IT at the Speed of Light......

Today’s IT person needs to wear many hats to be a relevant and hirable.  Long gone are the days of only needing to be sufficient in a few areas in the IT industry.  Ten years ago this was the normal path to a solid career in IT but with the huge growth of technology this is no longer the case. 

Long gone are the days of having on certification and being able to land a primo job.  Today a person needs to be a “Jack of all trades” and a master of a few.  IT security can require the person to have knowledge with man iOS systems, devices and software. The system may be local on site or housed hundreds of thousands miles away, on a virtual machine in the cloud or an actual machine.

With the use of mobile devices this opens another door of vulnerabilities.  The average mobile device user has no clue the security risks involved with their devices.  One common mistake is the device is not password protected or use a weak password that is easily guessed.  If an employee uses their mobile device for work email or other applications and loses the device this could cause a major security risk.  There’s also the risk of using unprotected (encrypted) Wi-Fi.  An IT technician needs to have a good grasp on mobile devices and know how to configure it keeping in mind someone will be walking around with this device and could easily loose it or it could be stolen.  Knowing how to secure a virtual machine on the cloud is another area IT security people need to know and understand.  It is the security technician that is the first line of defense keeping a network secure.  Cloud storage is another security risk and knowing how to secure it is becoming more common for companies big and small.

A well rounded IT person can take care of an array of equipment, to include printers, iOS, RFID technology, scanners, mobile devices, servers, firewalls etc.  It’s no longer a singular career.  Having industry certifications can be the difference in landing a job or not.  It’s becoming more common for IT employees to hold multiple certificates with or without a 4-year college degree.    All certificates are not created equal either.  Some professional certifications require that you study hard and pass a test, others require that you have years of experience in a specific field before you can even apply to be considered. Before you decide maybe getting a certification is your ticket to a career jump or a promotion, you need to determine whether or not the types of certifications that will get you ahead in your field are the ones that require skills, experience, or just a few classes. 

The world of technology moves at the speed of light which requires IT personnel to learn and change with it.  In the field of IT its common to learn something new every day and apply it along with something you learned years ago.