This is one of the most interesting networking events I’ve been to. The design club organized this event for students and alumni to mingle. The president of the club “Kelvin Medina” was the one in charge. The location was in the name building, in the room next to the cafeteria. They provided snacks and drinks for everyone. They also had games to break the ice and everyone was very welcoming.

Each person was given a blank sticker where we write down our names, and the students were given a green sticker while the alumni were given an orange one. That way we could differentiate one another. We sat in small groups and two alumni joined each group. We asked questions such as: How long ago did you graduate from CityTech? Where are you working right now? Did you like the time you were a student at CityTech? I recognized one the alumni who was one of my classmates few semester ago.

I brought with me business cards to give away, and gave it to people who have jobs with agencies or departments I could be interested in. There was only one guy who was in the same module as me, Web Design. Everyone else were in Advertising or some in Illustration. I asked many questions to the guy who graduated as a web designer, and we had conversations about User Experience and the field. Some topics we talked about are that there are tons of different job titles out there that represent the same thing. The job description would be the same, so we should not be stuck with only one title.

Another alumni gave great recommendations, he was an art director and I felt he was being very honest about the workspace out there. He suggested that it’s good to be well rounded when it comes to the design field, but we have to specialize in a niche, be really good at one thing. That sometimes we as students feel the pressure to know a lot of things, even the ones we had no previous experience before or with things we really dislike. He suggested that we should focus on our strengths, and what makes us happy. We should know ourselves and we should know our weaknesses as well. He also emphasized the importance of not just following other people, but following your own path because each person is different.

His statements made a lot of sense to me, and I loved the honesty I perceived. Overall I really enjoyed the meeting, it was very informative in the sense that I got to talk to people who already graduated and received great advices from them. I also gave some of my business cards away in case they need an intern. I was happy I decided to go, even though it was at night.