David L. Farquhar, computer security professional, train hobbyist, and landlord
Sometimes we can see the writing on the wall. Maybe it’s because times are tough. Maybe it’s political. Often it’s a combination of both. And whether you think there’s anything that can change it or not, the way ahead is much the same. Here’s what to do if you think you’ll be laid off.
The Boy Scout motto applies here: be prepared. The sooner you can get your affairs in order, the easier it will be to weather the layoff, or avoid it entirely.
If you feel unappreciated or underappreciated at work, you’re certainly not alone. It’s happened to me, and it happens to a lot of other people. Here are some examples, what you can do about it, and why you should do something about it before it’s too late.
You want to move onward and upward with your career? You see an opportunity you want to take, but you don’t have experience? Let’s talk about applying for a job with no experience.
What is an information technology professional? What does an IT professional do? It seems like a lot of people don’t understand that. For that matter, I have close friends and relatives who have no idea what I do for a living. So let’s explore it a bit.
Does retail count as sales experience? I think it depends, but there are certainly ways you can make it count. Here’s how.
It all begins with knowing the products the store sells, and knowing what makes one product different from another.
I’ve been an IT professional for more than 20 years now. I was a network engineer only briefly, but I’ve worked virtually all of my career with network engineers. You can have a long career as a network engineer, make good money, and possibly even enjoy it. Even if you don’t, it’s not hard to step from the role of network engineer into security. So here’s how to become a network engineer.
Microsoft Excel is one of the most popular pieces of software ever. Many job descriptions cite familiarity with Excel as a requirement, or at least desirable. But no one was born knowing it. So let’s take a look at some uses of Microsoft Excel.
Some people regard certifications as overrated. But given the number of resumes human resources departments get, having the certifications listed in the job description, even if the description calls them desirable and not required, really helps. You need something to make you stand out, and certifications are an effective way to do that. Here are the 16 best certifications to get, in my 20 years of experience in IT.
If you already have an IT position but don’t have some of these certifications, these certifications can be good goals to put on your annual review. Most of them are attainable within a year, and they increase your value to your present employer, so a good employer is willing to pay for the training and examination fee as long as you agree not to leave within a certain period of time.
Also, there’s no reason to think you need to get all of these. You can have a long and productive career with one or two of them. The key is which two. But you’ll know which ones apply to your situation and which ones don’t. Like a college degree, having certifications opens doors. If you don’t have a degree, certifications can help make up for it.
No one told me how to become a system administrator. I figured it out eventually, but made some mistakes along the way. So let me tell you what nobody ever told me, and hopefully you can avoid the mistakes I made.
I’ve been an IT professional for more than 20 years now. I was a system administrator for nine of those 20 years. You may find you can do better than being a system administrator forever. But I know system administrators who had long careers and enjoyed it. Regardless, becoming a system administrator is at the very least a great stepping stone to other things. So here’s how to become a system administrator.
When I was in high school, the counselors brought in a life coach once or twice a year to talk with students in various settings. Sometimes it was an assembly, and sometimes it was a smaller setting. One of those smaller settings, she spent some time talking about goals, and that always had an effect on me. So let’s talk about some good short term goals.
This isn’t meant to be an all-inclusive list. My goal is to give you a few examples that you can adopt and adapt to meet your own needs and abilities. For some people, some of these goals are no harder than falling out of bed. For others, the same goal might be a lifetime achievement. As one of my best friends is fond of saying, it’s not ego if you can back it up. Backing up your ego starts with a regular discipline of making and keeping goals.