30/03/2023
Gabriela Endrös Vilarrasa completed her Bachelor in Business Administration at IE University and described herself as a “big finance geek” at the time. She chose to do the Master in Computer Science & Business Technology to differentiate herself in the finance arena and gain some coding skills. Instead, she totally fell in love with the technology world—especially the cloud—and now aspires to forge a career in this path.
She says that with a basic understanding of a coding language like Python, as well as practicing for half an hour on your subjects from day one—anyone can do this master’s, regardless of how technically minded you are. We spoke to her about her experience as a student, class representative and passionate advocate for learning tech.
Stumbling onto her passion
Gabriela didn’t think she would one day pursue a career in cloud technology. Five years ago, she started her Bachelor in Business Administration at IE University with her mind set on entering the finance world. Then, her roommate told her that he was going to pursue his Master in Computer Science & Business Technology.
“I felt that I had much more to learn and had to differentiate myself from the rest of the profiles in the finance field,” she says. “I once read a quote in an interview that said ‘everyone should know how to code, it teaches you how to think’ and I thought that this is a great way to do that.”
Gabriela didn’t have a strong technology background before that. She had done an Introduction to Programming and Statistics with Programming course during her bachelor’s but said that she didn’t have any in-depth technical knowledge of coding.
She was accepted into the program and jumped into it with enthusiasm.
Along the way, she’s made friends, become her class representative, and discovered an exciting new career path.
Endurance will get results
Gabriela says that the Master in Computer Science & Business Technology can be very technical and requires a great deal of effort. Nevertheless, she says that anyone who wants a change in their career and is willing to work hard can do it. “It’s not an easy master’s, but if you’re willing to struggle a bit the first few months, everyone can do it. It’s kind of like a puzzle that everyone can solve. It may take you five hours or just three minutes, but you’ll get there in the end.”
The program teaches cutting-edge knowledge and the world’s most in-demand tech skills, and the subjects are taught by lecturers who have real-world experience working for some of the globe’s biggest tech companies.
She says by far her favorite subject was Cloud Foundations, thanks to her professor Antonio David Delgado Frías. Antonio was the architect for Google Cloud.
“I went to that class happy to learn more,” she says. “He gave us this assignment and said that if we wanted to deepen our knowledge we could go to a long list of links he’d provided—and I read all of them! ‘Cloud’ is a word that you hear often, but you don’t necessarily know what it is until you learn about it.”
Refining her path
Her interest in the cloud led Gabriella to choose Software Engineering as a specialization. During the program, she obtained the AWS Cloud Practitioner Certificate, and intends to do the AWS Certified Solutions Architect certification, Google Cloud Certification and IE University’s Certificate in Sustainability and Environmental Management.
She also took part in the IE Sustainability Datathon—a challenge in which student participants must solve a sustainability problem with the use of predictive modeling. “It’s really tough because you only get two weeks, but it was amazing and you learn so much. You get to implement all the knowledge from your different classes.”
It’s this enthusiastic attitude that may have contributed to Gabriela being elected the representative for her class. Her speech was all about getting through the program together as a group.
“I said that my main goal is that we start together and we finish together,” she tells us. “We’re all in this together, we’re going to do it and we’re going to get through it. If we need to stay until 3 a.m., we’re going to stay till 3 a.m. together!”
Future aspirations
Gabriela is currently applying for software engineer internships. She says her plan is to work purely in development for a few years, then move up and switch from a technology-focused job to a hybrid role. “So I can combine the finance and business part with the technological aspect and background that I have.”
In terms of what she’d tell someone who’s thinking about taking the Master in Computer Science & Business Technology, Gabriela says: “I would say just do it! If you’re even thinking about it, just go for it. It’s going to help you so much in your future.”
