Success Starts with Courage


A Story of Steven Adi Santoso, Bangkit 2022 Graduate from Informatics Engineering, Universitas Dian Nuswantoro
"Believe in yourself. You are braver than you think, more talented than you know, and capable of more than you imagine."
(Roy T. Bennett, Zimbabwean Politician)
Everyone has their own fear, and so does Steven Adi Santoso (21), an Informatics Engineering student at Universitas Dian Nuswantoro. Steven was afraid of being unable to give his best in Bangkit, while his goal was to become a reliable digital talent. That fear was caused by the necessity of balancing studying, working, and learning in Bangkit.

Despite feeling agitated, Steven's courage was more incredible. If Steven had not decided to have some courage, maybe Steven wouldn't be where he is.

Drawn to Machine Learning Due to Face-Recognition Technology

Born in South Kalimantan as the second child, Steven grew up in various cities in Indonesia before finally settling in Semarang with his family. His father's computer was an inseparable part of Steven's childhood that became the background for his interest in technology.

Steven's enthusiasm for technology since he was very young motivated him to attend SMK, a vocational school with a Computer Network Engineering major. Determined to be a tech talent, Steven went to Universitas Dian Nuswantoro (Udinus) and picked Informatics Engineering major after graduating from the vocational school.

When his time as a student began, Steven explored various technology-related things. Then, he was intrigued by Machine Learning when he saw that his friend could create a face recognition technology. Interested in getting to know more about Machine Learning, Steven decided to learn on his own.

As he began to familiarize himself with Machine Learning. Steven ran into difficulties. Finding the right learning resources was challenging, considering he was still very new to this technology. Besides that, Steven had quite a hard time studying alone without guidance.

However, Steven's impediment lasted only a short time until he was recommended to join Bangkit by his lecturer. Udinus, as one of Bangkit's partner universities, fully supported his students to excel in this program. His campus support made Steven dogged to enroll in Bangkit 2022 and choose a Machine Learning path.

Preparing for the Most Desirable Careers in 2030

Steven was excited to participate in Bangkit 2022 because he finally could equip himself with insights related to artificial intelligence in the Machine Learning path. His enthusiasm was driven by the following fact from a boot camp where he learned about website development a long ago.
"At that time, I heard that the three learning paths in Bangkit were included in the list of most needed jobs in 2030. So I was preparing for my future by joining Bangkit."
The opportunity to get global certification after graduating from Bangkit also boosted Steven's spirit to become Bangkit 2022 Cohort. After waiting for some time, he finally received an acceptance letter from Bangkit. Unfortunately, Steven suddenly lost his nerve.

As his study period in Bangkit 2022 began, he had to start working as a Part-Time Game Developer at PT Graphie Global Interaktif, a game development company based in Jakarta. Doing his part-time job remotely, Steven was once worried about needing help to keep up with his studies on campus and in Bangkit.

Time Management is Key

The high density of Steven's activity on campus and at work worried Steven, who needed to be sure about doing well in Bangkit. He had to be good at dividing his time between lectures, part-time work, and Bangkit.
“Even though I was discouraged once, in the end, I decided not to give up on these three things. I did rely on time management. Usually, the night before, I would prepare my to-do list for the next day. It helped me to optimize my time.”
As a result, Steven admitted that he had an extraordinary experience in Bangkit. His earnestness to deepen into Machine Learning made him feel that learning in Bangkit could have been more effort. He was also delighted to get abundant learning resources after trying to learn on his own all this time.

After studying at Bangkit, Steven decided to join the Company-Based Capstone Project. In the project, he was able to familiarize himself with an industrial problem at Talentlytica, a Jakarta-based human resources consulting firm. He said that Talentlytica was very supportive and helped him to apply knowledge from Bangkit to the business problem.

In that company, he played the role of Machine Learning Engineer, whose job was to extract data from a creative CV. For Steven, that was challenging because creative CVs are usually not ATS-friendly, so it was difficult to read by the system. However, Steven successfully carried out his assignment and gained worthwhile experience there.

Several Achievements after Bangkit

The determination of Steven and his team while doing their tasks at Talentlytica made them the best team in the company. It wasn't the only achievement that Steven obtained after Bangkit. He, who once doubted himself about giving his best on campus, at work, and in Bangkit, apparently managed to pass the TensorFlow Developer certification exam. That proved that excellent time management could help us succeed in everything we do.

Apart from that, Steven also said that he received practical insights from soft skills classes. His favorite soft skills material is about the mindset that discussed fixed mindset and growth mindset. He was also glad to train his foreign language skills through English classes. Transforming into a more confident person with a growth mindset brought him other good things.
"Finally, I was appointed full-time Game Developer at PT Graphie Global Interaktif in February 2023. I’d love to have the opportunity to utilize my Machine Learning skills from Bangkit to develop games."
Not only become a full-time employee, but Steven also received various full-time job offers and projects after graduating from Bangkit. However, Steven wanted to keep contributing to his current company.

To follow in his footsteps as a Bangkit 2022 Graduate who successfully obtained global certification and launched a full-time career, Steven advised students learning in Bangkit 2023 to understand that success starts with courage. Only courage led Steven to his numerous accomplishments and promising opportunities.

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