By: Zachary Hite
5/27/2021
Recently in my life I have realized how easy it is for me as a human to stalemate in the situation that I find myself in. It is just plain easier to not push for that next thing when you are comfortable. Intellectually I have known that fact for years but even when I heard it, I never fully applied what the person or book was saying to my life. Ego is a glorious thing is it not….
Either way I have become lax in my education since gaining my first real IT job. A rear look into my career path I have somewhat just floated from opportunity to opportunity as they have presented. Of course, there have been times that I have put in the “work” to make things happen.
To be clear, I am not talking about the quality of my work inside the job itself. What I am talking about is looking at my career from the “big picture” seeing the long arm of it stretching into the future and deciding where the hand at the end of that arm is going to end up.
I feel like I have just floated through my career, I just am earning the next paycheck, to live, to earn the next paycheck, essentially an attitude of “it’s just a job”. I do not want that in my life!
There are roughly 8760 hours in a year, of which we will spend around 2080 working. That is a quarter of my life a year! Even that does not consider the time lost sleeping (although sleep is a glorious thing) or commuting to that job. I am not begrudging the fact that we must work, but I am just realizing that I want to make this 25% of my life worth something. I want the job I commit to, to be rewarding and have an affect on the people I am around, and the company I am in.
If I am in Information Technology as a field, I want to endeavor to be the best IT worker I can be.
Knowing this now then I must turn my gaze from looking at my past to what is now going to be my future (at least in terms of my career). So, the above is the reasons that I want to pursue my long overdue need to get certifications in my job field. Although at the time of writing this I am not certain on where the hand of the metaphorical arm is pointing quite yet for my ultimate destination, I am going to start laying the frameworks of a plan. I will get my CCNA and Network+ Certification while getting more engrained into the Linux OS.
If you have read this long sorry for the sentimental tone in this post. Hopefully any time in the future where I begin doubting my course of action, I can look at this and remind myself why I am doing what I am doing.