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Graduand Parks Travel To Study For Quality Job

August 6, 2014
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Riki Waikato – happy in his job.

After a great five years of travelling and working overseas, Riki Waikato was ready to come home to Hawke’s Bay and study for a qualification.

“The jobs I had weren’t amazing,” the 30-year-old says of bartending in Edinburgh and para-legal work for a Sydney law firm.  “I didn’t have a huge interest in them.”

Riki loves working as a software developer at Red Jungle, however.  The Ahuriri-based company offered him a paid position while he was on a semester-long internship in the final year of his EIT studies.

And on Thursday (March 20), he will be capped with a Bachelor of Computer Systems degree.

Looking back, Riki says he wouldn’t have done things differently.  He feels he gained a lot of knowledge and experience through his travels and wasn’t ready for tertiary study as an 18-year-old leaving St John’s College in Hastings.

“I would have partied up.  I don’t think I would have done too well.”

After catching the travel bug on a trip to the Gold Coast, Riki spent six months in the USA enjoying San Diego’s surfing and beach culture.  “I had the best time ever,” he says.   A brief stint in London was followed by a move to Scotland, where he worked and ventured away on weekend trips to Europe.

Later, he toured the Continent by bus and rail and then returned to Australia, where he was joined by his wife-to-be, Bridget, who is also from Hawke’s Bay.  The couple are now well settled in Taradale, which he found perfectly located for walking back and forth to EIT.

“I always knew I wanted to study and had a pretty fair idea it would be in computing.  Since high school, I’ve always been interested in computers.”

Riki launched into study with EIT’s Diploma in Information and Communications Technology.

“It was good way to get back into it.  I really enjoyed my programming, web development and web design and was definitely keen to move onto the Bachelor in Computing Systems and keep studying in those areas.”

He found the degree’s different learning framework challenging but felt well supported by his lecturers and enjoyed the learning and campus amenities.  And he says internships are an ideal option for final-year BCS students.

“They’re a good way to get into the industry and see how business works.  And it puts you in front of a potential employer.”

Riki is enjoying being part of Red Jungle’s close and friendly team.

“It’s a really good place to end up.  There’s a culture of professional development so you have the opportunity to map out where you want to go and what you want to do.  In the very long term, I want to be in a manager’s role.”

Of travel, he says:  “I had a bit of an itch that I wanted to scratch.  Now it’s time to buckle down, buy a house and have kids.  It’s a different phase in life.  I want to get established in my career first – and I can always travel on holiday.”