Work it Girl
Life-long education is a known reality in the IT industry.
The days of graduating and getting a job and working until retirement are no
longer a common theme for many of our generation.
To make things even more challenging for myself (because I
can’t seem to make things *easier* for myself); I switched into this employment
field after high school, after my ‘life experience’, and after my first degree –
and up until this point my life and interests and passion were all pointedly
directed at Art and Design. So less than two years later I was an intern at a
very large company with almost zero background in the in the field itself.
Sitting on all sides of me are technical specialists that
have been assembling computers or playing with programming at the same age I
was creating an entry design for our high school with my Art Society.
The vocabulary, the ‘common sense’ practices – even the
humor was completely lost on me when I started here 5 years ago. Struggling to
stay relevant was a full time job on top of my full time job. Getting ahead of
the game seemed impossible. I enrolled in every internally produced ‘tech-know’
to become versed in the basics of my surroundings. I asked my manager to allow
me to train with co-ops, I invited myself to free training held by external vendors.
But it still wasn’t enough feel like I am ‘getting there’.
After a particularly dismal year of producing anything I was
proud of; I made a promise to myself that 2016 would be different. Technical is
where it’s at. Not pushing myself to figure this out is only doing myself a
disservice. I *WANT* to be technical both to successful complete my job as well
as in my personal still-yet-to-be-determined side hustle.
I started pursuing online classes. The ones I really wanted
were expensive. A few thousand dollars each. And I am not even sure I am at the
right level to stay with those courses until I am a little more comfortable
with my skills.
Just like that the next step became obvious.
Free. Online. Courses.
Up-to-date I have completed 4 of these. I am now enrolled in
3-5 more. Getting through these is very high on my priority list right now.
The accomplishment for my 5th goal is the
completion of an HTML5 and CSS3 training, both of which I finished in early January.
Two remain in that specialization – JavaScript and Responsive design. These
four, together, are HUGELY useful in both the work and side-hustle areas of my
life.
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