In June 2014, the business magazine Les Affaires issued the Top 30 Under 30 in IT issue. I was very happy to be part of the selected young professionals to be featured, representing youth in large companies and multi-nationals.
While the article and the 30-seconds video can be found online here, the integral (2-minutes-long) video may be found below, with an English transcription. Credits to Chris Cochrane for the video production.
A Surprising Experience in Big Companies
Following my experience in small and medium enterprises, I discovered that the creativity and the wide array of tasks were very encouraged, and that’s something that was very appealing to me. I was, however, very surprised to discover that the same entrepreneurial spirit and initiative spirit were encouraged in such a large multinational as CGI. It really broke down some stereotypes I had about working for larger companies!
Cultivating Success
My goal has always been to improve myself; that is – always learn something new, always go a little further. I think there were really three important factors in my life, to explain my professional success.
First, there is the understanding that there is no substitute for hard work; even an important natural gift cannot replace hard work. The second important success factor for me was what we call in French the “savoir-etre”, meaning the way we interact with others around us. This is something that is a little harder to learn because it is not traditionally taught in school, but it is very important: to understand the others, to be able to work with others, to have humility. The third factor is undeniably opportunities: beyond having opportunities, it’s important to recognize them, and engage with them. An opportunity can be a person that we meet along the way (often they become mentors, and friends), or a project with which we decide to engage or even to start.
A Fascination for IT
There are two things that have always fascinated me with IT. On the one hand, IT is omnipresent in our society. No matter what you do today, there will have been computers (and IT teams) supporting your daily activities. This means the career opportunities are very interesting as you get to touch up on so many industries and different kinds of projects. On the other hand, I believe we are now at the frontier of a new era. Just like the previous generation has built machines that took the whole room and only begun to connect through this wild thing we now know as the Internet, today’s mobile technologies represent a profound shift in how the society will conduct business, report on news, interact with governments and with each other as citizens. To be part of the pioneers building tomorrow’s world is very exciting to me.
Some Further Thoughts
When speaking about opportunities, one cannot leave unnamed the programs that made a substantial difference in achieving success. I have a deep belief that it is the sum of our experience that shapes who we are, and that the early experiences in our lives shape our future to a great extent. Hence, the importance of trying many things early on; one never knows where a passion might begin. That is one of the main reasons I continue to be involved with community programs to help young people discover interesting career paths and fight school drop-out rates. Similarly, people will play a great role in our lives. It is they who help us in our successes and our failures, they who help us know ourselves better, and understand our own strengths and weaknesses, through their continuous feedback.
Corina on Work 