Stop Learning and Stop Earning

Before, I begin; I just to want to let all of my readers know that I am getting married tomorrow, October 17th to the loveliest woman in the world, Yanni.

So, I this will be my last post until November 1, 2009.

I’m going on my honeymoon and leaving AdvanceYourITCareer.com in the wonderful hands of my assistant, Thomas Murray, who will be holding down the fort until I come back.

Since this is going to be my last post for a bit, I wanted to leave IT and technology professionals with something they could ponder over the next two weeks.

This took me a while, but I came up with answer after a few career coaching sessions with some of IT professionals needing to re-evaluate their IT career.

Many IT professionals can not answer these 2 simple questions when it comes to their IT career.

• What skills are companies looking in desperate need for?
• Are you developing these IT skills?

You see once an IT professional learns a skill, such as

• Programming Visual Basic.NET applications
• Administrating a Red Hat Linux server
• Managing Windows 2008 Server

They stop learning.

Information Technology is an ever growing and changing field, you need to grow and change with it.

You need to always be on the lookout for the next IT skills that companies need and start developing these skills.

This is the secret to keeping and maintaining a successful IT career.

Companies always want to get ahead of the competition and rely heavily on technology to do it.

So as an IT professional, your responsibility is to be on the look out for IT skills that companies need and start developing them.

By doing this, you will always stay employed.

Here’s an example:

You are a PC technician who is A+ certified.  You are currently working as a desktop support specialist whose company runs Windows XP client operating system. In addition, you know how to support Windows Vista because some workstations have it installed. 

Let’s say it’s about 1 year before Windows 7 rolls out and you are this PC technician:

• You read IT magazines and find out that Windows 7 rolls out
• You read that companies will migrate to Windows 7 once its released
• Microsoft announced Windows 7 beta

Do start to learn about Windows 7 or not?

Let’s day you are do what many IT professionals do and skip the Windows 7 beta.

Let’s fast forward to today and you are still that PC technician, except now you want to find a new job. Do you think using the Windows 7 beta would have give you an advantage over other PC technicians?

The answer is YES because it gives you an edge during the interview.

An IT recruiter or IT manager wants IT professionals who stay ahead of the curve and are willing to pay top dollar for those types of professionals.

Companies pay top dollar for those continually learn because these types of IT professionals are hard to find.

During my career as an IT hiring manager, I would give more money to the IT professional who stayed ahead of the curve by learning new technology because they generally performed better.

When it came time to lay people off, the IT professionals who did not learn new IT skills were laid off first because I knew I could easily replace them.

However, the IT professional who keeps on learning is hard to find and even harder to replace.

My advice to you is over the next two weeks, take stock of your IT career and see if you are developing new IT skills that companies are looking for.

Remember, if you stop learning, you stop earning and it will destroy your IT career.

To your IT career success,
Ivan Hurt
The IT and Technology Career Strategist

P.S. See everybody in November after I come back from my honeymoon.