IT Entrepreneur Adamant That Chicagoans Learn To Start Their Own Businesses
Some people start off going to college knowing exactly what they'll major in and the future direction of their career. Others decide to double up for career security or find out their initial major isn't all it's cracked up to be.
According to The New York Times, double majors rose to 70 percent between 2001 and 2011. But what happens to students who only take one major and find themselves very successful at something they never imagined they'd be doing? That was the case for Mike McGee. His interest in technology is what made him do a 180 with his degree in political science and become the co-founder of The Starter League.
"When I was at Northwestern I was involved with a lot of extracurricular activities, and I worked on issues to try to improve the quality of life for students," said McGee. "I learned that I was really passionate about solving problems for other people. The more I moved on into my undergraduate career I met more people. That's how I got started with a start-up on the entrepreneurial side."
"One of my good friends who I met in college was an entrepreneur, and he was really into technology. He wanted to build start-ups. He didn't have the coding skills to do that so that's kind of how I shifted from political science to technology. Technology is just another way to solve problems for other people."
After graduating in 2010 and starting the web programming school in 2011, The Starter League has taught over 1,000 students. He did learn the hard way that having an IT degree certainly would've helped them initially. But he used his role as the chief creative officer to make it easier for other web programming beginners.
As an IT professional and business owner, he recommends communication courses and writing courses at the top of his list for IT students. He is also adamant about people learning to start their own businesses.
"It used to be that when you get a degree, you'd get a job and you wouldn't have to worry about job security. That's no longer the case so people who can have a leg up in our industry have chosen to find their own jobs by creating their own companies. The ones that are the most successful are the ones who love learning and continually push themselves."
Shamontiel L. Vaughn is a professional journalist who has work featured in AXS, Yahoo!, Chicago Defender and Chicago Tribune. She's been an Examiner since 2009 and currently writes about 10 categories on Examiner.com.
