RIYADH, 3 May 2005 — In April, Microsoft held its first Gulf Developers Conference (GDC) and in an unusual move allowed university students to attend free. It was an attempt on the part of Microsoft to enable future IT professionals to get a taste of how software applications are used in the real world and also an effort to help establish the foundation for a regional developer community.
Meeting at GDC with a group of students from King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals in Dhahran and Prince Sultan University in Riyadh, it was clear that the students had been quite unsure of what to expect at the conference, but all were glad that they’d taken the chance and dropped by.
“I came to GDC 2004 in order to help develop another interest outside my major,” said Mohammed Al-Ibrahim, who is studying Computer Engineering at KFUPM. “I thought it was a chance to get a good idea about some up and coming technology. I was most interested in the web development track. I’m using the Internet a lot and I think that in the future if you have a good background on the technologies related to the Internet, it will be a help no matter what’s your major.”
Al-Ibrahim found GDC worthwhile, although he did note that it was important to remember that Microsoft was sponsoring the conference and so perhaps all the applications weren’t as “simple and easy” as they were portrayed.
“I am sure there are some negative points but the speakers weren’t discussing them,” he remarked. “In the future it would be advisable to give a more complete picture, which would be more believable.”
On the whole though the students took the marketing aspect of GDC as something that was to be expected.
“We knew that the conference was promoting Microsoft’s technologies, so it was Microsoft 100 percent of the time,” said Maher E. Saadeldin studying Information Systems at Prince Sultan University. “There’s nothing wrong with that. They paid a lot for everything at GDC. I just hope there is the opportunity to learn about other software in the future. I wish too they had something special just for the students.”
Saadeldin is hoping to make his career in the medical applications area of information systems. He created a lot of laughter when he stated, “I love medicine but I don’t want to touch anyone.” He has a fascination though with the expert systems that help physicians diagnose and treat patients.
Saadeldin found GDC to be a new experience and was pleased that he’d been allowed to participate at the event alongside corporate professionals.
“I admit that this event is for people with at least five years experience and it was really challenging trying to keep up. Believe me, the speakers never run out of abbreviations and if you’re not familiar with them it’s difficult. Perhaps IT is trying to compete with medicine in making the subject completely impossible to understand unless you’re part of that specific professional group!” he theorized.
Ahmad Faisal Shaheen, a student in his senior year studying Information Systems at Prince Sultan University, was able to benefit from the sessions due to the extracurricular reading he’d been doing. Shaheen came to the conference mostly out of simple curiosity.
“Actually it was somehow better than I expected. My interests are mainly concepts and theories of project management and software engineering, away from the rough language of coding. I attended three sessions. In the beginning there were a lot of professional terms that needed experience and a huge background that I didn’t have. But then when the sessions got more real world, I could use some of what I’d learned at college and my late night reading to help me and I coped up.”
What does Shaheen think of Microsoft?
“If they were a person they’d be a tycoon,” he said. “I don’t believe they are the best, but they definitely dominate. Even during some of the presentations the speakers were struggling with the software and there were a lot of errors. Microsoft is not the perfect company but I admire the fact that they do a lot of research and development. That’s impressive.”
By chance, all the students interviewed at GDC were foreigners studying at Saudi universities. Shaheen highlighted a problem that has become a serious issue for this group. Cooperative training opportunities have become impossible to find. It’s frustrating and the students feel like the chance for on the job experience is almost a mirage.
“My college requires me to find a training position for seven months as part of my major. So far I can’t find anything. The college isn’t helping me enough and most companies are only interested in hiring Saudis. Also, companies really don’t want to employ an undergraduate — someone who lacks experience. They want us to have experience without having a job. It’s an impossible situation,” Shaheen explained. “I am desperate. I will take anything that has something to do with my major. I can’t think about the future or what I really want to do in life because I have to accomplish this seven months of training before I can graduate.”
Mohammed N. Othman, another Information Systems major at Prince Sultan University, pointed out another problem.
“I wish more companies would come to our university. I wouldn’t even mind if most of it was marketing as long as we got the chance to see something new. It would give us some idea of what’s really going on in the business environment so it would supplement all the theory we learn,” he said. “I wish too that I would have some professional certifications when I’d graduate. All major software companies should consider offering better discounts to university students. It’s discouraging to graduate and have no experience. There’s no way to get a job. A professional certification gives you an edge.”
It seemed from the conversation between the students that some universities are doing better than others at bringing in external resources. Another issue is that some international IT vendors aren’t making their student targeted discounts and programs well known. It’s apparent that companies need to find ways to reach out to the students directly, rather than depending on the universities to disseminate such information.
Overall, from the students’ perspectives GDC 2004 was a success and they hope for more to come. Their one suggestion to Microsoft for improving the event was to focus on one application and highlight it by offering some sort of short course or a workshop as a part of the conference.
“It was really nice that as a student I was invited to GDC and I could attend free,” said Ahmad A. Duidar, a junior in Computer Engineering at KFUPM . “There was some marketing but there was quite a lot of learning offered, too.”
He continued, “Most of the seminars I attended were about web development, which is cool. I didn’t know what was going on at all in this area before I came to GDC. Now, a light has been shed on the topic and it’s really interesting. GDC has given me some idea of areas that I’d like to explore further.”
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