Name: Magan Vess
Company: Blue Cross Blue Shield of SC www.southcarolinablues.com
Job Title: Java Developer II
Personal hobbies and/or interests: Crafts, such as making cards and cross stitching and cooking
What does your company do? Provide insurance
Yes, but what do you actually do? I am the WCM expert for my team, which is Web Content Management (an application from IBM) that controls the content on a website
Where did you go to college? What is your degree in? I went to Winthrop University and majored in Computer Science with a second discipline in Business
Did you always want to work in IT? No, I started out in Early Childhood Education, but decided I may make better use of my logic skills and less of dealing with parent drama in the IT field
What is your favorite part of the job? I like developing new things, such as websites, but this job is mostly updating existing code rather than developing new code
Describe the work environment at your company. We work hard, but it is easy to make friends here because everyone is friendly and helpful, so it makes the job more enjoyable
What qualities do you need to have to do your job? I would say you would need some logic skills along with organizational skills to be able to debug issues and keep track of your work
Top Skills
- Operation Analysis
- Logic / Critical Thinking
- Complex Problem Solving
- Organization
- Active Listening
- Reading Comprehension
What is (in your opinion) the biggest misconception about working in technology/IT? I think most people think you know everything about computers when you are in IT, but really there are so many specialized fields within IT ranging from web development to networking to workstation support and everything in between
Any advice for students or professionals going into your field? Be willing to always learn new technologies because IT is a constantly changing field and keep your mind open to the ideas of new minds (folks younger than yourself…AKA don’t be stuck in your ways)