Answered Prayer..

After rejections from several industries/institutions, it made me think it's impossible to find an industry here in Ilocos Norte for our immersion. We applied to several industries/institutions in the private and public sectors. To some, immersion is new to them and lack of guidelines to such feared them that they can’t provide the right competencies we need for the immersion.

For a while, I thought we have nowhere to apply for immersion until we sat down and made a new list of possible government sectors. We applied at the city government of Batac. During that time the City Mayor is out of town and the HR department endorsed our applications to the OIC and advised us to follow it up the next day.

While our classmates are having already their immersion in their respective company, our faith was being tested in applying for immersion. As we wait for the response of the city government of Batac, we decided to apply at the National Tobacco Administration (NTA) located in the City of Batac still even though we have doubts how we may be able to align it to IT if we are going to stay there. As we went to NTA, we were able to meet the OIC and some personnel at the agency. To our surprise, the people there are very accommodating and amazingly, there’s a lot of potential researchable areas where IT can be applied.

Thank you to the personnel of NTA for giving us the opportunity to be immersed at their agency. Luckily, we will start our immersion on May 2, 2017. Hope that we could live up to their expectations and expect that we will learn a lot from them.

The hardships that we faced is nothing compared to the knowledge that awaits us at NTA that were made it possible through determination. Really, God answers prayer……

The search....

The highly challenging academic subjects in Doctor of Information Technology (DIT) at the Technological Institute of the Philippines – Quezon City (TIP-QC) will be over after the final blow in Industry Immersion, the last subject in the course works before moving to Dissertation 1. The students are given an opportunity, a glimpse of the challenging work environment to gain meaningful industry experiences. It's a meaningful way of validating theoretical perspectives learned in the classroom into actual practice, techniques, and processes.

To some, looking for a company for immersion is a piece of cake while it is backbreaking to others. There are those who have already started their industry careers and there are those strenuously looking for the company despite rejections upon rejections by some companies and I am one of them. 

As a response to the orientation on industry immersion with Dr. Ruji Medina, Dean of the Graduate School of TIP – QC, I have already started looking for a company together with my classmate and buddy Bobby Eclarin. Upon returning to our own province Ilocos Norte we passed an endorsement letter to Mariano Marcos Memorial Hospital and Medical Center, the biggest hospital in Ilocos Norte. We are hopeful to get a positive feedback right away from the administration. Wistfully, the head of the Human Resource and the training department are not available during that time and the personnel received the letters and advised us to make a follow up after several days.

During the time, we visited DOST Satellite branch in the City of Batac, Home of the Great Leaders, and we were able to talk to the Unit Head and had a worthwhile conversation. We found out that the DOST office there is just a branch of DOST assisting several beneficiaries to set up technologies for their ventures. After a day or two, we visited again the hospital and the head of the training department made an inquiry to Dean Rufi Medina as to the competencies needed by us for them to provide. The training center waited for several days for the response.

Subsequently after several follow-ups, cheerlessly, the hospital informed us on April 24, 2017, that they cannot accommodate us and were openly admitted that they cannot provide us the competencies we needed for the immersion. After knowing the despairing information, Bobby and I made a list of prospect companies and government offices.

Rejection doesn’t mean you’re unfit for something. Rejection simply means a better opportunity. We cannot simply be stopped by uncertainties. Instead, continue striving until we find the right company that could provide us the right training and relevant experiences.

May the good Lord grant our desires!