New Year’s Resolutions
12.30.07 - 05:05pm
New Year’s resolutions are typically goals that individuals set with little chance of accomplishing them. They also tend to focus around general self improvement like “drop 10 pounds” or “stop drinking soda” but rarely do they focus on long-term self improvement. I myself have come to a fork in life and at this point I’m realizing that I should have put less focus on short-term goals and payouts and extended my view into the long-term future. So, what precisely is my goal and how do I plan on accomplishing it. Well..
Make Myself Marketable
Here is my issue. Over the last couple of years I have focused primarily on developing skills that aren’t very marketable. By this I mean, if I were to put them down on a resume then I am sure any potential employers would simply laugh and pass it off. Examples of this include my research in computer cooling via refrigeration and the bleeding edge overclocking that seems to go hand in hand with the cooling. Sure, I’m probably one of a few dozen of people in the Southeast that do either activity and definitely one of maybe half a dozen people in the Southeast that do both, but in the real world does that matter?
I came to realize this when attempting to put together my resume last week, I lack any documentable skills unless you consider my blog as a source of documentation for the two skills above. Considering how I aspire to be a network architecture and large-scale system administrator, there are skills that I would need to accomplish this goal. Realizing that I lack the skills to even consider such a position, I’ve created a small list of things I feel I need to learn over the next year to better prepare myself.
Cisco Certifications
Nowadays certifications are all the rage. Talking to my dad about my future brought up the subject of Cisco Certifications. Looking over what they have to offer and discussing this with my dad it sounds like I could train for the entry-level CCENT cert and CCNA cert within a years time or less which would give me a huge platform to jump from. After that I’d have to pass the CCDA certification which would complete my networking skillset and prepare me for either the CCNP or CCDP certifications which would essentially make me a professional in either design or networking. Hopefully within a year I can complete the first three steps after which I will be marketable enough to land a decent job in the fields of interest.
CompTIA Certifications
These certifications offered by the Computer Technology Industry Association are a bit more specific than the Cisco certifications and from what I hear are considerably easier to study for. The particular certs I’m eyeballing are the A+, Linux+, Network+, and Server+ certifications. I think I’ll attempt these certifications before the Cisco certifications as the amount of material is drastically less and from the sound of things I’d already have a taste for the material.
Web Languages
I’m an absolute dolt when it comes to web languages. I just started learning Ruby on Rails about two weeks ago and while progress has been steady, it’s nothing like learning C or Java. Figure it’ll take me another month to be confident to roll my own applications in RoR, but that’ll be a skill I’ll continue to develop. PHP with CSS is another skill I need to develope further, all I can do now is hack up PHP and guess at CSS to get things to work. Learning databases will also be in the works, most notably mysql as it seems to be quite popular and my exclusive database.
Hardware Contacts
I’ve spent a decade following computer hardware and I feel it’s time to start turning this hobby into a professional attribute. I’ve got enough knowledge in my head that I feel I can be a positive asset to the marketing departments of various hardware manufacturers so this goal is simple; develop contacts within the consumer electronics industry to promote their goods and services while establishing a steady stream of products to review. Figure once I get started with this it’ll slowly snowball as my reviewing practices will mature and in turn attract additional reviews.
Thoughts
So will all this happen? I’ve got a year to make it a reality and unlike years past, I have a plan! I feel like I’ve set pretty reasonable goals which for the most part are possible without requiring other people to assist me. The last point will require me to beef up my writing ability but otherwise it all boils down to studying new material and staying focused. First step will be finishing Ruby on Rails and starting on the A+ certification, then it’s onto Network+ and Server+ and casually reading over the CCENT. Let’s hope I can accomplish all this, 2008 is going to be a rough year even without these goals.
Firstly I think these are a good set of resolutions to have, when I graduated and started working full time in development I stopped learning. I mean, I was kind of learning but nothing really, like you said, marketable or something I could take into another job.
This is why I think you have some good resolutions here. You already have your hardware knowledge to build on and I’m sure you’ll find some of this skill will carry across into some of the areas that you have mentioned.
Best of luck with these and Happy New Year.
Thanks for the support, I’ve got my fingers crossed that I can accomplish the goals I set. I feel they are very attainable, just need to make sure I can financially support myself over the next couple of months and then it’s a simple act of reading and practice. Going to head to Barnes and Noble tomorrow to look over the selection of A+ training books, think I just need a few prep questions to get a feeling for the style of the test and to gauge how prepared I am to take the test now. Hopefully the A+ cert will be a simple diagnostic and I’ll start learning with Server+ and Network+. Updates to follow, Happy New Year!