Academic journey

This post is supposed to cover my academic journey, including the thought processes that led to my decisions in life. If you are only interested in my achievements, you can just check out the overview below and continue with your day. However, if you are interested in my story, just continue reading and find out.

Overview

My academic path started at the Czech Technical University in Prague, where I pursued a bachelor's degree in Computer Security and Information Technology from September 2018 to February 2022. During this time, I completed my bachelor's thesis, which is publicly accessible online.

In January 2021, I joined a study exchange program at Texas Tech University for one semester. Here, I achieved a perfect GPA of 4.0 and earned a spot on the President's Honor List of TTU, a recognition I am particularly proud of.

Currently, I am back at the Czech Technical University in Prague, working towards my Master's degree in Managerial Informatics. I began this program in September 2022 and am set to complete it by June 2024.

Long story long

How it started

You might have several questions after reading my academic overview, such as why I shifted my focus from security to managerial informatics, or what my experience studying in the US was like. In this section, I'll attempt to address these questions and share more about the decisions I've made throughout my university education.

My academic journey began at the Czech Technical University in Prague (CTU) in 2018. I had just graduated from high school that year and was making an important decision about how to approach my future studies. The university offers various faculties, and I was deciding between the Faculty of Information Technology and the Faculty of Electrical Engineering. Both offered various computer science programs that interested me. After serious consideration, I chose the Faculty of Information Technology, as suggested by its name.

Back then, I was a different person; I didn’t know where I was headed, what I wanted to do, or how to gather the necessary information to make these decisions. For these reasons, I was grateful that there was an option to choose my major even after the second semester. That gave me valuable time to understand what I was studying and to discover if there was any particular area that I would enjoy.

Boomerang decision

I have to admit that the first year of university was quite challenging for me. Many of my friends were expelled during the first semester, and I was constantly worried that I might be next. Looking back, I realize I was overly concerned about my own performance. I was more than capable of passing all my classes with relatively good grades.

After finishing the first year, the decision to choose my major came back to me like a boomerang. There was only one problem: I had yet to decide which area interested me most. I couldn’t find anything at which I excelled. I never had the most points or the best programming approach, which made this decision even more challenging.

However, I realized that, despite not being the best in any one area, I had achieved something that only a small percentage of students do: I always passed everything. I completed all assignments on time and well enough to pass. I passed all the exams—maybe not with an A, but I passed them. I never needed to retake a single class. This realization made me see that I had one competitive advantage over the majority of students—I was capable of passing any class the school offered, no matter what it was.

Realizing all this, I decided to focus on the subjects that people avoid because they are "too hard." That narrowed my options to theoretical informatics and cybersecurity. Knowing that Theoretical Informatics wouldn’t be particularly useful in my future career left me with only one option. And that’s how I made the decision to focus on Cybersecurity instead of becoming a programmer like most people from our school do.

Good is not enough

I finished my first year of university and decided on my major. Everything seemed to be going well. While most people would likely be happy with this progress, I found myself feeling quite unhappy.

First, I had a terrible feeling that I wasn't doing enough. That's what all young people hear nowadays, right? Everybody just makes you feel bad about yourself because you are "just" studying.

Second, I always wanted to live somewhere else for a while—to meet new people, see how life is in different places, and learn how to adapt to new situations.

Third, I was always anxious about my English-speaking skills. I knew that to become confident, I needed to live in an English-speaking country for a while.

Given this situation, I started to search for student programs that would allow me to study abroad for a while. I would like to say that I meticulously researched and tried to find the best university, etc., but the truth is, from the moment I decided I wanted to do this, I knew I wanted to go to the United States.

Texas advanture

Knowing I wanted to go to the United States, my options were very limited. The CTU has bilateral agreements with just a couple of universities there. But being honest, I would choose Texas any day of the week. Of course, I spent weeks researching the universities, but I kind of knew who the winner would be.

I'm not going to prolong the story of how COVID complicated everything—how I needed to postpone my trip and how difficult it was to get a student visa during those times. I can only say that out of the several hundred students that come to TTU from Europe each semester, only five of us arrived. Five out of hundreds. Five people who were willing to spend countless hours planning something that could fail any day due to COVID restrictions.

Nevertheless, I was there. Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX. I was excited from the moment I stepped onto US soil until the day I returned to Europe. I loved the mentality of the people there. It was so easy to start conversations with strangers. I admired their constant activity; staying at home and resting just wasn't an option. I loved their almost naive honesty and openness.

However, despite all the fun I was having, I was there to study. There were so many things going on that I even forgot to be nervous, which I should have been since most of my classes were at the master’s level. Why not take the challenge, right?

There were various problems that I faced. However, there were three major issues worth mentioning.

• Terrified speaking in front of people
• Different accents
• No idea where to find information

As you know, one of the reasons I wanted to spend some time in the United States was to overcome my fear of speaking English. Well, now was the time. It didn't help that many people initially had difficulty understanding me because of my accent. However, the beautiful part of this was that I simply had to do it. There was no other option. I didn’t come all this way to sit there in silence.

The second issue was a bit more difficult to solve. I always knew that there were many different accents in the United States and around the world. I guess I just didn’t realize how differently people can speak. There were simply people with such thick accents that I had no idea what they were saying. And it's especially challenging when one of these people happens to be your professor of advanced mathematics.

The last problem was something I was prepared for. I knew that figuring out where students share information about classes was essential. Therefore, I kept asking all my classmates until I knew exactly where to look to find out how to complete my assignments and pass all my classes. Step by step, I overcame my fears of talking in front of my classmates and successfully finished all my classes with A's. Funnily enough, many of my classes ended with more than 100% of the points (possible only in the US, I assume).

Spending that semester at Texas Tech University entirely changed my life. I could go on and on about the things I learned there. I would suggest to anyone who has a similar opportunity to take it. It's not easy, but it's worth it.

To sum it up, here are the top 10 things I learned that semester.

1. Nobody cares how good you are at something as long as you can’t sell yourself
2. Opportunities comes to people who are not scared
3. Soft skills are at least as important as hard skills
4. If you want something - ask for it. Otherwise, there is 100% you won’t get it
5. Don’t take advice from "people" - even if they mean well, they probably know nothing
6. Communication is key
7. Take action is way more important than being 100% prepared
8. Texas is completely different world. Amazing world.
9. Being confident and arrogant is completely things
10. Meeting new people means new opportunities.

Back to reality

Coming home was difficult for me. I knew one of the best experiences of my life was over. I was back home, back from an exciting to a stressful life here at CTU. My home university only made it more difficult to finish my degree. The next couple of months were a nightmare. I was trying to write my bachelor's thesis and prepare for my final state exam.

I am not going to describe here how I believe things were unfair. What’s important is that I made it. I needed to be prepared better than the majority of people. I had to endure much more stress than the majority of people. I managed to overcome all the obstacles that the "brilliant" people from our Faculty of Information Technology prepared for me.

February 2022: I made it. I finished the bachelor's degree in Computer Security, one of the most difficult majors that our university offers. What next? Going for a master’s? Well, yes. But I had to wait for more than half a year because it is simply not possible to start a master’s degree program in the middle of the school year. It is absurd, but that’s how it is. During this time I started my first "real" job as a software developer in Siemens Advanta.

Master’s degree

It’s September 2022, and I started my master’s degree in Managerial Informatics. I assume the question on your mind right now is what made me make such a radical change in my major. This decision was based on the work experience that I gained during my half-year study gap.

I realized my biggest talents are being communicative and result-driven. Once again, I realized that I will get it done no matter what challenge I face. Even in my junior position, I was given a small project to handle, and the thing I enjoyed the most wasn’t coding; it was managing the project.

Besides that, I knew that the master's level cybersecurity classes were extremely technical. They go way beyond the practical knowledge that you use in any company. It’s all complicated cryptography and mathematics.

Knowing these facts, I decided to focus on what I am good at. I knew that deepening my theoretical knowledge wouldn’t increase my value. And I don’t regret that decision. That small project I was handling became more important over time, and I could implement my knowledge from school directly at work. (You can read all about the project once my diploma thesis is published)

Now, I am about to finish my master’s degree this summer, and I can’t wait to fully start my career.