Finding Your Career Pathway with Justin Lau
Finding “MIS is such a flexible major!” and, “There are so many career fields you can get into with an MIS degree!” are phrases that MIS students hear often. These statements are true. Every institute, every company, and every department needs someone who can bring technical skills and business skills together. In fact, MIS skill sets are so sought after that this major has become one of the highest paying business concentrations in the US. That’s great news! However, with so many different career paths to choose from, selecting the right one naturally becomes a bit of a headache.
About a month ago, I had the opportunity to speak to Justin Lau, an SJSU alumnus who graduated in 2016. I wanted to interview Justin because I was especially interested in why Justin had become a Solutions Architect when most of his previous experiences were in the IT field.
During college, he was not only part of MISA, but he was also part of SJSU’s Gary J. Sbona MIS Honors Program. He even went on to receive the Thompson Scholarship during his senior year. Justin started his work journey as an IT intern during his senior year at SJSU. Eventually, he became a Technical Consulting Engineer at Cisco and later transitioned to a Cybersecurity Design Specialist at Boeing. Now, he is a Solutions Architect at Amazon Web Services.
To find out how Justin was able to transition seamlessly from career to career, I wanted to ask about his definition of a successful MIS graduate.
What does success look like in the MIS field?
Justin: Success is really hard to define in MIS. This is because one could have a very in-depth technical skillset and be successful, yet one could also be successful by having really good business skills. I think one should pursue more than what is being taught in the textbooks. A lot of times in MIS classes, we learn about the basics of a certain topic, python for example. However, just that knowledge simply isn’t enough, especially when technology is growing rapidly. Be an expert in a certain area of your career field, maybe an area you’re interested in. I was interested in IT infrastructure so I got the Cisco Certified Network Associate certificate.
“Be an expert in a certain area of your career field.”
Understanding how Justin values a successful MIS graduate, I wanted to dig deeper to find out how he was able to transition his career smoothly. What sparked his interest in becoming a Solutions Architect? And how did he acquire the skill sets to do so?
Justin: It’s actually not as magical as it looks. When I was working in my IT internships, I learned a lot about It infrastructure. Then I transitioned into working as a Cybersecurity Design Specialist at Boeing because cybersecurity was the “hottest field‘. Later, I realized that working as a Cybersecurity Design Specialist wasn’t as exciting as most people thought. I gave this field a try and realized that it wasn’t for me. Due to having previous experience in IT infrastructure, I was able to move to AWS easily. One advice I would give is that you should research and try out different career fields. Then, pick out the ones you don’t like. That way, you could unravel a career path for you as you cross out roads that you don’t want to take.”
“Pick out the career paths you don’t want. Then, choosing a career becomes easier.”
As a current MIS student at SJSU, I understand that choosing a career might be difficult and complicated. After speaking with Justin however, I felt like my path ahead became clearer as now I have a solution to one of the greatest headaches an MIS major could have.
