“The teachers and programs in Sekolah Ciputra are very supportive to your individual growth which I find unique and helpful.”
KEZIA DEVINA LIMAN
GRADUATED: 2017
1. After graduating from Sekolah Ciputra, where do you study? What is your major?
– Associate Degree: Diablo Valley College and my major is Computer Science.
– Bachelor Degree: University of California and my major is Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.
2. What did you do after graduating from university?
After graduating from university, I applied to many companies in the US to work as a software engineer. Spent most of my time preparing for an interview and finally landed my first job at Splunk.
3. What is your current occupation? Please share an overview
I work as a Software Engineer at Splunk, San Jose, USA. My job is to create APIs for our cloud customers to be able to use Splunk programmatically. In general, my job is to help solve customer problems. Sometimes the solution to their problem is a new feature, in which I would need to come up with a design, implement the code, test and monitor it. Some other times, the solution isn’t straightforward, so I would spend weeks doing spike and talking to different teams or if it is a bug, I would need to triage, fix and do a post-incident review on it.
4. As a software engineer, what are the challenges? How do you overcome it?
One of the challenges that I face as a software engineer is surviving in the competitive industry. Firstly, there are a lot of smart people around me, which could easily intimidate me. Secondly, the rapid change of technology could easily burn me out. I haven’t completely overcome this, but I have learned to see it as a challenge and opportunity to keep on growing. There are always people who are better than us, so learn from them and just keep doing your best.
5. What was the biggest challenge of moving to a new country?
The biggest challenge of moving to a new country is to survive on my own and be persistent enough to stay on track with my goals.
6. What do you enjoy most about your new environment?
Discovering new things and hobbies. For example, my new hobby is traveling. Since I live in the bay area, I enjoy taking a drive; to a new city and exploring the city. Another example is hiking; my team at Splunk also loves hiking and there are a lot of hiking places around me. So it’s pretty interesting to pick up these new things.
7. In what way did Sekolah Ciputra contribute to your job right now?
Sekolah Ciputra contributed a lot to my job right now, especially to my communication skills and open-mindedness. I remembered how our teachers would put us in groups to discuss a certain topic before starting a project. The teachers are very open to feedback and opposing ideas, plus they also encourage us, the students, to ask questions. All of these skills are very useful in my day-to-day work. As an engineer, I’m not working alone, but I’m working in a team, so good communication skills and being open to new ideas and comments are very important. Sekolah Ciputra also taught me to think critically, which is needed for my job right now.
8. What was the best thing about Sekolah Ciputra? Tell us something memorable from your time at Sekolah Ciputra
There are two things about Sekolah Ciputra that were really memorable for me. First is the yearly school camps. We don’t only get the opportunity to create memories and bonds with friends (which we remembered until today), but we also get the opportunity to learn skills that we don’t get inside the classroom. Second is the CAS activities. I used to initially do it only to fulfill the IB requirement, but apparently along the way, I started to enjoy it.
9. What advice would you give to a graduating student?
I’m not the best person for this, since I’m still early in my career but one thing I can share is that rejection is not the end of everything. Don’t spend too much time comparing yourself to others. Step outside of your comfort zone and make the most of your 20s. Make the opportunities and time you have worth something.
10. Would you recommend Sekolah Ciputra to others? If yes, what would you say about it?
Of course! Sekolah Ciputra has a good curriculum that I believe would give you skills that go beyond the school environment and are useful for your career. It does translate well even to the modern world today. The teachers and programs in Sekolah Ciputra are very supportive to your individual growth which I find unique and helpful.
11. What do you enjoy doing in your free time?
The things I like to do during my free time have changed over the past few years. But one thing that I always love doing is watching movies and TV shows. Recently, I also started to explore new restaurants around me and try various new cuisines.
