Rancho Cucamonga High School hosted its annual Career Day on Wednesday, Jan. 7., and it was hosted in the gym. This event provided students the chance to explore various jobs in different fields, such as learning to be a data engineer or exploring the daily life of a medical doctor.
Senior Miles Hopkins said the speaker who interested him the most was the veteran. He expected to hear only troubling experiences, but the speaker surprised him by shifting his focus to the positive experiences.
“He actually said everything good about the job and what motivated him,” Hopkins said.
Hopkins also noticed how many speakers were eager to help others improve. Career Day helped Hopkins become more confident about his future.
“Before, I was a bit worried on going into most of these careers, because I didn’t really have much insight into the future. But after talking to these speakers and getting more insight, I had more of a comfortable experience,” Hopkins said.
Jonathan Page, a banker at United Credit Union, talked to students about his career in banking and financial services. Page explained that his job focuses on helping people every day. He assists members with things like fraud disputes and difficult family situations.
“The most important skill to becoming a banker is the ability to show empathy,” Page said. “Also, be self-motivated and drive yourself to find a solution for that member. No matter what it is, being flexible and adaptable, knowing that every situation is going to be different.
Speaker Matiya Tate, a data engineer and analyst, talked about her life as a data engineer and analyst.
“What I like the most is that I get to learn from really smart people. They pull together, and I get to learn new cool things and enhance my own knowledge,” Tate said.
Tate typically enjoys their career working with people who are smart, so that Tate can gain more knowledge as well. However, Tate explained that the job can be frustrating when data changes cause problems. She began to talk about the downsides of her job.
“The least that I like is that people mess with data all the time, and if you take some data from a certain system and they decide to change it, everything will break,” Tate said.
Tate explained her schedule on a typical day.
“On a typical work day, I would say I am maintaining data a lot of the time. I am answering questions from a lot of different program managers and also creating dashboards. So I also train AI and machine learning on how to present data to job seekers and people,” Tate said.
Overall, Career Day helped students better understand what different jobs are really like. By hearing real stories and advice, many students are left feeling more confident and informed about their future career choices.
