You Got This!
Three pieces of advice that I would give to a new Technologist
Last week I had the opportunity to finish up the 8-week Enterprise Simulator at Strategio.
The Enterprise Simulator was an amazing learning experience! I had the opportunity to take a deep dive into DevOps and learn much about different technologies such as AWS, Jenkins, Docker, and Kubernetes.
As my chapter in the simulator closes, I would love to share three pieces of advice that will hopefully help new technologists succeed when they are in the simulator themselves.
1. Don’t be scared you got this!
The first piece of advice that I would give a new technologist is “Believe in yourself”. I know in our industry it is very common to go through imposter syndrome. Sometimes we feel like frauds or like we don’t belong. But let me tell you that is far from the truth! That is exactly what Strategio wants to break down. They want to empower and invest in diverse technology talent, in order to increase representation for all people in the tech industry.
If you have made it through their selection process, it is because you are a very talented individual and they believe in you. It is now time for you to believe in yourself!
2. Take it one day at a time
The second piece of advice I would give a new technologist is “Don’t feel overwhelmed.” When you first start the simulator. You might feel like there is a lot of material to cover. But don’t let this be a cause of concern. One of the things I loved about the simulator was how well everything was organized to help us succeed.
The material is broken down for you into time slots using a Kanbanflow chart. This made it easier for us to organize our day. Another thing I liked was how the material was structured. When new concepts were introduced, we typically went over the theory first, and once we had that down we performed tasks to reinforce what we learned.
For example, with AWS we took a deep dive into what cloud technologies were, how their use started, why they are beneficial, and how they work. Once we understood these concepts we performed several tasks using the AWS console to reinforce our learning.
To finish up this point I’d like to share a story with you. A while back I had a large project during my time in college that was overwhelming me. After I vented to my wife about it for a while, she asked me the following question. How would you eat an elephant? After letting me think about it for a bit (and seeing that I was completely confused), she answered the question for me. One bite at a time.
I now pass down this same advice to all the new technologists. Don’t be overwhelmed by all of the material. Pace yourself and take it one day at a time. Before you know it you will have eaten the entire elephant!
3. Success can come through failure
My third and final piece of advice for a new technologist would be “Don’t be afraid to fail”. The fear of failure can be something that causes us, humans, to freeze up. We may not understand a certain topic or concept, so we decide not to participate fully in order to not get caught in a bad situation. The problem with that is that we stop ourselves from growing. It is commonly said that Thomas Edison had over 1,000 attempts when creating the light bulb. He didn’t get it on the first try. He had to fail and learn over 1,000 times to get it right. This same concept can be applied to us. The faster we fail the faster we learn. Strategio actually promotes this in one of their core values Fail-Fast and learn. They understand that everyone makes mistakes and that is okay. Each mistake is an opportunity for you to learn something new, rebound quickly, and do it better the next time.
Don’t look at failure as if it were a terrible thing. From now on look at it as an opportunity to grow!
My experience with the Strategio Simulator was an amazing one! If you go through it soon I wish you the best of luck! I know you will enjoy it as much as did!
I hope this blog was helpful for you. Let me know what you think in the comments below.
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