One of my former college professors asked me to be one of the thesis panelist this semester. At first, I was shocked for my current work is not actually IT-related, but more in the internet marketing field. But even though im lacking in most IT skills, I managed to say yes.

Few weeks back, I was asked to become the guest speaker in one of the seminars organized by COMSSO. Of course I said yes, knowing that I’m gonna share my knowledge on SEO to the students in UE.

But that was different. WAY different.  

Being an SEO can’t be compared of those who worked as a programmer, Network administrator, Web designer and Graphic artist. But then being an SEO needs to collaborate with Web designers, Artists, Writers, analyst and online marketing staff for website optimization and implementation. SEO work has its own set of responsibilities, and though it includes knowledge in some programming language (a little programming is needed) still its goal is to increase the site’s visibility in the internet.

Well anyway, let’s proceed on what happened in the thesis defense…

I arrived in the morning and the group of students are already lined up. On our group, We are assigned in three library systems to different schools and an inventory transation system. two of my co-panelist are oviously working as a programmer in their respective offices and I must say, I was very envious in their current job post. I was never gifted in programming and I learned a little in every programming class. I only focused in website creation, design and implementation. Perhaps the things that I had learned in school has helped me in my current work after all, for HTML and a bit of design is required in my post. but still…

And the group of students came.

And another.

And here comes lunch.

And another.

And the last one.

And the drama was over.

To summarize the event, the thesis defense is very challenging to my part. And as I remember the things that our thesis group did when I was in college, We dressed up in our utmost corporate attire, having our camera to document the defense and constantly rehearsing our reports, having our mindset on passing the defense, praying for our defense, praying for our panelist to pass us, praying that no one topples down, praying, praying, praying, and still praying that everything will be ok. I keep on looking at the students and I asked myself if I did something that they were currently doing right now during the defense. Of course I keep mum about this for I need to focus in their presentation.

What I observed to most students during their presentation is tha they were almost whispering while explaining their part. I know that they were dowwnright nervous, but this is a minus factor for me. I need to see self confidence in every student that has an utmost desire to pass the defense. Their self confidence, if mantained and seen, can also be applicable in real life, after graduating college and finding a job that fits to their liking. Hope their nervousness can be lesssened.

Another thing I observed is the thesis documents of the students. One of my co-panelist has done her job very well in observing their errors in their documents. It’s important to to check the margins, header and footer alighment, and the most important, the information inside in every thesis document. It must be concise and well-made. No grammar errors, no erratums from tables and diagrams. All required information needed in the document must be complete in order to have a perfect thesis document.

So far, three of the thesis groups passed the defense except the first one who had major errors in their proposed system itself. And though they passed the redefense, still we’re hoping that on their second thesis (system implementation) they already meet their thesis document requirements and have their system up and running.

Somehow, I missed being a college student, yet im happy that i’m now able to share my knowledge to the students who are getting ready to become one of the best in the IT industry in the future.