Education

‘I went in with an open mind wanting to develop new skills’

Colin Boylan, BSc computer applications, DCU

Colin Boylan
Colin Boylan
Tue May 14 2024 - 00:05

Twenty years on and I still talk about this course as one of the most challenging moments of my life (it haunts me at random moments). I went in with an open mind wanting to develop new skills in a fast growing tech industry – game development seemed trendy and lucrative. I nearly exited in year two, due to stress, burn out and sitting in labs till all hours but the head of computing convinced me to stay due to the staggering drop out rate at the time.

I’m really glad I stayed. Despite graduating right as the 2008 recession hit, I was lucky to land into a development support job in a bank while most of my peers emigrated to Australia or Canada. They were exciting, grateful, weird and very sad times.

I think out of all the programming modules, I found databases (SQL programming) the most interesting. It’s puzzle solving and very satisfying. I use data skills daily now in Pinterest, and being able to pull data and metrics and tell a story about where we were, are and are going is kind of amazing. I’ve been able to designate headcount to my ops team by using data. It’s extremely powerful.

Ultimately, the tech landscape has changed completely and it’s hard to keep up with so many new technologies. Degrees are important, but for me, someone with a passion for a certain area with multiple side projects would carry more weight.

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I’d like to see companies put less emphasis on CVs and more into personal passion projects in the future. My computing degree had quite a lot of filler at the time which just added layers of stress.

Artificial intelligence was a module I studied 20 years ago. We all ignored it but it’s the most talked about technology in recent years. I can see CPD in AI/automation being hugely beneficial for myself right now but it’s moving at a very fast pace and I want the dust to settle before I dive in.

Pinterest is a safe corner of the internet where I have evolved my career from a support specialist to a training coordinator to EMEA operations manager. I don’t think this would be possible only for the great people I work with and the always changing landscape where business needs and trends are constantly shifting.

-Peter McGuire

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