Learning A Variety Of Technologies Will Help Find Your Niche
John White is an IT consultant for Miles Technologies. Miles has been in business since 1997 solving the IT needs for their 1,800-plus customers worldwide. The company offers support in business software, the web, and marketing consulting services. Miles Technology provides services for a variety of industries of many different sizes.
What sort of education is needed to successfully do your job?
"The knowledge and effective thought processes required can be obtained through numerous means. The best of these, in my opinion, is experience, followed by mentoring, studying and professional training/education. Aside from college courses, I have numerous industry certifications which have helped increase my knowledge in both general and specific technologies by studying to obtain them. In order to truly succeed in this field, you must have an unquenchable thirst for knowledge and be able to pick out good sources of information from bad ones. I spend a significant amount of time each week studying current technologies and reading about new ones being created and implemented."
What is the most relevant aspect of your education that applies to your day-to-day job?
"Entry-level courses such as English and public speaking were helpful in refining my communication skills to a professional level. Other courses, including some technical courses helped refine my studying ability as well."
What is the most fun aspect of your job?
"The most fun aspect of my job is solving people's technical problems. Whether it's a simple, quick fix or a very intricate and complex issue, solving a problem makes me feel accomplished. I find it similar to solving puzzles. Each problem is a different puzzle with varying levels of pieces missing from each one. They also complete a picture. When I am setting a new system I almost feel like I'm starting with a fresh box and have to put every piece into its proper place in order to create the picture that is needed. Many other times you are looking at a puzzle that has some of the pieces there but not all of them. I get enjoyment from researching where each piece should go, and figuring how they should be oriented in order to make everything work smoothly and efficiently."
What advice would you give someone just starting out in the field of technology?
"The best advice I could give someone coming into this field is to start gaining experience in working with as many different technologies as you can. This will do two things: First, you will learn quickly. The fastest way I've found to learn how to accomplish something with technology is to try to do it on a small-scale environment while studying material on how to do so along the way. Secondly, you will learn what you want to do or work on, and can begin to focus on being better at what you most enjoy."
Christina Thompson is a freelance writer living in Philadelphia. She reports on various topics such as: Social Media, Local Events, Entertainment, Food and Drink and more. Her work can be found at http://firstsendmedia.com/
