From the Army to IT
Transcript
s. bank building then I took kind of position at Rockwell doing Altiris work for our our global support team so I helped I was on a team that managed our until out our entire altiris environment across the across the globe but that's like some of the stuff I felt like I had to do in order to play catch-up because all my peers probably were doing this for 15 years already you know they had the fate of 15 year head start in IT so I really had to find a way being able to do that and and I felt at least for me I wouldn't have been taken seriously getting into IT had I not gone back to school and at least gotten an IT degree you know here's this all adult education student he's applying for a job at Rockwell Automation he's in his early 30s and he doesn't even have an IT degree why should we hire him like what's he been doing for the last 15 years you know what I mean ya know I know I know exactly what you mean I have friends who started their IT career in their early 30s and yeah I'm starting to realize that you know this growth mindset if you guys ever want to read something really great there's a book or a concept on growth mindset the idea that you know you either there's this concept of certain industries that you either have it or you don't and IT can be one of those things where people feel like well you either have the aptitude for IT or you don't and it's really if you don't have kind of your mind doesn't quite work that way you you probably can't get into IT and I had that mindset for about until about eight or nine years ago I've been IT for 20 plus years and when I had a friend who wanted to get into IT and I talk to him and he just you know he just wasn't getting it and I wanted to say you know what I'll change the name I said Bobby you're you're a great guy I want this is what I wanted to say but you know this is not something that that's coming naturally to you you should probably look at doing something else but he was really dedicated and I didn't want to crush his dreams so I kept mentoring them and today he's a desktop support guy doing really really well he just fought through it and got to a point where you know that he could do it and and and this is in his case in his late 30s that he made the transition so it is absolutely possible but yeah I think you make a valid point that whether you call it an impostor syndrome or just you know even today you know I didn't start out IT with a degree so I even struggle from the concept of being less than even today with being in IT for 20 years so I want to encourage the folks listening out it whether you're nope no point no matter what point you are in your career it's it's not uncommon to feel this way I mean you're again you're talking to the CTO advisor and Nate who's a member of octo that you know these guys I mean you were sharing with me you get to talk to the people who write the spirit and you get to give them input on the product and this is someone that delivered mail for a living just a few short years ago so it is a you know it's extremely possible to achieve what from the outside seems the unachievable so you know I really I really enjoy hearing your story so Nate any last advice you want to give the V mug users the members I would say that if you're as passionate about technology as you and I are start a blog get on social media go to user group events learn as much as you can outside of your normal day to day job because and I also give you some advice and this is advice that I got from my academic academic advisor at the Milwaukee School of Engineering he said if you're gonna go into IT don't stay in one place too long in fact I would suggest that you move to something like every five years or you're gonna get yourself into a position where you're stuck in a stagnant role or a stagnant career position if you go and you look and look me up on LinkedIn and you look and see you'll see that I haven't stayed in a role or a day company for more than five years I think five was my max that was both at the post office but that was before I went into IIT but even I worked at West Bend Mutual Insurance Company I was there for five years and at that point I kind of hit hit a roadblock where I couldn't move up or move laterally within the organization and that's where I had again make a career change to try to find another path to kind of you know up my game and move myself up within the career space so I would say that was that's that's a good good words of wisdom from my academic advisor even to this day you don't want to be the guy that you know at 50 some years old that is still doing you know you know db2 code programming when db2 might not be around too much longer I'm just gonna say or you don't want to be that COBOL guy cuz I don't know if there's that many people that are still programming in COBOL you don't want to position yourself into a role that might become obsolete so you always have to find ways of keeping yourself relevant within the industry and how do you do that learn new stuff become members of user groups like the V mod community if you're a virtualization guy or of your VMware passionate lover of technology start up a blog believe it or not people will listen to what you have to say even though you don't think they do so um oh you and one of the bathroom rises in my in my vlogging career is though is when someone who I have the utmost respect for come to say hey Keith I read that piece you wrote and I'm like oh you're one of the five and the one and the one of the five is someone on the product team and I'm thinking wow that's amazing so Nate I really appreciate you taking out the time for those of you who would like to follow Nate on Twitter on social media how do they get a hold of you on because you're obviously passionate about community had a lot of people in the community can connect with you well you won't see me publicly doing a lot of stuff on Facebook unless you're a political person I have I don't use that that platform very often from a technology standpoint but LinkedIn and Twitter Twitter I met so that's kind of a weird a weird Twitter handle but it's you know you're you broke up there our technology is starting to tell us again what was that Twitter handle great Natron that is a and omage back to a grade-school feature that gave me a nickname way back way way back when Natron and then I had a college professor that used to call me great Nate so I took the two and merged them together so alright and if you guys want to follow me I'm at CTO advisor on Twitter and also don't look at me up on Facebook unless you just really want to get to political debate and and that doesn't do us any any any good and then LinkedIn I'm pretty busy on the LinkedIn so you can google me on LinkedIn or search for me on LinkedIn Keith Townsend until the next be mock virtual exam will do another community session you can definitely follow Nick's great work he also blog so you can find the blog on on his Twitter profile we'll talk to you next be mark virtual event thanks a lot
