We are continuing to share the stories of young people who found summer internships through the Silicon Halton Tech Under 20 (TU20) program. This week will cover Vikram Lal and how he got involved in the TU20 program and landed a job for the summer. You can find the introductory article here.
Vikram Lal tells his story
My grade 11 year was coming to an end. I was preparing for IB exams, but also trying to decide on what to do for the summer.
I was considering different types of work in different industries, with retail, food and volunteering as the top options. As I was combing through my options, I was invited to a planning meeting for the Silicon Halton TU20 Learn2GetHired Event. As I listened to the experiences and plans of the students planning the event, I was impressed with what the other students had been able to do through Tech Under Twenty. I immediately signed up for the event and began revising my resume.
I had attended the first Learn2GetHired event back in May of 2015, when I was in grade 9. I was able to get a sense of the skills that would help me better understand technology and work potentially work in the industry. Even though I wasn’t looking for a job at the time, attending was a great learning experience that helped me improve my skill set. Two years later, I returned to Learn2GetHired and I was ready to find a summer job!
Learn2GetHired was held over two days, one week apart. On the first night, Silicon Halton members spoke about: jobs available in the tech industry, the structure of a resume and key points to address when pitching yourself to an employer. We were told to prepare our pitches for next week, as we would be speed pitching ourselves to 20+ employers.
At the beginning of the night I was nervous, but as I started pitching to different people, I became more and more confident and ended up having many great conversations with the employers. It was a great learning experience.
I became more and more confident and ended up having many great conversations with the employers.
A few days after the event, I was checking my email, and I had been invited to an interview by ViewIT Technologies, a Burlington based interior design software company. Little did I know - this email was the beginning of my summer career. A few days after my interview, I received another email saying that I was hired! My first summer job, at a tech company! I was very excited to start my new job. On my first day, I jumped on the bus and then the GO Train and commuted to Burlington. During my two-month period working at ViewIT Technologies, I had such an incredible experience. The company owners, Donna and Ross Barlett are very passionate about their work, and shared their significant knowledge of their respective fields.
Summer Job Begins
During the month of July, I worked on their email marketing plans. I researched CASL compliance rules (Canada’s anti spam legislation), designed and created email marketing templates, merged and deduped lists, and sent out email campaigns. During the month of August, I focused on user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) design. I started with quality control, providing feedback on one of the sites/applications they were developing. As I became more knowledgeable in the area, I redesigned tutorial screens and created mockups for application pages in Photoshop, that were provided to the client and development team. This was a great learning experience and I really appreciate ViewIT Technologies for hiring me and helping me upgrade my skills.
TU20 has not only helped me in developing the skills to acquire a summer job, but has helped me push towards my aspirations of becoming an engineer.
The skills I learned through TU20 will continue to help me pursue my goals. I learned how to pitch myself, network and contribute to the tech community around me. I am thankful for the effort and time put into these events, since without them, many people like me, would not be where we are today. This past summer has been invaluable to me as I continue along my school journey to become an engineer and change the world.
As the 2017 school year begins, I have decided to join the TU20 leadership team and I am currently the school Chapters Manager for TU20. This is the second year TU20 has had school chapters, and this year we hope to build 10 chapters with at least ten students each across Halton Region, so others can also participate in TU20 programs.
Silicon Halton TU20s Summer Internships stories:
Thank you for sharing your story Vikram Lal! If you are interested in learning more about the TU20 school chapters, you can visit our website. We will be wrapping up our series next week with a final story. We'll see you back here next Monday!
Silicon Halton TU20
Since it’s founding in 2009, Silicon Halton has brought together over 1400+ members, hosting 90+ events. Cofounded by Chris Herbert, Rick Stomphorst and Reema Duggal, Silicon Halton is going strong 8 years later.
In 2015, Silicon Halton had its first TU20 event called: “Developing Talent, Discovering Opportunities”. Since then, TU20 have hosted a number of programs and in school activities, for more information you can visit our website.