After graduating from high school with the first place in 2013, despite the many good options for me, my only choice was the Department of Business Administration at Izmir University of Economics with 100% scholarship. I can see how correct my decision was now, which seemed risky at first. I took my first step into entrepreneurship with the TUBITAK projects I developed during my high school years. I was introduced to the professional side of entrepreneurship with the entrepreneurship events organized by the Embryonix Incubation Center during my first year at the University. Thanks to hundreds of hours of training and a wide network, we established our first Startup with my classmate in the first year of prep class. Our adventure, which started with two people, later turned into a team of 15 people with the support and guidance of the valuable professors at Izmir University of Economics. The success and self-confidence we have achieved in this process is based on the opportunity to practice in addition to the theoretical education we received at the University. In my 3rd year at the University, I had the chance to represent my school within the Entrepreneurship Foundation by being among the 40 selected among 30,000 applications. Afterwards, I was accepted to the Case Campus program, where we do case studies of large companies. Thanks to these two valuable programs, I had the chance to establish a very important business network and improved my perspective towards events and the business world. In the following years, I performed internships in local and international companies focusing on technology. These internships gave me the opportunity to be in the field and observe the problems on the spot. In this way, I had the chance to transform the theoretical education I received into practice in the business world. I graduated from Izmir University of Economics in 2018, and I started to work as a manager in charge of User Experience at Turkcell, Turkey's largest technology company. The biggest reason why I started working as a manager in such a valuable company as soon as I graduated was the internships, projects, theoretical and practical training I received during my university years, and perhaps most importantly, the valuable network I established. After my 3-year Turkcell adventure, I moved to Akbank's headquarters as a design manager as of October 2021 to focus more on design, which is my main area of interest, and to be closely involved with financial technologies. As someone who is trying to take firm steps towards his goals in business life, it is very valuable for me to still feel the support and interest of my professors at the university. I would like to thank the Izmir Economy family for trusting me, investing in me, and always supporting me.
