IBM "Ctrl+Alt Dream" Mentorship: Practical Career Lessons

I joined the Microsoft Teams room at ten sharp with Obsidian open on my screen, bracing for the usual exhausting routine of online corporate events: an organizer sharing institutional slides about market trends while dozens of students sit in silence.

The format of the <Ctrl+Alt> <Dream> mentorship, hosted by IBM SkillsBuild in partnership with Centro Paula Souza, was the exact opposite. The organizers split students into smaller breakout rooms for an hour of direct, candid conversation with volunteer leaders. There were seven of us on the call: four students (myself, Júlia and Élida, fellow Information Security classmates from Fatec Americana, plus Ana Clara, a high school student from Etec) and three professionals with solid experience across finance, tax, and consulting:

• Mariana Ribeiro, Partner in M&A Transaction Services at Deloitte, with nearly two decades in consulting and over 300 mergers and acquisitions under her belt.
• Vanessa Celuppi, who currently oversees governance and commercial planning at Bradesco, after starting at age 19 as a shopping mall stocker and telephone banking supervisor.
• Luiza Monticeli, Business Tax and Transfer Pricing Analyst at Deloitte, who graduated in Law and transitioned into tax consulting at age 25.

The conversation lasted 60 minutes without a single slide. They spoke candidly and directly about hiring, insecurities, and real career missteps. A few practical takeaways stood out immediately after the call ended.

Resumes Packed With Certificates and Júlia’s Question

Right at the start, Júlia unmuted her mic and brought up a dilemma familiar to anyone in their early college semesters: is it worth spending weeks collecting quick certificates to impress recruiters, or is that a waste of time?

Vanessa’s response cut straight to the point:

“Companies will always check your hard skills for initial role eligibility. What wins you the job and makes you stand out are your soft skills: showing eagerness, interpersonal connection, and a visible drive.”

• Vanessa Celuppi, Commercial Planning Analyst at Bradesco

Spending 40 hours blazing through dozens of two-hour courses usually produces more noise than substance. Certifications act merely as an initial mechanical filter to land your resume in the review pile. What actually clinches the hire is how you hold up in a technical conversation and handle real-world challenges.

Luiza experienced this firsthand when joining Deloitte’s new talent program. With a fresh law degree, she did not even know how to build a VLOOKUP in Excel and had never calculated complex corporate taxes. She never pretended to possess knowledge she lacked. Instead, she acknowledged her gaps clearly, demonstrated sharp problem-solving aptitude, and conveyed composure when dealing with demanding clients under pressure.

To prepare for interviews, she used a pragmatic technique: rather than asking ChatGPT for canned summaries, she instructed the AI to act as a rigorous technical interviewer. She prompted the model to ask tough regulatory questions and call out any flaws in her logic. Rehearsing under pressure proved far more effective than stacking certificates from quick online courses.

Entry Points and Bus Fares in Belo Horizonte

The journey Vanessa shared shattered any distant corporate tone. She started at 19 unloading shipping boxes as a stockroom worker in a shopping mall, worked at retail chain Lojas Renner, and later joined the call center for telephone banking.

In that grueling call center routine, she could not foresee where she would be ten years later. But she poured genuine energy into customer service, earned a promotion to lead a team of 30 within a single year, and uncovered a clear aptitude for business development. She spent eight years managing corporate accounts and now oversees business governance at Bradesco.

“Sometimes the entryway is not what you initially envisioned. Where you start does not have to be your final destination. Job titles and circumstances change, but your core character stays with you forever.”

• Vanessa Celuppi, Commercial Planning Analyst at Bradesco

Mariana Ribeiro’s story grounded the conversation even further. Born in São Gonçalo do Sapucaí, a small town in southern Minas Gerais, she was the first person in her family to attend college. At her first internship with the Belo Horizonte municipal government, public transit fares exceeded her monthly stipend. She literally paid out of pocket to work. Years later, she joined Deloitte as a trainee, spent three years in Boston leading global cross-border engagements, and made partner in 2020.

“Life and careers are never straight lines - they are shaped by valleys, highs, and lows. Having the resilience and persistence to navigate through adversity is what creates enduring longevity.”

• Mariana Ribeiro, Partner in M&A Transaction Services at Deloitte

Hearing these accounts stripped away much of the anxiety surrounding the ‘perfect’ first job. In tech education, students often build the illusion that their debut must be as a brilliant junior developer at a major software firm. In reality, starting in IT support, customer service, or operational workflows does not hold your life back. It is inside those demanding everyday routines that you learn how to handle hard deadlines, frustrated customers, and system outages.

The Fear of Speaking English and Pronunciation Anxiety

Élida, who practiced law for 25 years before enrolling at Fatec at age 47 to study Information Security, shared a widespread hurdle: reading documentation and drafting emails in English feels manageable, but speaking aloud triggers hesitation over grammatical slips.

Mariana lifted the tension by recounting what she experienced firsthand after relocating to the United States. She spent months feeling self-conscious in boardroom meetings, trying to speak with native-level accent and cadence. Eventually, she realized executives in New York and Boston only cared whether the audit timeline was solid and whether the numbers balanced. No one scrutinized her accent.

Waiting for flawless pronunciation before daring to speak in public is a subtle form of self-sabotage. In workplace meetings, clarity and directness carry far more weight than grammatical perfection.

Analysis Paralysis and the Question I Brought Up at the End

After listening closely to Vanessa, Mariana, and Luiza, and following the threads raised by Júlia and Élida, I used the final segment of the session to bring up a strategic challenge I have been feeling firsthand.

Coming from design and marketing into computer science, the sheer volume of paths can trigger real cognitive overload. When you are drawn to software engineering, cybersecurity, and global teams, it is easy to fall into the trap of over-optimizing every step - refining elaborate roadmaps and study systems in isolation rather than testing hypotheses against the real world. I asked how they balanced seeking clear direction without freezing up under an abundance of options.

Élida raised her hand to answer immediately:

“Lucas, I am in my final semester and you are in your first. Your perspective will shift many times along the way. You will never discover what you truly enjoy simply by reading course syllabi or drawing up theoretical roadmaps. Look for an internship now, dive into day-to-day technical workflows. Once you are working, everyday problems and collaboration with your team will naturally illuminate what you need to master. Focus emerges from hands-on practice, not from overplanning.”

Her advice captured the essence of the breakout room: rather than prescriptive theory, the exchange brought the grounded perspective of people who navigated career pivots in the real world. Soon after, the hosts closed the breakout rooms and brought everyone back to the main Teams lobby.

What Changes in My Routine Tomorrow

I closed Microsoft Teams with a clearer head and a renewed sense of focus. I realized that endless planning often doubles as a comfortable excuse to delay testing yourself against reality.

Building elegant roadmaps in Notion or Obsidian delivers a satisfying illusion of control. But nobody hires you for having the cleanest note-taking system. The market values people who solve concrete problems, stay honest about what they do not know yet, and bring the stamina to learn quickly wherever demands arise.

Starting tomorrow, I am putting overthought plans away. I will refine my resume, embrace that my technical expertise is an ongoing work in progress, and ramp up applications for internships and real projects. Where you start rarely looks like what you mapped on paper, and the mentors in that room proved that consistency through hands-on practice is what builds a resilient career.