Always expose yourself to different industries, understand adjacent technologies, what others are doing, and their products and services and take time out to think how such things could be applied or how you could do it better
Winston Fong was enrolled at the Manukau Institute of Technology when he worked at Fisher & Paykel Healthcare as an intern.
When he completed his Bachelor of Engineering, with First Class Honours in Electronics and Computer Engineering, he took a job at the company.
Today, he is ICT Vice President of the medical device manufacturer.
Over the next 17 years he progressed through roles across technology and business management - starting as a Software Developer, to ICT Development Manager, to Group ICT Manager, until nearly six years ago, when he was appointed to his current post.
He also did Post Graduate Diploma in Business Administration, which led to an MBA, both at the University of Auckland.
He says Fisher & Paykel Healthcare takes on many student interns every year to work across the organisations, from engineering to marketing and ICT.
When he was head of software development he helped a lecturer at AUT, Tony Clear, by allowing the university’s IT students to work on some of their projects as part of the requirements for the course. As a result, a number of these interns also eventually worked at Fisher & Paykel Healthcare.
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