Learn to Teach Yourself
Posted: December 8th, 2011 | Author: Jon Still | Filed under: Musings, Techie | Tags: ios, learning, NX-OS, studying, training | 4 Comments »
Image by AustinEvan on Flickr
I changed jobs at the end of October and while leaving many of my colleagues behind was difficult it’s been great to get stuck into learning a new network and working with some different technologies.
In the last few weeks I’ve been designing and configuring an expansion of an existing datacentre. This has given me a great opportunity to sit down and read through design guides and configuration docs on both the Cisco Nexus 5k range of switches and the Cisco ACE4170. Before this I didn’t really know anything in detail on these devices other than general awareness and various bits and bobs I’d picked up from my compatriots on Twitter.
Both of these technologies gave me plenty to learn about – they both have their fair share of limitations and restrictions on how they can be deployed and both have subtle CLI differences that have entailed scrabbling through documents, scratching heads and asking questions of those better versed in these areas than me (thanks @EriksonIan!). These gotchas ranged from the trivial (not knowing about the “trunk” parameter to “spanning-tree port type edge”) to the more fundamental (understanding how vPC works).
It was while I was finalising the configs that I realised I’d taught myself an awful lot during the last few weeks – technologies that I had never touched were almost becoming second nature and I was starting to feel vaguely competent (but hopefully not dangerously so). This thought took me back to my University days – the program leader of the course I was studying had a phrase that he trotted our with regularity that was basically to the effect of:
“We’re not here to teach you. We’re here to teach you to teach yourself.”It’s only now that I can see how true that statement was. The best people I have ever worked with have all had an extremely good grasp of the fundamentals and the ability to take a new technology, new product, new service – whatever it may be – and make sense of the knowledge and put it to good use.
My personal #1 piece of advice to any aspiring techie would have to be: “Learn how to teach yourself”. Find out what it takes for you to learn something in-depth and retain that knowledge. It could be that reading documentation or 3rd party books is enough for you. You might find that labbing something up and putting practical skills to work works better, or that audio/video-based training is what you need.
Whatever it may be – find a way that works for you and go put it to good use!
I have often thought that IT is a large teaching job. You spend a lot of time teaching others about what it is you are doing and you have to teach yourself on a regular basis. The people who accept this fact realize that we will never be “caught up” on our reading and studying. A job in IT has a lot in common with career students!
I have come across quite a few people in perm roles that have waited for their company to provide the training rather than take the initiative to train themselves… these people were then extremely worried when said company had to reduce numbers… if you dont train yourself, you end up being left behind by those that do…being in the right jobs that also allow you to expand your knowledge also helps massively
[...] Jon Still » Blog Archive » Learn to Teach Yourself – Sometimes you need reminding of the basics. I have reminder items that tell me not be stupid and learn from my mistakes – think I’ll add this to the list: “We’re not here to teach you. We’re here to teach you to teach yourself.” [...]
@matthew I agree with you 100%. It is a must that we are constantly learning, reading and applying our knowledge.
I have seen so many techies refuse to put the time into learning a particular technology and I end up watching them fail all over the place when it doesn’t work the way they “thought” it should work. Those are the ones, generally speaking, that are left behind, that are unhappy with their careers and the ones worrying about losing their jobs because they know they can’t be competitive in the market.
To end, my little brother asked me the other day, “CJ, when you pass your test (CCIE-lab) will you be done studying finally?” My response…No, I will never be done.