Developing New Skills

This course has provided me with one of the most valuable learning experiences I have had during college. The class is unlike any other because you are able to participate in solving problems for real businesses. One central takeaway I had was developing a new skillset. It was very interesting to hear about the operations of a business and learn about how to improve workflow processes. Our client wanted to implement an automated system to boost efficiency and speed up internal and external communications.

At first, my team and I had no idea where to start like many others. However, after spending quite some time trying to understand the problem, we were able to create an action plan. It began with learning new Microsoft Software products. Initially, I thought that it would be highly unlikely that my team and I could advance our technical capabilities past what we already know. However, as we became more passionate about solving the problem we were able to learn the necessary software and take initiative to come up with new solutions. Now not only am I able to use these skills in the class, but I am also able to apply them to other opportunities in the future.

I was pleased to share the new software skills I had developed with recruiters during interviews, however, I realized not only did I learn hard skills but I learned soft skills too. This course taught me how to work with a team on a personal and professional basis. I was able to overcome challenges with my team and build a relationship with them even outside of class. Although the entire semester was online, we were able to achieve all the goals we had set and come up with multiple solutions to our client’s problem.

Near the end of the semester when we were presenting our final deliverable, I felt a sense of achievement as our client stated how they were impressed with the work we had done and looked forward to implementing the solution. Our success was only possible due to the guidance and feedback we received from our mentors. One of my favorite quotes I have learned from this course when it comes to working with a client is “Always underpromise and overdeliver.” Overall, I recommend this course to any student who wants to gain the opportunity to make an impact on a real business.