Every child dreams of what they want to become when they grow up. If you asked my kindergarten class what they wanted to be, half would have told you they wanted to be princesses and astronauts. A couple of years later we all wanted to be doctors and firemen, and still later in life, we wanted to be rock stars and actresses. My dreams and aspirations took the same kind of rollercoaster ride, and I was thus more confused than a chameleon on a Smarties box when I had to make my choice. My mom told me I could be anything I want to be. My dad told me that I could be anything I want to be - as long as they paid well.

Deciding not to take any chances, I opted for the simpler approach of not making any decisions at all, but rather waiting for a sign. After receiving a scholarship for Chemical Engineering with BHP Billiton in South Africa, I couldn't decline the opportunity to be associated with this world-class company.

Nanette van Jaarsveld
President

Only a few scholars are granted this prestigious scholarship. I started my degree, full of hopes, but vacant of dreams, and it wasn't long before I realised that Engineering just wasn't what I wanted to do - my heart just wasn't in it. I told my parents that I would become a Software Programmer but I knew I have the worst possible personality to be a programmer. Being a teenager, and being stubborn, my dad knew that he would have to change my mind quickly, so he took me to see a SAP Consultant to hear about his job. Halfway through the conversation I knew that it was what I wanted to do - new people, new places, new things every day - count me in!

I transferred to The University of Sydney a year later, starting my Bachelor of Economics. To this day I have no idea how I ended up in an Economic degree, because in all honesty - I hate Economics. But the light at the end of my tunnel was BIS. I, like so many of my fellow students, thought that I was going to be confronted with IT subjects. I have now come to the end of my undergraduate degree without ever doing a single line of coding, never touching a CPU, or having to draw schematics for a server room.

In semester 2 of 2010, the Business School launched a unit called INFS 3080 BIS Project Industry Placements, and I was one of the first 6 students in the pilot programme. I was sent to Deloitte to work in the Technology Assurance department of Risk Services. I worked 4 days a week, and I absolutely loved it. Three years of studying couldn't have cemented with me the feeling that I was so unmistakably on the right track than my two months at Deloitte. I worked for a wide range of clients with completely different System Architecture, and it was absolutely enlightening to experience how all the theoretical knowledge I have been collecting over the last 3 years is actually put into practice. Towards the end of my placement, Deloitte offered me a 2011 Graduate Position, which I will be taking up in March this year.

I will be commencing my postgraduate degree this year, doing a Master of Commerce, continuing on with my studies in BIS. After being at Deloitte, it has become more clear to me just how important BIS is in any organization. It might be a vastly misunderstood discipline, but it is certainly one of the most valuable ones. No organization can function without understanding how technology can improve their business, but strangely, so few decide to master these skills.

As the new President of BISA, I hope that 2011 will be our best year yet. We hope to facilitate more student employments and graduate opportunities for everyone involved, than ever before. We are passionate about BIS, not only because we enjoy doing it, but, because we understand how many opportunities BIS will present you with. It may be a bit of a cliché, but as the saying goes: Help us, to help you.