If you work in tech, and have been asked to give advice or tips to someone who wants to get in the field, has anyone ever actually followed through and done those things? What % on average do you think?
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Tons of callers. Few call backs. Fewer still actually “did” the thing. I’d say there’s been one, and they started out paying for information. It did eventually turn to just a relationship and no costs were involved. Everyone who demanded help for free has fizzled out, after my own expense.
The problem with advice on "getting in to tech" is that the reality of the job is that it is mostly long stretches of tedious, repetitive work. It is largely viewed by those who don't work in it as an "easy" job, that pays very well for very little effort. That's not what they want to hear.
My 2 cents keep a blogpost or a document handy share it dont expect followup, less the better. I do this so i can save my time for those who are really doing things. Never kept percentage count but every year atleast 1 or 2 continue.
I spoke with a tech exec at a party once and he told me the best way to get your child ready for the tech world is to have them wading lots of books. Being able to remember and piece together a story over time is the most basic tool one needs to get into the field at a later age.
The one bit of advice that does seem to stick is to find an area of focus early on—something fun and exciting—and concentrate efforts, don’t peanut butter them.
I remind folks it's a journey and a huge field. The biggest tool cant be taught, and that is curiosity. There's an element of wanting to know how something works, and building it yourself; find something to tinker on. That guidance seems to have helped a couple of folks.
Exactly; I've taught a lot of subjects to a lot of students. They paid to be there. Most of the material I learned, I did on my own by wanting to "wrench on my own car."
If you're not interested in smashing the rocks, you'll never experience the atom.
It depends.. tech like people is highly variable. One wants tips- there's a whole internet for that.
The ones that do follow through, take the advice.. do it for more than a paycheck. Feed your curiosity 1st, the paycheck will show up.
Gotta love what you do, or find something else.
😉
A few. Most don’t want to put in the time and effort to become skilled enough to make the serious money! Those who did, will never need to worry about unemployment or underemployment again in their life.
(1/2) Yeah, same. I imagine I've explained the same things to quite a few people though I have had a few end up actually following through. Most don't when they see the amount of work involved (if they are starting from scratch at least). All of the people who followed for me were people who were
I mentor a lot of folks just starting out. Those that want to “get into” tech usually don’t make it. Those that want to learn a specific skill or technology to solve a problem they’ve been thinking about or generally like solving problems stick with it.
Agree, I think all successful professionals often encounter the random: "Hey man little Bobby here is graduating HS and likes to . . . . how does he get into ?" Those chances of success are low to average.
My three pieces of advice I always give are these:
1. Always be learning something new (to you) and be able to talk about it in conversation.
2. Get involved and network in your local community.
3. Get 1or2 entry level cert.
Never had anyone tell me this didn’t work,
And a lot have told me it did.
This was back in the mainframe days when I coded in IBM assembler. If you stick with something, it will generally pay off. At least that worked for me, and I could buy my plane with the spoils!
I’ve got one mentee who followed through and got a job (career pivot into cyber), but it wasn’t just advice. It was a lot of mentoring, resume review, practice interviews, etc… and he put in a lot of work on his own to make it happen.
Thinking of starting a small company as a side thing in the not too distant future. Going for my commercial drone pilot license so I can do things like sell my photography.
I figure that I'm going to be doing it anyway, so if I get good shots, I can offer prints, etc.
Most of the time not matter what advice I give the person gets stuck in cert hell, and takes years to switch because they are looking for the perfect cert
I can think of one for sure but they already had their foot in the door and had just came aboard as a Helldesk Tech. I was a sysadmin at the time and they genuinely wanted to learn and grow. When I left that place, I actually recommended them as my replacement.
This is how I got my start, and I owe a lot to the sysadmin who mentored me. I just don't know if this pipeline exists anymore. I'm a staff SWE at a FAANG-lite and getting offers isn't difficult. But I don't have a CS degree. I don't think they'd even interview a new engineer without a CS degree.
It's certainly gotten harder for new people to get entry positions (especially ones that aren't taking advantage of them). I still think it's possible but it's certainly gotten harder since I started out a decade ago and requires either networking, certs/degree, luck, or some combination of all.
I run an online community for students and grads interested in Social Impact (a huge emerging trend that intersects with tech!) and on average, they connect with 7-10 professionals every month.
Side note: the number hugely varies depending on the amount of time they dedicate to networking
I mentor early-career folks who are in or want to get into responsible tech. I try to offer advice that’s pretty concrete to whatever specific circumstances or challenges their facing, and that tends to have a good track record. For more generic conversations I share my own experience noting it 1/
doesn’t necessarily generalize but might provide an example of *one way* to do things. In those cases I encourage the person to chat with as many different people as possible to get lots of ideas and perspectives. 2/2
5 years ago, I sought to understand everything you wrote. Every time you posted something I didn't understand, I researched it. Once, I had 3 posts queued, because I couldn't keep up.
Which means in a round about way you did help my career.
I should add that I was training for my CCNA while you were a kid and I was in IRC channels with a bunch of hackers in the last 90s. Then I left tech for 15 years. So networking was in my blood, but my knowledge was almost 2 decades old.
About 18 months ago, I started to understand almost everything you wrote. Also, I stopped having a chip on my shoulder with something to prove about being in InfoSec.
That's been my approach at work while training als well as on social media. I'm still hugely behind my keyword list. But this still is a great approach to get a broader ubderstanding in the field. I give that advice to people who ask me.
I have been asked for and provided a fair amount of guidance. When someone is already in tech, the uptake on that mentoring has been incredibly high (and rewarding for both). For those outside of tech, there have been very few that followed through and acted on it.
I'd say not even 20%, people only see what's in front of them and will not take your advice. Only the path that has existed for decades, get the degree and hope for the 100k paying job.
It's very difficult to mentor people into the industry because it's not the same industry it was when I started. My advice doesn't work anymore and if I was starting over in $current_year, I'd pick a different industry.
For a brief period, tech provided an unprecedented level of class mobility in the US. There isn't really an equivalent anymore. But if I was a young person now and I had the resources, I'd probably try to enter the medical field.
I’m in hardware and infrastructure/data centers, so my path is less and less relevant.
I’ve given advice to people I passed up in role, mostly about being aggressive to learn and change things up. Most favor stability over chances though. Only seen a few take it.
My longest time at an employer is my current at 3.5 years… or one I returned to to make a combined total of 5 years. I’m actually kind of bored of my work but not at a place (personally) to make a role change for a bit
the general advice of "learn a lot about technology, the business that your company does, and how your company works internally" has gone far but it's super generic I guess.
we have a sort of structured "I have spare cycles or I'm bored or want something new, what can I help with" program internally so I tell people to just hop into something on that list. very few do but those that do are often tapped for open positions when we have them come up.
It’s because of this that the first thing I ever do when someone asks, is recommend a book, any book, tell them to read it all, and be prepared to discuss. About 1 out of a hundred have actually done it.
People often seek quick fixes, not genuine advice, especially when advice involves significant effort. This applies across industries, it’s not unique to tech. The challenge isn’t giving advice, but finding those willing to act on it. That’s my impression.
I feel like generally folks want the "shortcut" to it when they ask. When I explain my journey to it, it's never the "I went to a coding camp and am now a developer" answer folks want to hear. So, I'd bet it's 10% or less.
The best advice is to learn as much as you can about AI and understand why it’s essential. The rest depends on your focus, but with discipline, it’s within reach.
With fast-changing industries, lifelong learning is essential tech pro or not, staying updated is key.
I engage in K-12 outreach to inspire young individuals to pursue careers in STEM.
Here are some observations I’ve made:
- STEM is often perceived as challenging.
- More females than males are choosing to study STEM.
- Mathematics appears to be the most difficult subject for many students.
- The most successful path for students pursuing STEM is to complete two years at a junior college followed by two years at a major college.
-The costs of a 4 years degree are prohibitive
-If one or more parents works in a STEM field the likelihood of them pursuing a degree doubles
IDK if this counts, but I've gotten emails and DMs from a surprisingly significant number of people who've followed the steps in my book and told me they landed their first cybersecurity job.
As a percentage, I have no idea. But I definitely see some who never try the advice I give them.
Yeah agreed, that's why I wasn't sure if it was relevant to what you were asking about.
For more ad-hoc solicited advice, I can't say I have good visibility into who actually does try what I suggest, but again I'd definitely noted some who didn't and yet complained they were still stuck.
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And it shows. I wish nothing but the best for them.
If you're not interested in smashing the rocks, you'll never experience the atom.
Knowing what kind of "why" question to ask etc
The ones that do follow through, take the advice.. do it for more than a paycheck. Feed your curiosity 1st, the paycheck will show up.
Gotta love what you do, or find something else.
😉
I can remember only one person actually taking me up on the offer.
Overall, maybe 5%
I’ll still be here doing my bestest to help others out though.
1. Always be learning something new (to you) and be able to talk about it in conversation.
2. Get involved and network in your local community.
3. Get 1or2 entry level cert.
Never had anyone tell me this didn’t work,
And a lot have told me it did.
That 10% is doing awesome in the field already.
The other 15% have tried to take the advice, and maybe 1/3-1/2 of those get somewhere with it.
I figure that I'm going to be doing it anyway, so if I get good shots, I can offer prints, etc.
Side note: the number hugely varies depending on the amount of time they dedicate to networking
Which means in a round about way you did help my career.
I often share this strategy with others.
About 18 months ago, I started to understand almost everything you wrote. Also, I stopped having a chip on my shoulder with something to prove about being in InfoSec.
Can't teach people to have in-built drive and passion 😔
When I was 11 a teacher told me that when you leave school, nobody will be there to motivate you.
You have to motivate yourself.
Simple advice that worked for me.
Medical field does make a lot of sense.
Personally, I’m more passionate about tech especially because of the flexibility to work remotely!✨️
I’ve given advice to people I passed up in role, mostly about being aggressive to learn and change things up. Most favor stability over chances though. Only seen a few take it.
The main challenge isn't finding motivation but continuing to work when motivation isn’t there anymore
With fast-changing industries, lifelong learning is essential tech pro or not, staying updated is key.
I engage in K-12 outreach to inspire young individuals to pursue careers in STEM.
Here are some observations I’ve made:
- STEM is often perceived as challenging.
- More females than males are choosing to study STEM.
- Mathematics appears to be the most difficult subject for many students.
-The costs of a 4 years degree are prohibitive
-If one or more parents works in a STEM field the likelihood of them pursuing a degree doubles
As a percentage, I have no idea. But I definitely see some who never try the advice I give them.
For more ad-hoc solicited advice, I can't say I have good visibility into who actually does try what I suggest, but again I'd definitely noted some who didn't and yet complained they were still stuck.
Where is the best place to get myself a copy?
Can I order a signed copy directly from you?