Understanding in a Specialisation.

Marvin Reyes

AIS ensures you are ready for today’s job market and Marvin Reyes knows his AIS internship is the key reason why he now has fulltime employment. “My AIS internship helped me out so much,” the 25 year-old explains. “My professor got me into Absolute Analytics which is one of AIS’ original internship partners. I learned so much and really enjoyed the experience. I’m very thankful to AIS for getting me in because if it wasn’t for that internship programme, I might still be searching for work right now.”

Absolute Analytics offered Marvin a fulltime position as soon as he completed his six-month internship in late 2020.

“Currently, I am working as a web analytics specialist/developer. I analyse data and generate insights that we collect from our clients as well as doing data manipulation and application development for the company.” He has put the data analytical skills and knowledge he learned at AIS to good use, allowing him to fit comfortably into his new role.

Marvin is originally from the Philippines and worked as a Java Developer before enrolling to study a Post-Graduate Diploma in Information Systems in February 2020. A close family friend recommended AIS to him. “I heard so many good things about the institution regarding its excellence in producing new graduates and because they have a great set of professors and mentors.”

While he thoroughly enjoyed his study and the supportive learning environment on campus, one key challenge was trying to combine two skill sets – being a developer as well as learning about Information Systems. “AIS helped me out in developing this kind of technology stack because of the great mentors they have. They were so supportive in what I want to achieve in my career.”

Marvin says his Artificial Intelligence class was an unexpected highlight which broadened his thinking. “It’s one of the reasons why instead of going down the software architect path, I have chosen to pursue a data science career.”

He plans to one day start his own company offering web development and web analytics in one combined package. “I would encourage everyone to enroll in AIS today. You won't regret your decision!”

Vaimaa Petelo Iketau

Pregnancy, lockdown and financial hardship were just some of the challenges Vaimaa Petelo had to overcome while studying her Bachelor of Information Technology.

But thanks to AIS’ support, she has not only qualified and found employment, but she achieved outstanding results. Vaimaa was awarded academic merit and excellence awards every single semester.

The 37 year-old’s journey from working as a Logistics Manager in Tonga to becoming an Operations Controller at a specialist refrigeration company here in Auckland, is proof that you can achieve whatever career goal you set your mind to.

“It’s been a lovely experience, especially since it was my first time studying here in New Zealand,” Vaimaa says. “Choosing AIS was the best choice for me. I had previously done my diploma at the Tonga Institute of Higher Education which has links with AIS. Many students who study in Tonga then come to AIS.”

While undertaking her BIT qualification, Vaimaa was pregnant. “There was a time where I could not meet the fees but I was able to seek help. AIS helped me to pay partially for my school fees and at the same time allowed me to do online study if I needed because of my situation. I was attending school the whole time while pregnant with my fifth baby.”

She says AIS helped students to become familiar with study routines and other matters, and that support stepped up another level during Auckland’s COVID-19 lockdowns. “During lockdown, AIS student services offered support with food as well, and also online study was a very convenient option so we could continue to learn.”

During her study, Vaimaa learned how to apply for jobs and the type of CV that New Zealand employers are looking for. “Gaining my BIT helped support my job hunting,” she says. “I’ve been able to put my new skills to practical use and know how to use a CRM system and do reports in Power BI as analytical tools.”

She now works at EcoChill as an Operations Controller where Vaimaa deals with computers all the time and is enjoying her new role.

“In future I want to extend my IT knowledge and use my knowledge to gain more experience here in New Zealand,” she says.

“AIS is the best. The lecturers are so helpful and you feel like you’re home at all times. It’s very supportive academically, socially and mentally.”

Mike Woolley

Having driven trucks on New Zealand roads for over two decades, Mike Woolley plans to put his new master’s degree in IT to good use and eventually find a niche job in the transport industry.

The Auckland father of five first discovered AIS by researching IT programmes on the internet. He was offered a scholarship for his first year and liked the idea of the small class sizes on offer.

“I first started at AIS in 2015, studying towards the Bachelor of Information Technology. During my final year I found out that the following year they were offering the Postgraduate Diploma in Information Technology, so I decided to continue my study in the new programme on the research pathway. I knew there would be a master’s degree offered the final year, and I wanted to study under Dr Mike Watts specifically. I now hold a Master of Information Technology specialising in Artificial Intelligence.”

Mike says he greatly admired Dr Watts. “He challenged me and helped me develop the skills I needed to accomplish my academic goals. He also encouraged me to seek answers and figure things out for myself. We also shared very similar interests academically. I have a great deal of respect for him, and now consider him a friend as well as a teacher and mentor.”

Mike was awarded a Māori scholarship for his final year of study and was named valedictorian when he first graduated in 2018. He then went on to achieve very high grades during his post-graduate and master’s studies.

He says the support he received throughout his time at AIS was exceptional. “I faced a number of personal and study challenges during my five years at AIS. With the support of the head of programme and some of the other lecturers, I was able to work through the difficulties and ultimately succeed.”

Having completed his master’s research on the use of Evolving Connectionist Systems in Distributed and Federated Learning, Mike plans to embark on a PhD in the near future. His current AIS qualification has already helped him secure full-time employment.

“I am currently working in transport operations at Booth's Group Auckland. This role involves operations administration, freight control, transport planning, and customer service. Once I have my PhD, I hope to find a niche role in the transport industry leveraging both my IT skills and my transport knowledge.”

Overall, Mike says AIS is a great place to study with really good support systems. “And the IT programme stands up to any other programme in the country.”

Lucas Shin

Lucas Shin always strives to be the best in his field and knows that ongoing education and qualifications are crucial in the ever-changing world of IT.

The 45 year-old from Seoul has over 13 years’ experience in IT and previously worked as a security specialist for a major Korean company. After assessing his study options, he moved to New Zealand and enrolled at AIS in 2019.

“I chose AIS because it was high quality and more trustworthy than other private New Zealand institutes,” Lucas says. “They provide free carparking and AIS also has an excellent English Language Centre. It is the best institute for studying English in New Zealand.”

Lucas took on the challenge of a Postgraduate Diploma in Information Technology (PGDIT), specialising in networks and security, which is designed to fill the global skills shortage that exists within the IT sector.

As a Level 8 programme, the PGDIT assignments require a high level of knowledge and experience which Lucas says was extremely helpful to extend himself and improve his own skills.

“Some of my fellow students were excellent and had a lot of experience and knowledge. We helped each other and raised each other’s level of performance,” he says. “We spent the whole night studying and doing assignments together at each other’s homes. It was difficult at the time. But looking back on it now, it was an excellent experience.”

Lucas was impressed by his knowledgeable AIS lecturers and the network lab equipment that was provided. All students are issued with their own laptop and receive free software to support their learning including Microsoft Office 365, Visual Studio and Grammarly subscriptions.

The PGDIT networks and security specialist topic deals with technical issues involved in designing, implementing, administering and securing computer networks. Graduates such as Lucas are then highly employable in the IT sector, having gained advanced technical skills during their study.

"In my case, I have a master's degree, but it's not an IT degree. An AIS Postgraduate Diploma in IT gave me a chance to get an IT job in New Zealand.”

Lucas now works for Cybercraft which specialises in cyber risk resilience and management for New Zealand businesses. He is a security specialist and consults in the areas of continuous assurance, insight and risk assessment. He also develops and manages cybersecurity products.

“You always need to study and acquire new knowledge and skills to survive in the changing IT ecosystem. It is the reality of a person who works in the IT field.”

Mi Kyung Ryu

Ask most people around the world where the Lord of the Rings saga was filmed and many would be able to identify New Zealand. Not only did the film series put the New Zealand film industry on the map, it also helped to attract international students with a passion for film to our shores, with Ryu being a great example.

Unfortunately for Ryu, the New Zealand film industry is quite small so finding full time employment proved difficult. After nearly 12 months of part-time work and job searching, Ryu decided to switch her focus from film to IT. As a growing industry, there are positive opportunities to gain experience and earn good money as well.

AIS ticked all the boxes for Ryu, including the opportunity to join earlier thanks to the institute’s three-semester structure. Ryu found the GDIT very beneficial to her learning and welcomed the smaller class sizes compared to other universities. This allowed her to engage with tutors on a personal level and absorb key information about system analysis, databases, database engineering and design.

“I would recommend AIS if you are really determined, if you really know where you are going and if you have your goals set already.”

After her graduation, Ryu began working as a test analyst for Gentrack - a business that produces software for the utility industry across the globe. While moving from the film industry to the IT sector is a massive shift, the experience she is gaining with Gentrack is invaluable, initially working on a water billing program solution in Fiji.

“I haven’t been in an office environment before. In the film industry people are running around, yelling and I’m used to it, but here people talk very quiet and they use formal language.”

Ryu is confident that the GDIT course content will stand her in good stead in the IT sector moving forward, and she urges future students to work hard during their time at AIS.

“Don’t just rely on the papers you study; you’ve got to learn as much as you can. Use YouTube and other sources, and go to seminars or join an association. I’m a member of IITP so I can learn things from industry leaders.”

Hao Sun

My journey into the IT industry started at AIS. The quality and practical aspects of the programme were the reasons I chose to study the Bachelor of Information Technology.

The programme offered me a great opportunity to gain in-depth knowledge and understanding of how the IT industry affects society, and practical skills in the IT field. The knowledge and skills I gained at AIS helped me develop confidence, which in turn enabled me to secure a good position with one of the most promising IT companies in Auckland.

I currently work as a developer for BuzzTasker Ltd and my job responsibilities range from the presentation layer using JavaScript, jQuery and Ajax, to server coding with C#, ASP.NET and ADO.NET, plus database design and development. As a result of my studies at AIS, we have created a web-based application: www.buzzTasker.co.nz.

A large part of my success can be attributed to my lecturers who were very supportive throughout my studies at AIS.

Rieko Sugimoto

Rieko completed her Graduate Diploma in Information Technology at AIS in December 2010. She is currently working as a software engineer at a large New Zealand-based software development company, Olympic Software. Rieko is involved in developing a complex online platform for Countdown Supermarkets as part of a long-term collaboration between Olympic Software, Woolworths Australia and Progressive Enterprises. Rieko had no prior experience in software development before she enrolled at AIS.

Rieko originally studied Law at Chuo University in Tokyo, Japan. Shortly after graduating she took a position in sales at Mitsubishi UFJ Nikos (now part of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group), a large Japanese credit company. Three years later Rieko changed jobs to work as a project manager for Yahoo Japan. This role brought her closer to IT, but not as a developer.

Due to the nature of her role, Rieko often worked twelve hours a day, five days a week; sometimes she worked extra on the weekends. This put a lot of stress on her and her husband.

“The Japanese work environment is very stressful. We go to work around 10am and you go back home around 10-11pm Monday to Friday. Sometimes you need to work more than that. It's a lot of stress.”

During her fifth year at Yahoo Japan, Rieko started to seriously consider moving overseas in search of a better work environment. Having found the U.S. too strict, Canada too cold and Australia too big, she settled on New Zealand as the most beautiful and serene destination. Auckland, being the largest city in New Zealand, seemed like a good place to stay.

Looking to start a career in software development, Rieko enrolled at AIS in September 2009 to study GDIT via the English for Academic Purposes Stage II (EAP II) pathway.

AIS was the only tertiary education provider she could find with a native Japanese counsellor on campus and this helped her gain the confidence to speak English. The twelve weeks she spent in the EAP class helped her learn to write academic English. Rieko passed the internal English test at AIS and went on to study for GDIT.

“The GDIT is short and after graduating I could get a post-study work visa. It’s good to study just one year and get offered a work visa.

“I wanted to do the GDIT and learn about software development and then change my career to a developer. I studied law but luckily with the GDIT, it doesn’t matter what you’ve study previously.”

Thanks to her GDIT, Rieko achieved a deeper understanding of IT and learned to take a structural approach to development.

“I had never studied IT before; I kind of learned through work experience. After finishing the GDIT, I can think about it more deeply. It’s good to learn about databases. This was a very good turning point for me. After the databases class, I think about database structure before programming.”

Rieko applied for a software engineer position at Olympic Software towards the end of her final semester at AIS. One month and two interviews later she joined as a full-time staff member. Later in the year, Olympic Software supported her application for permanent residency. Rieko then supported her husband’s application. Both now live in Auckland and work full-time as developers.

“If you try hard, you can get a lot from this GDIT programme.”

Dmitriy Sabitov

Dmitriy completed his Graduate Diploma in Information Technology (Software Development) at AIS in December 2011. He now works as a junior developer at Foster Moore, a dedicated registry development company based in Auckland.

Dmitriy received a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Perm State University, Russia, in 2009 and spent the next 2 years working as a tester for Prognoz, an international business intelligence software vendor. While at Prognoz, he worked on several high-profile projects for large organisations such as the World Bank, the World Health Organization, and 3M. At the same time Dmitriy was also studying for his master’s degree. Early in 2010, realising his growth potential within the IT industry, Dmitriy started to look for opportunities overseas.

“My city was not enough for me, I wanted something more. I wanted a change of environment and my parents gave me a chance to go overseas.”

New Zealand was an easy choice due to the country’s booming IT sector, easy-going lifestyle and unique environment.

“I was confident I’d get a job in New Zealand: I’ve got experience from Russia and I knew I’m quite capable in what I’m doing.”

“New Zealand is way more relaxed. I like the lifestyle. It’s a very easy-going country and that’s what I really like in here; that and of course the nature.”

Dmitriy was looking to start a career in software development and needed a relatively short and a practical course:

“I needed something which will specialise me in development, in a year.”

Having visited the offices of his local agent in Russia, Dmitriy had a choice of 4 Auckland education providers.

”I chose AIS. One reason was price. AIS was also much more practical. I just haven’t really seen anything as appropriate for me as in AIS.”

The next year Dmitriy spent learning a specific set of practical skills required to start a successful career in software development:

“I learned test cases. I’ve never done them in my previous job. The first couple of months at Foster Moore I was just doing test cases. Also I learned databases. I’ve had 4 subjects in databases. That definitely helped me because now I’m working as a developer and I always work with views and indexes. And of course OOP, object-oriented programming, I got it all from there. That was the reason why I chose AIS – because I really wanted to learn some skills.”

Dmitriy finished his GDIT in late 2011.  After a short trip back to Russia he set out to find employment within the IT sector: it only took a month.

“I got a list of all IT companies in New Zealand and sent them emails. Foster Moore was one of the first to respond. I came to the interview and almost immediately I was hired into a full-time permanent role.”

Dmitriy has now settled into his permanent role at Foster Moore, got his New Zealand residency and is looking to further specialize in software development.

Would Dmitriy recommend AIS?

“Yes, for sure. Especially if you need a specialisation and you already know what you want, then AIS would be a good choice. Good value for money and good quality. AIS gives you enough knowledge and a good degree to find a job.”