Being a computer technician in the ever evolving world of technology
Every day there is something progressing forward in the realm of technology. For those of us who choose to make a living and found our passion in dealing with and fixing today's technology this can be an extremely scary situation. How can one person keep up with all of the changing facets of technology? Unfortunately even if you immerse yourself 24/7/365 you'll always find something that you just can't grasp. Luckily there are steps you can take to help supplement what you know and continue to add to your knowledge pool to make you a tech guru.
Google is your friend
The first thing I say to every new technician we hire is do not be afraid to use google. It is a tool to be used like our different scanners and sensors. I joke a lot to family and friends that being a computer technician is 10% knowledge and skill and 90% proper Google usage. When it comes to reality those numbers are nowhere close but the point is if someone has already solved your problem why reinvent the wheel. Where your knowledge and skill comes into play is knowing what to search for and knowing what results are legitimate and what results will make your problem worse. If all else fails and you're not 100% certain what you found will not exasperated your issues don't be afraid to ask someone else. This brings us to my next point.
Networking
People network for different reasons. Whether it is to just meet people in your industry or trying to find a new job people everywhere are connecting. When it comes to IT one of the major advantages I find with networking is just having a little black book of people you can bounce ideas off and go to for help when you need some coaching. Personally I have a long list of people that I know specialized in various programming languages and different operating systems and hardware. Doing this I can be confident that no matter what issue I run into there is someone I can call that will, at minimum, get me closer to the solution.
The last piece of the puzzle
The last piece of the puzzle is continuing education. There are what I consider three main pieces of continuing education. The only actual continuing education is made up of the various certifications that you will acquire over your career. With this you eventually will want to pick a specialization that you will focus on. I say eventually because if you are moving into a career in IT your basic certificates (A+, Network+, Security+, etc) will give you a stable foundation to build upon and will help you decide where to place your specialization. Conferences will make up another 1/3 of my continuing education puzzle. Conferences not only will allow you to keep up with the latest trends in technology but will also allow you to build that little black book. If you're going to conferences and just spend your time split between your hotel room and a chair at a presentation you're doing a great disservice to yourself. Walk around, talk to people, you never know when that person you just talked to will be the solution to one of your problems or your foot in the door at a new job. The last piece of the puzzle just plain reading. Read a newspaper or a blog, it doesn't matter what it is, as long as it relates to technology. I typically spend at least an hour in the morning and an hour at night reading different technology blogs and articles. This at least gives me a brief insight into changes in the tech world. If I find something I like, steemit currently would be a great example, then I’ll try and set aside some time to focus in on learning more and reading more about that topic.
In the end, working in IT is all about continuing to learn. Go into every day telling yourself you’re going to learn at least one new thing that day. If you can do that you’ll find yourself in a very long and healthy career.