Learn how to learn
I am amazed by all the certifications a lot of people in my LinkedIn connections are getting. I catch myself wondering if it is really a representation of the person’s knowledge or skillset? Some of them I wouldn’t trust my IT environment to, and they have loads of certifications 😉
Don’t get me wrong, it is a good thing to learn. Only I am for a more practical kind of learning, and this is acquiring specific knowledge for the task that is at hand. So, for me I have decided not to overload my brain with data that is not necessarily needed at the time. I specifically call it data and not knowledge, because knowledge is more than just pounding things in your head.
I have migrated hundreds of applications from and to on-premises, hybrid and cloud platforms. For me the trick was getting to know how the applications work, finding out which people I should connect with, connect with suppliers, and after acquiring the specific knowledge I could make the designs and implement them. So, there is some fundamental knowledge needed for sure, but every company has different needs/ requirements and different applications. Being more flexible/ agile while holding on to best-practices is key in this.
Microsoft and learning
As mainly working with Microsoft products, I am a bit biased. The Microsoft documentation is great though and the Microsoft learning platform has so much up to date and powerful tools to acquire knowledge.
With them also going for open book exams, I think they are really getting it. They let you use the specific knowledge that is needed for the task, from there you can show that you know how to apply this.
Proximity is power
Surround yourself with people you can learn from, let managers know you want to work on specific projects, write about it (if you can explain it to someone else, you know what you are talking about). This really helps you build specific knowledge and connects you with people who are interested in this topic. Doing this more often gives you a skillset of acquiring specific knowledge even faster if you want.
Also with new technology, just try it out, talk about it with people who enjoy talking about it.
Sometimes people need convincing, and this can help you learn more about the subject. Sometimes people just don’t want to learn something new. That is also fine, but just be ware that it doesn’t hold you back too much.
During one of my previous projects, I worked with someone who was proud that he was called “Mr. No.” In the beginning it was quite fun to manipulate (help) him with making decisions but was quite an energy drain as well. So, protect yourself from not being pulled back.
Desire to learn
Each person has a different desire (interest/ passion/ reason) to learn. My desire or inspiration to learn about IaC (Infrastructure-as-code) came when I was just blown away by the coding knowledge from a colleague who was much younger than me and showed me the possibilities. I was impressed with the possibilities and so it became my desire to learn this.
With my almost IT-Dinosaur knowledge, I was more senior than him regarding the IT environment. Together as a team, we could build environments quite quickly, scalable and robust. I learnt from him how to use Ansible and later switching to Terraform was no problem, because I knew the fundamentals.
Good listens about learning in general
Key take-aways:
Doing repetitive things is not learning.
Learning curves are created by iterations.
https://spotify.link/mS5EHI6rdyb
Key take-aways:
It is not the means of learning or education that are scarce, these are abundant, the Desire to learn is that what is scarce.
Schools can replace curiously with compliance.
https://spotify.link/PinpZDQpdyb
My greatest cloud certification
So now I would like to show you my greatest cloud achievement so far 😊 It also connects with my desire to explore the world. Took a few hours of hiking, but definitely worth the effort.
Just do what works best for you, this is my opinion and what works best for me. If you find yourself not being able to get all the certifications, figure out what your desire to learn is. If it makes sense to you, I would love to connect and maybe learn from each other.
