SYDNEY, Aug. 19, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Luis Erazo was on track for a career in tech. He'd graduated with a degree in electrical engineering in his home country of Colombia, worked for a tech start-up, and later started his own. So when he enrolled in the Master of Information Technology in Business Information Systems at UTS, he had one goal in mind. Hear more student and alumni successes at the UTS Virtual Open Week this 7-11 September.
"My motivation to do the master's was to become really good at managing technology for big companies. My dream job was working for Google, one of the biggest IT and technology companies in the world," he says.
In his master's degree, Luis was building the skills and making the connections he needed to succeed. He was even offered a job as a Delivery Manager with multinational IT company WiseTech Global a year before he graduated. Everything was going to plan.
So, when he enrolled in the UTS Startups program, he saw it as just one more step towards his future IT career.
UTS Startups is the largest community of student-led startups in Australia. With a range of support to help students bring their big ideas to life, it's a major component of UTS's broader commitment to entrepreneurship and innovation. The university has a goal to reach 50 per cent of UTS students with entrepreneurship experiences and support by 2023.
UTS Startups changed the trajectory of Luis's life. He realised he'd found his people - and potentially his future career.
"The program teaches students how to take a problem, transform it into an opportunity, and then build a business around it," he says.
"I loved it. I never had that entrepreneurial kind of framework before, but UTS Startups really helped me learn those skills."
In fact, Luis was such a good match for the program that the team invited him to come back the following semester as a mentor. From there, he was offered a paid position to teach a 12-week entrepreneurship program to new students, helping them explore design thinking and lean start-up methodologies. Somehow, without realising it, he'd become an entrepreneurship expert.
Towards the end of 2018, Luis's degree was coming to an end. He was still working for WiseTech Global and UTS Startups, and he'd also been offered a role at the Academy of Entrepreneurs, a Sydney-based business school focused on entrepreneurial education.
He had a big decision to make - take the WiseTech path and pursue the career in IT management he'd always dreamt of, or take a leap into his newfound passion for entrepreneurship? In the end, entrepreneurship won - and, he says, there's no doubt it was the right decision: he's now the Director of the Academy of Entrepreneurs, using his expertise to help launch the careers of the change-makers of tomorrow.
"With entrepreneurship, I'm constantly meeting people that take action, who are change makers," he says.
"That's pretty inspiring for me. It's very fulfilling when you can actually help those people to move forward on their journey," he says.
On 9 September, join UTS Startups for a live online discussion "UTS Startups: the largest community of student-launched startups in Australia". Discover how UTS is supporting students like Luis to develop and launch the businesses of tomorrow. This event is part of UTS's Virtual Open Week, 7 - 11 September. Discover more at uts.edu.au/virtual-open-week.
The University of Technology Sydney (UTS), located in central Sydney, is one of Australia's leading universities of technology. It is known for fusing innovation, creativity and technology in its teaching and research and for being an industry-focused university. UTS has a total enrolment of more than 40,000 students and is rated No.1 'young' university in Australia in the QS rankings. For more information go to uts.edu.au.
