Best IT skill to learn ?
Discussion
I am a SQL/Oracle/MySQL DBA and am happy with that, my middle son now fancies a career in IT.
He did a music degree but has come to the realization its probably not going to be a career and wants to keep it as a hobby, preferably with doing something reasonably well paid to pay the bills.
He is pretty IT savvy, you have to be in music these days, he did work experience as a level designer at the company that does the Lego games, has done loads of Half Life level design and stuff like that, but wants to start as a developer but wasnt sure what is the best skill to learn now.
So, after suggestions as to what he can do as a key skill, I can coach him. He is looking himself but after the advice of all the IT bods on here.
He did a music degree but has come to the realization its probably not going to be a career and wants to keep it as a hobby, preferably with doing something reasonably well paid to pay the bills.
He is pretty IT savvy, you have to be in music these days, he did work experience as a level designer at the company that does the Lego games, has done loads of Half Life level design and stuff like that, but wants to start as a developer but wasnt sure what is the best skill to learn now.
So, after suggestions as to what he can do as a key skill, I can coach him. He is looking himself but after the advice of all the IT bods on here.
Microservice development (probably in Java) and/or anyone who can drive Kubernetes & Openshift appear to be red hot at the moment.
I find it impossible to learn from books, I need a task - there are loads of examples out there. If he can get his head round this:
https://openbanking.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/DZ/p...
and build some examples in AWS, he'd be in a good place at interview. At the risk of irritating people, the principles behind microservices are similar to all good architecture approaches (modular design, SOA etc) so it will be transferable.
The nice advantage we have today is that you can spin up infrastructure on AWS for pennies. If you want to performance test code at 1000 TPS, you can do it for less than a pound.
If he's interested in data - then you'd be in a very good position to teach him. The world is just starting to realise that no one understands data modelling any more, and even fewer actually understand data.
I find it impossible to learn from books, I need a task - there are loads of examples out there. If he can get his head round this:
https://openbanking.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/DZ/p...
and build some examples in AWS, he'd be in a good place at interview. At the risk of irritating people, the principles behind microservices are similar to all good architecture approaches (modular design, SOA etc) so it will be transferable.
The nice advantage we have today is that you can spin up infrastructure on AWS for pennies. If you want to performance test code at 1000 TPS, you can do it for less than a pound.
If he's interested in data - then you'd be in a very good position to teach him. The world is just starting to realise that no one understands data modelling any more, and even fewer actually understand data.
I wouldn't expect either of the above systems to exist in ten years. Particularly Shopify which is just another commerce platform, an application.
What's he actually interested in? If it's software development I'd probably go the Java route with a mind to doing Scala and/or Kotlin later. For machine learning/AI, Python is a good choice currently.
Things have changed a lot in the last 15 years. Systems Administration is now more cloud focussed, so AWS/Azure/GCP skills are sought after as well as knowing an operating system.
Development Operations is another area but I expect that to evolve more. Sysadmin oriented with a focus on development support, so containerisation with Docker and/or Kubernetes and continuous integration with something like Jenkins.
Going the sysadmin route it's also useful to have some programming knowledge, even if it's just shell or another scripting language like Perl or Python. Yes, Perl is still used but it's not the way I'd go for a development career.
What's he actually interested in? If it's software development I'd probably go the Java route with a mind to doing Scala and/or Kotlin later. For machine learning/AI, Python is a good choice currently.
Things have changed a lot in the last 15 years. Systems Administration is now more cloud focussed, so AWS/Azure/GCP skills are sought after as well as knowing an operating system.
Development Operations is another area but I expect that to evolve more. Sysadmin oriented with a focus on development support, so containerisation with Docker and/or Kubernetes and continuous integration with something like Jenkins.
Going the sysadmin route it's also useful to have some programming knowledge, even if it's just shell or another scripting language like Perl or Python. Yes, Perl is still used but it's not the way I'd go for a development career.
There's always a few "hot" skills in IT, but the trouble is they have such a short shelf-life compared to other professions. Will he be OK with the constant retraining? Perhaps games development might be worth focussing on as we have quite a lot of that going on in this country at the moment. Not sure what specific programming skill that requires, but I expect someone on here can answer that.
Bikerjon said:
There's always a few "hot" skills in IT, but the trouble is they have such a short shelf-life compared to other professions.
Agree with that.22 years ago I trained in Novell as it was the "hot thing".
It wasn't 5 mins later though.
The next fad was anything with Cisco in the title.
In the op's lads position, i'd go for some Microsoft training.
It's what I've found most useful over the years.
Start with win 10, using that as a base he can decide which way to head next.
Azure is a good bet.
Good luck.
Being able to translate the underlying business need to the technology needed to get it working is valuable today, and I suspect will continue to be valuable. It does require a constant learning curve to keep up to date with the art of the possible though, and you will lose detail because breadth of skills necessitates a lower depth. Aim for a T shaped skills curve, rather than an I shaped skills curve, because valuable skills are always a great target for offshoring
Hi,
30+ years in IT and like someone mentioned above anything which is in demand now wont be in 2/5/10 years time. My brother in law is a developer and Im amazed at how quickly languages change, seems everytime we meet and chat a new language is in use and now deemed `hot`.
I was once a Solaris / unix admin, supporting clusters / DCs / shell scripting but this changed and everything is clouded. Linix took over and Oracle ruined Sun. OEM hardware is now too expenses, licensing is so expensive that many companies have to cap hardware / processors / performance due to costs. It's like by a V12 but petrol is so dear you only run it on 4 cylinders.
I always saw DBAs as a role that was always in demand, similar to networking. Several friends are Oracle DBAs, forms, RACK, and they have been in contracts for years. Security seems to be another field that many of my IT colleagues / contractor friends are entering into. Seems to be the big money area at the moment.
The UK is a service provider so get your son clued up on ITIL. Most IT departments now use this. ServiceNow is the favoured incident management system. Reading above a few are recommend BA (Business Anaylist) roles. Doable. IT is a field that you pretty much have to do some form of support / helpdesk / L1 or L2 support to experience issues, users, and common problems. After 3/5 years of this you then specialise.
Would I enter IT again ? Not sure. Im a contractor and this way of working will soon change pending IR35. I dont think there's the money in IT support anymore, so perhaps I would go down IT sales.
If your son does enter It then tell him its mandatory for IT support dudes to, at some point, own a M3 :-)
SBK
30+ years in IT and like someone mentioned above anything which is in demand now wont be in 2/5/10 years time. My brother in law is a developer and Im amazed at how quickly languages change, seems everytime we meet and chat a new language is in use and now deemed `hot`.
I was once a Solaris / unix admin, supporting clusters / DCs / shell scripting but this changed and everything is clouded. Linix took over and Oracle ruined Sun. OEM hardware is now too expenses, licensing is so expensive that many companies have to cap hardware / processors / performance due to costs. It's like by a V12 but petrol is so dear you only run it on 4 cylinders.
I always saw DBAs as a role that was always in demand, similar to networking. Several friends are Oracle DBAs, forms, RACK, and they have been in contracts for years. Security seems to be another field that many of my IT colleagues / contractor friends are entering into. Seems to be the big money area at the moment.
The UK is a service provider so get your son clued up on ITIL. Most IT departments now use this. ServiceNow is the favoured incident management system. Reading above a few are recommend BA (Business Anaylist) roles. Doable. IT is a field that you pretty much have to do some form of support / helpdesk / L1 or L2 support to experience issues, users, and common problems. After 3/5 years of this you then specialise.
Would I enter IT again ? Not sure. Im a contractor and this way of working will soon change pending IR35. I dont think there's the money in IT support anymore, so perhaps I would go down IT sales.
If your son does enter It then tell him its mandatory for IT support dudes to, at some point, own a M3 :-)
SBK
Edited by sbk1972 on Thursday 13th August 11:24
Solution design, piloting, etc is generally a "high touch" service and require direct client interaction. Avoid roles that can be easily offshored (maintenance, operations)
Good solution architects are always in demand and can command a premium. Sales is where the money is.
Hot "techs" for the next few years are cloud, cloud, cloud and cloud. Within cloud - cloud native development / containerisation / replatforming, AI, etc
Blockchain is largely noise for now, as is quantum.
For training on particular vendors; I see the demand (in descending order) for:
Microsoft Azure
AWS
Salesforce
ServiceNow
Google
Oracle and SAP aren't going away, but those markets are fairly well served.
ServiceNow is moving way beyond service management and has very aggressive growth plans.
Some systems integrators and consultants (Big 4) offer internships / non-traditional graduate and non-graduate programs as a way in; there isn't necessarily the require
Good solution architects are always in demand and can command a premium. Sales is where the money is.
Hot "techs" for the next few years are cloud, cloud, cloud and cloud. Within cloud - cloud native development / containerisation / replatforming, AI, etc
Blockchain is largely noise for now, as is quantum.
For training on particular vendors; I see the demand (in descending order) for:
Microsoft Azure
AWS
Salesforce
ServiceNow
Oracle and SAP aren't going away, but those markets are fairly well served.
ServiceNow is moving way beyond service management and has very aggressive growth plans.
Some systems integrators and consultants (Big 4) offer internships / non-traditional graduate and non-graduate programs as a way in; there isn't necessarily the require
nealeh1875 said:
Hi mate, my mrs works on a system called service now and from what i hear they are crying out for developers.
Not sure if there is online courses or something to get him started? She does very well and always seems like there is a steady progression too.
I would second ServiceNow. I moved from Oracle DBA work to ITIL Service Management and ServiceNow.Not sure if there is online courses or something to get him started? She does very well and always seems like there is a steady progression too.
Several different roles in there to suit - Developer, Admin, BA, Config Management.
Developers in big demand as are good admins. Good contracting opportunities also when you've developed the rights skills.
I've been in that area for 5+ years. The product seems to be going from strength to strength.
Loads of companies needing developers, admins, config managers and BAs, loads of ServiceNow Partner companies always looking for good, experienced people and ServiceNow themselves have a big people base here in the UK too.
Edited by Deep Thought on Thursday 13th August 11:57
Edited by Deep Thought on Thursday 13th August 11:58
sbk1972 said:
Hi,
30+ years in IT and like someone mentioned above anything which is in demand now wont be in 2/5/10 years time. My brother in law is a developer and Im amazed at how quickly languages change, seems everytime we meet and chat a new language is in use and now deemed `hot`.
I was once a Solaris / unix admin, supporting clusters / DCs / shell scripting but this changed and everything is clouded. Linix took over and Oracle ruined Sun. OEM hardware is now too expenses, licensing is so expensive that many companies have to cap hardware / processors / performance due to costs. It's like by a V12 but petrol is so dear you only run it on 4 cylinders.
I always saw DBAs as a role that was always in demand, similar to networking. Several friends are Oracle DBAs, forms, RACK, and they have been in contracts for years. Security seems to be another field that many of my IT colleagues / contractor friends are entering into. Seems to be the big money area at the moment.
The UK is a service provider so get your son clued up on ITIL. Most IT departments now use this. ServiceNow is the favoured incident management system. Reading above a few are recommend BA (Business Anaylist) roles. Doable. IT is a field that you pretty much have to do some form of support / helpdesk / L1 or L2 support to experience issues, users, and common problems. After 3/5 years of this you then specialise.
Would I enter IT again ? Not sure. Im a contractor and this way of working will soon change pending IR35. I dont think there's the money in IT support anymore, so perhaps I would go down IT sales.
If your son does enter It then tell him its mandatory for IT support dudes to, at some point, own a M3 :-)
SBK
Worth elaborating that ServiceNow is much much more than an Incident Management system.30+ years in IT and like someone mentioned above anything which is in demand now wont be in 2/5/10 years time. My brother in law is a developer and Im amazed at how quickly languages change, seems everytime we meet and chat a new language is in use and now deemed `hot`.
I was once a Solaris / unix admin, supporting clusters / DCs / shell scripting but this changed and everything is clouded. Linix took over and Oracle ruined Sun. OEM hardware is now too expenses, licensing is so expensive that many companies have to cap hardware / processors / performance due to costs. It's like by a V12 but petrol is so dear you only run it on 4 cylinders.
I always saw DBAs as a role that was always in demand, similar to networking. Several friends are Oracle DBAs, forms, RACK, and they have been in contracts for years. Security seems to be another field that many of my IT colleagues / contractor friends are entering into. Seems to be the big money area at the moment.
The UK is a service provider so get your son clued up on ITIL. Most IT departments now use this. ServiceNow is the favoured incident management system. Reading above a few are recommend BA (Business Anaylist) roles. Doable. IT is a field that you pretty much have to do some form of support / helpdesk / L1 or L2 support to experience issues, users, and common problems. After 3/5 years of this you then specialise.
Would I enter IT again ? Not sure. Im a contractor and this way of working will soon change pending IR35. I dont think there's the money in IT support anymore, so perhaps I would go down IT sales.
If your son does enter It then tell him its mandatory for IT support dudes to, at some point, own a M3 :-)
SBK
Edited by sbk1972 on Thursday 13th August 11:24
https://www.servicenow.com/products-by-category.ht...
Deep Thought said:
Worth elaborating that ServiceNow is much much more than an Incident Management system.
https://www.servicenow.com/products-by-category.ht...
Indeed - and their CEO (ex SAP) is driving the company very hard to evolve from the ITIL foundations (which are also market leading)https://www.servicenow.com/products-by-category.ht...
The technology is always evolving. There is always a load of froth about the latest big new thing and it's usually just the same old b
ks served up a different way. I'd say learn to programme. Any modern language will do. By trying to tell the damn machine what you want it to do you'll learn about every other aspect of it too, i.e. how a database works, how a network works, how the hardware in the computer works, etc, etc. The understanding you'll gain will give you the basis for any job role in IT. It's not a trivial undertaking. There's a lot to learn. But it is very accessible. If someone is genuinely interested it is very doable. But if someone isn't actually very interested and is just doing it for want of any better idea, it'll be purgatory.
ks served up a different way. I'd say learn to programme. Any modern language will do. By trying to tell the damn machine what you want it to do you'll learn about every other aspect of it too, i.e. how a database works, how a network works, how the hardware in the computer works, etc, etc. The understanding you'll gain will give you the basis for any job role in IT. It's not a trivial undertaking. There's a lot to learn. But it is very accessible. If someone is genuinely interested it is very doable. But if someone isn't actually very interested and is just doing it for want of any better idea, it'll be purgatory.Bikerjon said:
There's always a few "hot" skills in IT, but the trouble is they have such a short shelf-life compared to other professions. Will he be OK with the constant retraining? Perhaps games development might be worth focussing on as we have quite a lot of that going on in this country at the moment. Not sure what specific programming skill that requires, but I expect someone on here can answer that.
The rise and decline of hot skills is always true, but someone who is going to be successful will relish getting to grips with new ideas and work off principles rather than learned facts about a platform. I started coding Batch COBOL - taught me a lot about performance, parallelism and transaction management. The first database I drove was NonStop SQL, then Sybase, then Oracle. Every change is about extending your knowledge, but at the same time remembering the principles are pretty much the same. I have no idea what “learn Azure or AWS” really means. The skill that is in demand is implementing systems within those environments, in understanding the advantages and pitfalls. A network person who started with Novell, and went onto Cisco will “get” VPCs and the like in Amazon in about 10 minutes. It’s a lot more accessible because rather than getting to grips with IOS, you’re ticking boxes and deploying stuff. But again - the principles are all the same.
ITIL? Not sure. If you can buzzword bingo SRE, that’s more attractive now.
If he doesn’t like this sort of change, then it may be harder as a career. He may strike it lucky and choose something that lasts. Some of my Oracle DBA mates have been one trick ponies their entire lives and done very, very well out of it. I’m bloody glad I turned down the job offer from Sybase though....!
rxe said:
If he doesn’t like this sort of change, then it may be harder as a career. He may strike it lucky and choose something that lasts. Some of my Oracle DBA mates have been one trick ponies their entire lives and done very, very well out of it. I’m bloody glad I turned down the job offer from Sybase though....!
Core systems of record, etc like SAP and Oracle are going to be around for a very long time yet as they represent such large investments (and customisations).rxe said:
The rise and decline of hot skills is always true, but someone who is going to be successful will relish getting to grips with new ideas and work off principles rather than learned facts about a platform. I started coding Batch COBOL - taught me a lot about performance, parallelism and transaction management. The first database I drove was NonStop SQL, then Sybase, then Oracle. Every change is about extending your knowledge, but at the same time remembering the principles are pretty much the same.
I have no idea what “learn Azure or AWS” really means. The skill that is in demand is implementing systems within those environments, in understanding the advantages and pitfalls. A network person who started with Novell, and went onto Cisco will “get” VPCs and the like in Amazon in about 10 minutes. It’s a lot more accessible because rather than getting to grips with IOS, you’re ticking boxes and deploying stuff. But again - the principles are all the same.
ITIL? Not sure. If you can buzzword bingo SRE, that’s more attractive now.
If he doesn’t like this sort of change, then it may be harder as a career. He may strike it lucky and choose something that lasts. Some of my Oracle DBA mates have been one trick ponies their entire lives and done very, very well out of it. I’m bloody glad I turned down the job offer from Sybase though....!
Nicely putI have no idea what “learn Azure or AWS” really means. The skill that is in demand is implementing systems within those environments, in understanding the advantages and pitfalls. A network person who started with Novell, and went onto Cisco will “get” VPCs and the like in Amazon in about 10 minutes. It’s a lot more accessible because rather than getting to grips with IOS, you’re ticking boxes and deploying stuff. But again - the principles are all the same.
ITIL? Not sure. If you can buzzword bingo SRE, that’s more attractive now.
If he doesn’t like this sort of change, then it may be harder as a career. He may strike it lucky and choose something that lasts. Some of my Oracle DBA mates have been one trick ponies their entire lives and done very, very well out of it. I’m bloody glad I turned down the job offer from Sybase though....!
[quote=Deep Thought]
Worth elaborating that ServiceNow is much much more than an Incident Management system.
https://www.servicenow.com/products-by-category.ht...
Just took a look. Wow, I stand corrected.
SBK
Worth elaborating that ServiceNow is much much more than an Incident Management system.
https://www.servicenow.com/products-by-category.ht...
Just took a look. Wow, I stand corrected.
SBK
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