Recently, the list of people who passed the civil board exams was released. The Civil Board Exam is crucial for anyone aiming to build a career in engineering.
As part of JCVA’s passion for helping young engineers and building the local engineering community, JCVA held Engineered to Win: From CE Boards to the Boardroom last March 25. The event featured JCVA’s President, Jason Valderrama, and Kippap’s founder, Victor Villanueva. With the wisdom of the two generations, we have sought to answer glaring questions of engineers-to-be.
How impactful is placing in the top 10?
Both Victor and Jason think that placing the top 10 on the boards does have a great impact but only to a certain extent. Jason explained that placing top 10, as he did years back, can get you a lot of job offers off the bat. However, it’s not necessarily a good precedent for a good career. How work and how strategic you are in your career will matter more in the long run.
What’s the best advice to help plan a career?
With Jason’s many years of experience, he answered that you really have to perform in your first work. You have to do the work and even go beyond your job description if you can. You have to be able to show that you can handle projects and show you have leadership potential. You also have to be smart with your career moves as well which includes avoiding job-hopping.
Can you ace the boards even if you failed a subject in college?
Victor, who runs an Engineering Boards review center, tells of a case of an exam taker who has failed a class while at university and still became top 5 when he took the exam. He said it doesn’t correlate. The board exams are a whole new game and if you work hard and play it right, you can ace it.
Is it better to review full-time or can you do it part-time?
Both speakers acknowledged that being able to review full-time is the best option. If you can review full-time, go do it. With this, you can focus more on studying and taking care of your body to be able to take the exam. With just studying full-time, you can build better routines and study habits. Victor shares a lot of his study routines on his youtube and this has been a great guide to many.
If you’d like to watch Engineered to Win: From CE Boards to the Boardroom, the full video is available here. The event consists of a short talk from both speakers and a Q&A portion after.
At JCVA, we dream of building the future with the Filipino youth. Have any plans to hold similar events? Partner with us. Email us at info@jcvassociates.ph and visit www.jcvassociates.ph to know more about our consultancy offerings.