I’m coming up on my 10yr anniversary working in the IT field, but (upon reflection) I’m having a hard time figuring out if I’m actually growing and improving or if I’m getting too comfortable and stagnating (I fear regression). The very nature of IT is a constant learning curve as hardware and software perpetually change, so it’s difficult for me to see positive change sometimes through the fog.
Do ya’ll have any good ways you track growth and progress in your IT know-how and expertise? I feel like my trajectory matches the volatility of Bitcoin.
22 Spice ups
Rod-IT
(Rod-IT)
2
You could ask yourself some questions - and if you wanted honest feedback, ask your boss.
- Do you know more today, than you did 10 years ago?
- Can you still do what you learned 10 years ago?
- Are you open to, and willing to change with the times?
- Do you pick up change?
- Do you practise any of your skills or any of the new tools in a lab?
- Do people come to you for advise?
If you feel you are stagnating - why, are new things harder to pick up, are you not as involved as you’d like to be - what reason do you feel this?
All of the above are things I would ask myself if I was feeling mixed.
Besides you and how you feel, your boss/line manager/team leader will be able to give you some feedback too.
Do you have reviews to see where you are?
Some of the below would be my suggestions.
- If you don’t have a lab, may I suggest you get one, use it to continually learn, improve and be able to show off your skillset.
- Set yourself goals, things you want to learn - keep them relevant to your work, or setup a lab to mimic work, best you can.
- Network - be more active with peers, even if it’s in your own time, help others, learn form others, pick up new things. While you may not want to spend all of your time here, at least spend some so you pick up other peoples tips.
- Give back - use your skills to help others, either here or as a mentor in work.
Being part of something will help you learn quickly, sitting on the wayside, not getting involved wont be useful to you.
14 Spice ups
Depending on your organization you may not be in a constant state of growth but I think you need to ask yourself how do you take on new challenges. Are you willing to learn something new to you? Not just work related. As an example, for me I like to spin up virtual machines because I’m interested in learning about xyz.
I don’t know of a way to chart IT growth but for me it’s always about being willing to learn something new. Somethings stay the same, IT does not. Have you learned new skills from 10 years ago?
2 Spice ups
I try to read almost every topic that gets posted on Spiceworks and see if I know how to answer it. How many you can answer or effectively troubleshoot can be a kind of objective metric of your proficiency. Even if someone beats you to the punch actually answering a question, you’ll know whether you knew that or not. If I don’t know what to do but can imagine myself being in the OP’s shoes one day, I follow it and watch the troubleshooting progress so I learn.
You’ll certainly come across new things you could set yourself to learning or configuring. Actually embarking on some of these “optional” projects can increase your proficiency.
But overall, having access to an external source of IT problem-solving material (like here, but there are other online places too) gives you the opportunity to try and solve lots of problems that might not normally come your way which can keep you growing even if your actual, current job isn’t challenging you much. And I measure progress by reflecting on how often I feel “in the dark” on a topic vs. “I think I could troubleshoot this” vs. “I actually know the answer on this one”.
3 Spice ups
Congrats on 10 years in IT! That’s no small feat. Growth in IT can feel invisible sometimes because it’s not always marked by titles or certs. One way I’ve seen people track progress is by journaling solved problems (kind of like a personal ticketing system), mentoring others (you’ll surprise yourself with how much you know), or even setting up side labs with new tech. Keep going!! 
2 Spice ups
For my yearly review I have a projects folder with completed and active projects. I can look back for as long as I have been In my current position and see what I was doing and what I am doing throughout the years. I think this helps a lot with seeing “where I started/ewwwww” and where I am now.
2 Spice ups
Isn’t that what the Spiceworks Daily Challenge is for? 
Are you still doing the exact same thing you did 10 years ago? What new technologies have you learned? For example, are you doing things in Azure or AWS and perhaps you were not 10 years ago. Have you taken on any new roles or responsibilities?
You almost certainly have had to learn the ins and out of a new operating system version or two.
3 Spice ups
Oh, god, I hope not, I keep getting them wrong.
I may have to stop and rethink my life now…
4 Spice ups
In IT if you aren’t learning constantly, you are likely backsliding. I’m sure most people who have been in computers a long time have forgotten a TON of stuff. If you aren’t using it, you’re losing it right?
My autoexec.bat skills have gotten rusty. I don’t remember how to manually assign interrupts for sound cards and graphics cards.
I have always loved tech, and so much of my “entertainment” is tech related. I like to stay on top of recent tech breakthroughs.
I spend literally hours each week listening to youtube/podcasts that discuss issues for the industry – cybersecurity, emerging technologies, new guidance for best practice, crazy stuff like the fact that in a few years the longest SSL certificate we can get is going to be like a month and a half.
So I know I need to get on my SSL automation and move away from paid SSL Certificates. Let’s Encrypt!
IT isn’t a great industry to coast in. I personally believe that you have to like tech (or the paycheck it provides) enough to always be learning about the next thing.
If you aren’t comfortable enough to say your skills are growing with just your own personal study (Home Lab, etc.) Then you should dig into a certification pathway that allows you to continue to grow your skills in that structured framework. As a nice bonus you’ll be more employable with all those certs.
2 Spice ups
DrDeany
(DrDeany)
10
I’ve been in this industry for 20 years and about 5-6 years to retirement.
I’d like to stay with this position (IT projects engineer) until then.
But to do so I need to stay current. I mostly do migration projects for an MSP.
So I practice in my lab–moving data from Google to M365. Moving data from my Exchange server to M365. Playing in M365 so I understand all aspects of Purview, Defender, Entra, SharePoint, Teams, MDM.
And I try to keep learning new products that are available for our clients–MFA products like Okta and Duo.
My organization strongly supports training and provides time and materials for advancing our knowledge–So I take advantage.
2 Spice ups
I guess ‘growth’ as an individual it biased towards what you like doing. If you want the constant challenge, working for a vendor (ie: vmware, Dell/EMC, Veeam, etc) will get you that in spades.
I’ve been in IT for going on 40 yrs and today’s IT world is so different than what it was back in the late 1980’s. If you want to ‘grow’ in IT nowadays, either become extremely specialized in a silo or re-invent yourself periodically by jumping from say networking to security. Either vendor based training, Udemy, or college level courses can get you there.
But don’t lose sight of ‘you’. Don’t forget to learn life skills, relationship skills, raising a family skills, and all that goes in with that - learn to fish, learn to woodwork, learn to play guitar, pickeleball or whatever is a personal interest. The career path will end at some point and you’ll want something else.
3 Spice ups
