enjoyable. I acted as the project leader, responsible for assigning tasks, taking all the pieces and combining them into one reasonable application, evaluating everyone’s progress, checks for any problems that arises, and of course, the most enjoyable part, programming.

In terms of programming, we’ve learned a lot. Things like effectively using sessions, Javabeans, AJAX technology and making a feature rich application, to meeting deadlines, making technical documents, manuals, guides and installer, we are thankful for being here. Being an OJT really immerses you to the professional world, prepares you to what is in store after college. If it would have been an online game, we would have ranked one tier higher.

Next week will be our last week. I hope that we will be able to leave a good impression and reputation by then. 

Have a good day!