Computer-based training, books, and initiative can help you learn new technologies.
Say you're a network engineer, plugging away at a good job in relative obscurity. Then your boss comes to you and says, "Our company has purchased this new database program. I want you to get it up and running in two weeks."
The funny voice that comes out of your mouth says, "Sure, I can do that" But the voice in your head sounds more like: "What the heck?"
Suddenly, you're wearing two hats as different from each other as a 10-gallon stetson and a Yankees baseball cap. And you're wondering, how to get up to speed on databases in one weekend.
Fortunately, several resources exist that can help you get a least a general grounding in a new technology. But David L. Jones, a network administrator and engineer from Houston, says those techies who have a broad experience base often have an easier time learning new tricks.
"If you have worked in the past with a variety of platforms, databases, email systems, etc., then picking up one more is not that big a deal," says Jones, an independent contractor. "Programmers are always stealing - I mean borrowing – ideas from each other and this tends to make for many similarities from packages that do that same thing."
Books and computer-based training
Contractors such as Jones, and James Stakelum, a database architect and administrator from Dallas, take it upon themselves to broaden their experience, both for long-term changes in career direction and short-term requests from clients to work in unfamiliar territory. For full-timers, many technology companies have training budgets that allow for crash courses in new technologies.
Stakelum, who's worked in technology for 15 years, has used books and played with the software when learning a new program.
"I wanted to learn about Visual Basic, so I bought a copy of VB, some books, and started teaching myself," he says. "I wanted to learn a little about networking, so I bought additional computers and networking cards and a hub and built my own network at home. I wanted to learn Oracle, so I downloaded the database - it's free for Linux and NT - bought some books, and taught myself."
For Stakelum, the incentive for him to keep current is keeping food on the table. For full-time employees, the incentive for the company to pay for those books and your time spent playing with the new technology is to have that technology up and running.
Jones finds computer-based training a good way to pick up practical skills in a hurry. "If someone has never administered a Windows NT network before, and they are suddenly thrown into that situation, then computer-based training can be a lifesaver," he says. "Computer-based training will not turn them into an NT guru by any means, but it can take them from ground zero to being able to do simple, routine tasks in a day or two."
Get certified?
Jones are Stakelum are somewhat split on the value of certifications.
Stakelum doesn't believe certifications greatly help veteran technologists. His stock answer for potential clients who ask if he's been certified recently: "When you've been at it as long as I have, certifications do little but suck money out of your pocket, but for a novice, I can see the value of getting a certification."
But Jones finds certification programs because "they expose you to aspects of a product that you might not normally use during a typical work week."
Certifications can help you with what Jones calls "theoretical knowledge."
"Theoretical knowledge is useful when practical experience is lacking," he says. "If I know form previous reading and studying what a network router does and basically how it does it, then I am going to have a much easier time figuring out how to make a router work properly if someone drops one on my desk and says, 'make it go.' "
It's up to you to stay current
Both consultants agree that the key to excelling at a surprise assignment is to keep your technology skills well rounded.
Stakelum, who's built a newspaper and magazine search engine called NewsVoice.com, says he has to stay current to survive as a consultant. "I have no feeling of shame that self-taught knowledge is somehow less worthy," he says. "I've probably done more Perl and Java in the last three months than most full-time practitioners do in a year."
Jones fights any client attempts to pigeonhole him into one specialty. He describes his work as "making different products work together, or at least coexist peacefully on a network."
"Today's current focus on having people specialise in just one narrow aspect of IT tends to work against people's ability to learn new things," he adds. "If all I know is SQL server or Exchange, then learning how to administer a NetWare network is going to be very difficult."
