iCarnegie Student Success Story:
Career Change from Office Assistant to an IT Projects Coordinator for a Multinational Corporation

Natasha Soranna, on landing a new career after iCarnegie: "I emphasized the intensity of the course, the high marks required to pass, and the high quality of the graduates."

Student	Ms. Natasha Sorrana
Why iCarnegie?	After graduating from high school, she "was unsure where life would lead me." She enrolled in the iCarnegie program so that she would have better opportunities for a good career.
Partner School	TAFE South Australia, Adelaide
iCarnegie Alumni Status	iCarnegie Certificates in Computer Programming and Software Systems Development
Profession & Employer	IT Software Projects Coordinator, Fujitsu's Adelaide, Australia office

Taking the iCarnegie Courses
Ms. Natasha Soranna completed high school but had much uncertainty about her career path. She was working as an office assistant, doing tasks such as filing, data entry, and answering phones. When she learned of the iCarnegie program offered at the Adelaide Institute of TAFE (AIT), she saw it as a way get the right preparation for better career opportunities.

"What appealed to me about the iCarnegie program at AIT were the course outline and the caliber of education it seemed to provide," she said. "It included a variety of IT subjects, which as it turned out, later helped me gain employment with a large and reputable company."

Ms. Soranna enrolled in the 10-course iCarnegie program, and quickly realized that the rigorous curriculum was designed to give extensive preparation to students willing to make the commitment. "It helped me to progress beyond my previous boundaries, and allowed me to aim for new heights."

During her training, she found it valuable that each of the courses coupled academic principles with practical assignments. She also liked the iCarnegie web-based delivery system, which meant "all the information required was at our fingertips" and was complemented by the classroom instruction.

Becoming iCarnegie Certified
Ms. Soranna completed all 10 courses and passed the iCarnegie certification exams for Computer Programming and Software Systems Development in May 2003. As an iCarnegie SSD certificate holder, she said that employers should recognize that "graduates of these courses have a world of skills in many aspects of the IT industry and are willing to learn. They put in great effort to master and finish these courses, and have skills that are at least equivalent to any university graduate." Achieving Professional Advancement

Beginning her employment search, Ms. Soranna posted her resume and information on Seek, one of Australia's largest job websites, and soon received a call from the IT recruitment services company Sapphire. Sapphire conducted a phone interview with her and forwarded her resume and their notes along to an employer client. Several days later, she received a call from Fujitsu to come in for an interview, as a result of the information given to them by the recruiting agency.

During the interview process, "I emphasized the intensity of the course, the high marks required to pass, and the high quality of the graduates," she said. "The reasons they hired me included my overall strong knowledge of IT, the experience I gained in the program in building applications, my confidence in those skills, and that the program allowed me to learn project management strategies."

One month after graduating from AIT, she was hired as an IT Projects Coordinator for Fujitsu in their Adelaide, South Australia offices.

Working in the Industry Today
Today Ms. Soranna is responsible for coordinating engineering resources for client projects. Tasks include organizing the project schedules for successful completion, serving as a liaison to the engineering team, ensuring proper documentation and software equipment are in place, and assigning work to engineers. She has also been asked to step in to oversee multiple projects when her supervisor was away on holidays.

"The skills and education have all been a great help," she said. "I am able to communicate on a technical level with both customers and the engineering team, and I understand how to document scope of work and manage projects."

(reprinted with student's permission)