Career Path of an IT Manager at a Leading Company
Freida, an IT Manager at an industry leader, took an "unconventional career path" starting with a philosophy major at UC Berkeley where they focused on logic and systems thinking. After college, the speaker "got pretty lucky" landing a consulting role, despite not having had internships during college, an experience they now advise students to pursue.
Career Path, Consulting, Systems Thinking, Problem-Solving, IT
Advizer Information
Name
Job Title
Company
Undergrad
Grad Programs
Majors
Industries
Job Functions
Traits
Freida Kreitzer
IT Manager
Industry leader
UC Berkeley
Philosophy
Technology
Cyber Security and IT
Scholarship Recipient, Took Out Loans, Worked 20+ Hours in School
Video Highlights
1. Freida majored in philosophy (a humanities major) at UC Berkeley, highlighting an unconventional path into IT and cybersecurity.
2. She emphasizes the value of logic and systems thinking learned from her philosophy major as being crucial to her career in IT.
3. Freida advises students to pursue internships, a path she didn't take herself, but now recognizes as important for career development.
Transcript
Could you walk me through your career path, starting with your experiences in college?
Do you have any internships or jobs you had before your current role?
Absolutely. I actually majored in philosophy at UC Berkeley, which is a humanities major. After college, I discovered that one of the things I valued most from that major was learning logic.
I took that systems thinking and problem-solving mentality toward my work. I would say I got pretty lucky early on in my career because I started as a consultant.
I wasn't super smart during college and didn't do internships. Now, whenever I talk to students, that's the first thing I advise: to do that toward what they want to work in. It's a pretty unconventional career path, which I encourage in cybersecurity.