My career in IT

I have some thoughts about IT and my career and I don't think I've ever thought about really writing them down.

IT is ever growing and changing. When I was coming through as a student there was a big focus on 'getting a certification' and becoming an engineer or working in cyber security.

After taking programming my freshman year in college, I had NOOOO desire to become an engineer. I did find coding interesting but the headache of trying to find out what to code and the syntax of it was very frustrating for me.

I'm thankful that in my career so far I haven't needed to write one line of code 😇.

On cyber security, many folks mentioned that this was the sure thing to do to get into IT and be successful. But it never really struck an interest for me either.

Now on getting a certificate. My thoughts are similar to what I thought before getting in the industry: There are so many certificate programs to choose from - how does one choose?

Honestly after high school and college, why would anyone want to do another program to 'maybe' be qualified or desirable for a potential employer?

I like to learn, but when it comes to my career I don't want to rack up degrees, diplomas, certificates to just beef up my resume. I want a position. And I want to excel at that position.

As it relates to IT, especially now, there is no single way to deliver or manage software. Sure there are generalities for these things but whose to say one program is better than the other? Sigh. I just think it's ridiculous.

So now like 7-10 years later the hot topic is data. And this shouldn't come as a surprise. Over the last 20-30 years, tech has grown and there is a lot of data out there. So it makes sense that companies want people like data scientist to work through all of the data to make sense of it and determine what to do with it.

Now that I'm taking a pause I'm wondering what the hot t0pic field will be in the next 5-6 years? Hmm.. I wonder.

So I think that I am pretty clear on what I like about my job in IT. I think it's perfect with my interest and education and experience. I enjoy working with technical teams to create, deliver and manage software solutions. I enjoy using my writing style, design techniques and verbal communication to do so.

I know that I don't like to be the one dealing directly with technical tools though. So I guess my question is - should I even seek the new hot topic IT things, like programming, Power BI and such?

The reason why I ask is because there is always going to be a developer ready to do that type of work right? I like to be apart of the decision making, the design and the shepherding of work to make it a reality. I mean, I'm a business analyst (BA). It's what I believe I do best. I don't have a desire for the other things.

Can I learn from learning the concepts? Absolutely! So perhaps that is enough reason to seek learning the new hot topic IT things. I guess my approach to this is that I don't learn to do, but I learn for awareness and understanding to be a better BA to help technical teams do the work efficiently.

Just my own personal thoughts.