SPDP Graduate Spotlight: From Help Desk to Google
With just a week left until UC Davis Spring 2025 Commencement, Information and Educational Technology (IET) is excited to spotlight a graduating senior whose unexpected start at the Help Desk led him to a full-time role at one of the biggest tech companies in the world.
The Student Professional Development Program (SPDP) program provides student employees with opportunities to innovate and succeed by building real-word products and services used by the campus. Over the last couple of weeks, we’ve profiled Alp Guler and Lingfeng Ren, UC Davis seniors who are about to begin their careers in tech after gaining valuable experience working in IET.
This week, we introduce you to Yaw Mireku. He's a computer science major and his first job with IET turned into an unexpectedly defining experience.
“I think originally I was looking for a programming internship, but I was happy to land a position with IET Enterprise Student Applications,” recalled Mireku. “Looking back, it's actually the best thing that could have happened. Working in IT support really helped me hone my communication skills. I had to get comfortable writing emails, talking to users, and finding solutions to real world problems.”
Mireku started working in IT Support at the Help Desk in his first year at UC Davis. He later joined the Student Professional Development Program as a programmer. One of the big projects he worked on was updating Oasis, a degree audit interface. That’s where his communications skills became instrumental.
“For many computer scientists, talking to a computer is easier than talking to other people,” Mireku admitted. “But in my first role with IET, I learned how to turn off my programmer brain so I could translate what advisors were telling me into technical code and then reverse it and explain to them what I was doing in plain English.”
Along with effective communication strategies, Mireku also gained valuable collaboration skills while working with various IET teams. Those “soft skills”, paired with technical know-how, gave him the confidence to land his first internship with one of the biggest tech companies in the world.
“At Google I got the opportunity to work on an AI agent and create an application to respond to questions from the larger engineering team,” explained Mireku. “In retrospect, I realize that you always end up learning new technical skills on a job, but the soft skills are the ones that you end up using most.”
Mireku has also found immense value in the relationships he formed during his time in IET. SPDP mentors, fellow student employees, and past SPDP graduates created a strong network that supported his college career and will continue to help him after he gets his diploma.
“You get to form that network and get relevant job experience for your resume very early on rather than waiting until after graduation,” recalled Mireku.
All those skills, connections, in addition to hard work, have already paid off in a big way. In the fall, Mireku will return to Google. This time as a full-time software engineer.
His advice to others pursuing similar success?
“Apply to this program because it really helped me out. I'm looking forward to seeing what I can do with the skills I’ve developed. I can see them taking me far”
Learn about the Student Professional Development Program: https://studentpowered.ucdavis.edu/
Browse job openings in in Information and Educational Technology and across campus: https://ucdavis.joinhandshake.com/login (UC Davis login required)