hello guys, I am having a difficulty writing my SOP for graduate application, after pondering for a while I come up with something like this. please help me edit, modify or structure it in a better way. I know I am a bad writer :)
Personal statement of purpose
My ultimate goal in pursuing a graduate degree in Information Technology is to advance my technical skills and to contribute to the fast development of my countries economy. Although XXX is currently recording a remarkable fast economic development, the role of IT to bolster its development is nascent. I vehemently believe that the proliferation of IT in the country will serve as a substantial impetus to further boost and sustain its intriguing development. As such, the country needs professionals with cutting-edge expertise and experience of working with specialist from the developed area of the world.
The IT will serve as backbone to drive the industries by providing efficient management, controlling functionalities and by introducing artificially intelligent automated systems. In particular, for developing countries like XXXX, IT helps to transform the existing obsolete data handling mechanisms to modern and efficient mechanism of data handling, and helps to provide efficient services for many sectors by web based applications to serve the society to remotely access and share information. Furthermore, it plays key role to create job opportunities for young professionals.
For me, the notion of technology always inspires my innate curiosity, and its rapid transformation strongly rejuvenates me.
As a child, without being much concerned about the underlying technology and its operational principle, I used to passionately enjoy playing video games, watching cartoon movies, and playing with electronics stuffs. Eventually, as I grew up, I began to precociously examine operational mechanism by dismantling the house electronics appliances and I began to ask a lot of question. And with strong support from my parents to follow my interest, I had a wonderful happy child life in tandem with incredible educational record.
My passion for science and technology led me to pursue Electrical Engineering for my Bachelor's degree. And it was during my Undergraduate years while taking the courses like computer programming, data structure, and data communication that the field information technology fascinated me. When I was undergraduate student, however, things never went the same way smoothly and favorably as they had been before. It wasn't easy for me to complete my undergraduate course under very serious and devastating family problems; I lost my father and my elder brother with cancer during this period of time. Certainly, I lost two of my families who I adored the most and who had influenced my life substantially; the most difficult challenge I have ever encountered in my life. This challenge not only affected my academic score, but also I couldn't get over it easily as many other family crises began to emerge consequently. Eventually, I managed to get over it and deal with the rest of family crisis progressively and thankfully things get better after I graduated. Thus, considering what I have been through, I count my Undergraduate degree as one of my biggest achievement.
I consider my Undergraduate GPA, 3.XX, which is an average, as the least score I could possibly achieve under very difficult situation. Apart from my GPA, I justified that I am not average on different situation. Not to mention all, out of around 300 students, I was one of the three students who passed the recruitment and selection exam for the company I am currently working for. The company usually selects students from the university during their final year of study; recruitment and selection exam of the company is, perhaps, one the most challenging exam I ever came across, which was a continuous four hour exam containing question which requires higher level of analytical and logical reasoning ability. Since my child hood, I used to resolutely tackle convoluted problems. It gives me a great pleasure to come up with a possible solution for such arcane problems, and it highly motivates me. For my classmates, whenever something strange is given as assignment, appeared as a project or laboratory experiment failed to produce the desired result, I had been the one turn to and to be expected to come up with a possible solution. Moreover, while I was undergraduate student, I was a founding member of Research and invention club, and a project coordinator of Electrical Engineering and Technology club at Hawassa University. It was a golden opportunity for me to work in this clubs, as it provided me the exposure to get involved in researches and to analyze real world problems of the University and the society as a whole.
After college, I joined Information network Security Agency (INSA), the leading national governmental center for research and development in XXXX. Although the company's primary area of focus is cyber security, its reputation and potential in development and researches related to IT is incomparable to other industries in XXXXX working on related areas. Working for this company, a high profile company that every XXXX students and professional in the field of information technology dream to work for, is a great privilege for me. I have been working for this company for more than four years, and since I joined this company I have developed strong skills in computer programming, efficient and secured system design, design and implementation of effective algorithms, internet traffic (data) analysis and management.
From 2011 to 2013, I worked as Network Protocol Analyst, which involves pattern and signature analysis of network traffic, and deep packet inspection (DPI). I had been working with Huawei Technologies, the leading Chinese multinational networking and telecommunications Company, on the behalf of my company. Working with this company not only gave me the chance to visit the company's technologies and research centers, but also I took a comprehensive training in Beijing at one of the company's largest center for research and development. In close supervision and mentor of Huawei's top researchers I successfully accomplished projects on efficient network bandwidth management and control application, fast algorithms to detect packet signatures, traffic load balancing and session management.
From 2013 up to present, I have been working as system software developer for the same company, Information Network Security Agency (INSA). For the first year of my new job position, with team of three members and with consultancy and guidance of IGLOO Security, Inc, South Korea based network Security Company, we successfully accomplished the tasks of installing and configuring HDFS cluster in test and production environments, developed multiple MapdReduce Jobs in java for data analysis and processing, and collecting and aggregating large amounts of log data using apache flume and staging data in HDFS for further analysis. After completing this project, on the companies plan to own proprietary network devices, I was assigned to work leading developer to develop open source router and firewall that run on bare metals (non-proprietary devices). The project is designed to have two planes; the data plane and the control plane. The data plane that is responsible for receiving, processing and transmitting packets is completed and the control plane, which responsible to provide intelligence and control functionalities is still on progress. The company has its own network operating (platform) on which these projects will run. I am still working on this project, and it is on the verge of its completion and the first version of the project is expected to be released coming soon.
In addition to my professional excellence and solid educational background, My involvement in various student activities and clubs I mentioned above, and my exposure to different working environment and working with experts from different educational and social background helped me develop essential management and communication skills, which are so important in today's world as we shall be interacting with many different people and communities in the work force. Major discoveries and projects not only required individual effort, but effective communication and concerted collaboration to accomplish them.
Finally, to achieve my goals and to bolster my expertise in the area of Information technology, I decided to take graduate studies. I am convinced that high quality graduate education and working with highly qualified researchers in advanced research center is the key to achieve my personal goals. As such, the highly qualified faculty, research facilities of your esteemed University would be of enormous help in my quest for research. In addition to the comprehensive curriculum at your reputed University, the on-going researches on ___________and _____________exceptionally excited me. And with competent practical skills and experiences I have acquired through my professionally life, I will contribute a lot for the learning and research process. As part of my profession, I have been through a lot of ponderous tasks and experienced a lot complex problems related to testing and debugging a software. Additionally, I have developed various techniques and approaches to solve research problems. If I am given the chance of joining your university, I am sure I will prove to be invaluable asset for your prestigious University.
And Moreover, with strong support from my parents ...
And In addition, it was during my Undergraduate years ...
The project is designed to have two planes...
which are so as important in today's world as we shall ...
... problems related to testing and debugging a software
If I am given gave the chance of joining your university...
Thank you very much Fia0910. Apparently, I feel like I have to cut some parts and organize it a better way. I really appreciate any suggestions regarding the overall content and structure.
This is the instruction about the statement:
The Statement of Purpose should strongly convey the student's purpose for applying to the selected graduate program, demonstrate their suitability for advanced research or studies, and specify:
- a student's passion for, and knowledge of, the intended plan of study using the language of the field;
- the intended program, area of study, research interest(s), and desired advisor (if applicable);
- experience the student can bring to the department, including any professional and/or presentation experience; and
- any pertinent skills the student has that can help them be successful (e.g., research, leadership, enterprise, and/or publication experience).
Students are also encouraged to review the areas of interest for the program and the research interests of Michigan Tech faculty before writing the Statement of Purpose.
I made a little change to the former one, please help me!!
Personal statement of purpose
My ultimate goal in pursuing a graduate degree in Information Technology is to advance my technical skills and to contribute to the fast growing economy of my country by exploring the existing problems and designing a solution in pragmatic approach. Although Ethiopia is currently recording a remarkable fast economic development, the role of IT to bolster its development is nascent. I vehemently believe that the proliferation of IT in the country will serve as a substantial impetus to further boost and sustain its intriguing development. As such, the country needs professionals with cutting-edge expertise and experience of working with specialist from the developed area of the world.
The IT will serve as backbone to drive the industries by providing efficient management, controlling functionalities and by introducing artificially intelligent automated systems. In particular, for developing countries like Ethiopia, IT helps to transform the existing obsolete data handling mechanisms to modern and efficient mechanism of data handling, and helps to provide efficient services for many sectors by deploying web based applications to serve the society to remotely access and share information. Furthermore, it also plays key role to create job opportunities for young professionals.
For me, the notion of technology always inspires my innate curiosity, and its rapid transformation immensely rejuvenates me. As child, I used to precociously examine operational mechanism of house electronics appliances by dismantling the parts. With strong support from my parents, I grew up following my interest in tandem with incredible educational record.
After high-school, my passion for science and technology led me to pursue Electrical Engineering for my Bachelor's degree. And it was during my Undergraduate years while taking the courses like computer programming, data structure, and data communication that the field information technology fascinated me. When I was undergraduate student, however, things never went the same way smoothly and favorably as they had been before. It wasn't easy for me to complete my undergraduate course under very serious and devastating family crisis; I lost my father and my elder brother with cancer during this period of time. Certainly, I lost two of my families who I adored the most and who have influenced my life substantially; the most difficult challenge I have ever encountered in my life. This challenge not only affected my academic score, but also I couldn't get over it easily as many other family problems began to emerge consequently. Nevertheless, this heavy challenge couldn't stop me from going forward, with strong determination and resolution; I managed to get over it and complete my undergraduate degree. And gratefully, the rest of the family problems get better progressively after I graduated. Thus, considering what I have been through, I count my Undergraduate degree as one of my biggest achievement.
I consider my Undergraduate GPA, 3.XX, which is an average, as the least score I could possibly achieve under very difficult situation. Apart from my GPA, I justified that I am not average on different situation. Not to mention all, out of around 300 students, I was one of the three students who passed the recruitment and selection exam for the company I am currently working for. The company usually selects students from the university during their final year of study; recruitment and selection exam of the company is, perhaps, one the most challenging exam I ever came across, which was a continuous four hour exam containing question which requires higher level of analytical and logical reasoning ability. Since my child hood, I used to resolutely tackle convoluted problems. It gives me a great pleasure to come up with a possible solution for such arcane problems, and it highly motivates me. For my classmates, whenever something strange is given as assignment, appeared as a project or laboratory experiment failed to produce the desired result, I had been the one turn to and to be expected to come up with a possible solution. Moreover, while I was undergraduate student, I was a founding member of Research and invention club, and a project coordinator of Electrical Engineering and Technology club at Hawassa University. It was a golden opportunity for me to work in this clubs, as it provided me the exposure to get involved in researches and to analyze real world problems of the University and the society as a whole.
After college, I joined Information network Security Agency (INSA), the leading national governmental center for research and development in Ethiopia. INSA is high profile Company that every Ethiopian students and professional in the field of information technology dream to work for. I have been working for this company for more than four years, and since I joined this company I have developed enormous technical and research skills on different areas, which I explicitly mentioned on my CV. The company has strong collaboration and close association with big foreign IT companies based in different countries. This gave me the chance to work with researchers and experts from the developed nations. I had been working with Huawei Technologies, the leading Chinese multinational networking and telecommunications Company, on the behalf of my company. Working with this company not only gave me the chance to visit the company's technologies and research centers, but also I took a comprehensive training in Beijing at one of the company's largest center for research and development. In close supervision and mentor of Huawei's top researchers I successfully accomplished projects on efficient network bandwidth management and control application, fast algorithms to detect packet signatures, traffic load balancing and session management. I also had the chance to work with experts of IGLOO Security, Inc, South Korea based network Security Company on big data. Working with professionals and highly skilled researchers from many nations including Europe, Asia and Africa not only helped me boost my technical skills, but also it helped to strengthen my communication and team working abilities.
In addition to my professional excellence and solid educational background, My involvement in various student activities, and my exposure to different working environment and working with experts from different educational and social background helped me develop essential management and communication skills, which are so important in today's world as we shall be interacting with many different people and communities in the work force. Major discoveries and projects not only required individual effort, but effective communication and concerted collaboration to accomplish them.
I came to know about the Michigan Tech, a leading public research university, from the official website of the university. The first thing that captivated me is its diversity; the home of multicultural community from across the world, which is an ample opportunity for me to share and learn different social and cultural backgrounds in account of expanding my view of the world. Moreover, in addition to its research and academic excellence, surrounded by waters and forests, the areas perfection for outdoor recreation and relaxation is very impressive. Being impressed by the overall quality and the reputation of the University, I went through the list graduate degree programs offered by the University, and I am particularly impressed by the brochure of Computer Engineering department, which revealed a very strong faculty involved in extensive research which best fits my interest. I am excited by its close association with the Center for Computer Systems Research (CCSR), which is focused on the design of real-time information processing systems, including specialized parallel hardware architectures, high-performance information processing software on embedded parallel processors, multimedia information processing, and computational sensing. Furthermore, the highly funded research center which is equipped with world-class facilities for research and education fascinated me. Working with a high profile faculty members who have positions in worlds top research organization like IEE is also invaluable opportunity. (reorder, diversity, environment, research)
Finally, with my perseverance and competent practical skills and research experiences, which I have acquired through my professionally life, I will contribute a lot for the ongoing learning and research process. As part of my profession, I have been through a lot of ponderous tasks and experienced a lot complex problems related to testing and debugging software. Additionally, I have cultivated various techniques and approaches to solve research problems. With all my credentials and experiences, I believe I am a worthy and well-prepared candidate who will be a valuable asset to your esteemed university.
