Thurgood Marshall College Fund

I am currently in New York City with the Thurgood Marshall College Fund for the annual Thurgood Marshall Leadership Conference. Here I am learning a lot about what it will take for me to become successful after college and in my field of IT as well. I have used this time and opportunity to talk and network with various company representatives and actually asked them what would be expected of me if I were to obtain a job with their company in my field. They had very good answers and were very educational as well. The main thing that employers of IT employees focus on is your technical skills. Not how you are dressed, not what you look like, but if you can do your job. That is it in a nut shell. When it comes to other jobs like sales and other things like if you are going to be the face of the company then soft skills are very necessary but in my case I wont be reporting to work in a suit or even slacks. Some people even told me that they come to work in jeans and sneakers sometimes. This leadership conference has been extremely educational for me and I am extremely privileged to be here. I think that if there were any justifiable reasons to miss class then this is definitely one of them. Tomorrow morning will be a job fair where I will get another chance to talk and network with employers and I am extremely excited about that. These employers are among the top in the world. They include Wal-Mart, AT&T, Atria and 30+ others. The employers are extremely receptive and interested in talking to us as students and that is mind blowing and so exciting to be around so many big name people and among all black students. I am having an excellent time and learning a lot.