Rui Gouveia has a degree in Computer Science and a master's degree in Network and Computer Systems Engineering. He currently works as a Senior Technical Support Engineer at Red Hat Openshift.
He shares his experience as a student at DCC-FCUP here.
"What can I say after 25 years... the DCC was one of my life's best decisions!
The IT world is very ephemeral. What you study today, in 10-20 years, is no longer relevant. Who remembers Lotus 123, Wordstar, MS Office 95, Novell NetWare ? Better yet, who still uses these?
When I finished my degree, there was no Virtualisation, Cloud, or Containers. Considering that these are the technologies I work with today, how did the DCC manage to help me all these years?
Foundations! Foundations! Foundations!
Like parents who tell their children to eat their greens, we were taught by our professors the building blocks of the technology. Things like: how do the processors work, how do the networks work, how do the programs run, how do compilers create computer programs, and many more concepts. We had no idea why. It was difficult and sometimes seemed like a waste of time. I know now... and, I could not be more grateful for the value instilled in me.
Some institutions teach their students to use commercial products with user-friendly graphical interfaces. Not us! We were digging the internals of these technologies, with the sole assistance of an old and outdated technology called "books". That is correct. There was a time when we had no Internet, no Google, no AI. That brings me to the second benefit of the DCC teachings. 10% happens in class, 90% happens at home. We were encouraged to discover things by ourselves. A skill that is the best skill one can have professionally.
This was very evident when I started my career in the private sector. I had no knowledge of any particular commercial product. However, with the product documentation after a day or two this was no longer an issue. What about if there was a problem in a layer below the user-friendly graphical interface ? Then, the old-school Alumni members say "Hold my beer!", and we get the job done.
Some learn how to make things work. We were taught how things work. There is a difference!
On a personal level, soon after joining the DCC, I discovered Linux which I learned and never abandoned to other options. This led me to the company I happily work at currently, Red Hat, the most successful global company providing Linux offerings to the top-500 enterprise companies. In a way the DCC also made it possible for me to fulfil my professional dream.
Thank you DCC!"
(November 2025)