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Considerations when learning tech

One of the best ways to remove confusion in learning technology is by understanding the top considerations when learning tech. For it is this confusion that often leads to many feeling overwhelmed and stuck.

To aid with this, we have organized the top list of misconceptions and insight to help you form a more clear path forward on your digital journey. To get us going we will first begin with the most important aspect of technical training. Anyone can do it if they want to.

Anyone can do it

Many people think that it takes a certain type of person to learn tech. The truth is that anyone can learn technology and really today, everyone has to if they want to optimize many parts of their lives. However, the biggest reason that people choose to not learn tech is because they don’t think they can do it. This is a shame because it is absolutely not the case. It simply takes the right insight and perspective in the beginning, then knowledge, effort and training. But before even that, you need to believe in yourself that you can do it. So let us start by fixing this right now….YOU CAN DO IT!

Learning tech is only for those that want a technical career

First things first, many think that you should only take technical training if you want a technical career. However, tech’s integration into all aspects of our lives, including non-technical jobs, makes this statement just no true. Don’t believe me? How many times have you looked at your phone or some other technical gadget today? Exactly, tech is not going away and you are going to have to use it.

So even if you do not want to work in a technical career, there are benefits to learning tech for the many other aspects of your life in which you are and will continue to have to use it. So why not learn it in the most efficient way?

You should learn the best ways to best use technology for you

As mentioned above, the best and most efficient way to learn tech is to be able to get foundational knowledge and perspective early on. This insight and early training will then guide you making your own educated choices about your continued development within it. You will know you have enough of this initial training, perspective and insight once you feel confident in the decisions you then make. From there this will then guide you forward in your technical learning and education journey.

You can do it without experience

The best thing to help you make educated decisions in technology is no doubt by having working experience within it. However, in the beginning you are not going to have this so what do you do? The key is to start by getting your bearings in the discipline. The best way to do this is through a strong technical foundation training to help you connect the dots.

Learning tech is a process not a destination

Technology is constantly changing and you will always need to learn new things. However, while there are many ways to develop in tech, many which are ineffective, the process to best learn tech does not change and has been around for a long time. Here are the steps to best learn and develop in tech.

• Get started by getting your bearings (you have begun this now). Understanding considerations when learning tech and achieving an understanding of technical foundations will best achieve this.
• Then experience tech first-hand so you can identify what you like and don’t like. From there, leveraging your foundational knowledge, you should set objectives for your technical training and development.
• You should then start developing your technical skills to meet your objectives. Early in your development, this should include learning skills and then finding supportive environments to practice them. Along the way, you should self-assess your skills often and develop action plans to effectively use time and money as you develop.
• As you become proficient and near being able to transition into the workforce or meet your technical objectives, you should spend more time practicing and working in order to ensure a competitive skill-set to win permanent employment. The more you can practice and develop in real environments, such as part-time jobs, internships or apprenticeships the better.
• Your technical skill development will never end as technology always changes. You will use this same process of self-assessment, planning, then skill development till achieve proficiency for as long as you want to continue working with technology.

There are many different areas to learn

There is definitely a lot to learn since technology covers and integrates into every aspect of our lives. However, there are a couple of commonalities in that all technology is designed to aid in automating human tasks or logic. As humans, this gives us some insight since we all should know a bit about thinking and acting like humans…hopefully at least we should.

So an early key to help you better understand technology is to first understand the underlying task you want a technical solution to perform. This insight will then greatly aid you with more effectively learning about it and then eventually using it.

All jobs are tech jobs

There is not a job today that does heavily utilize technology for some of its primary tasks. Once you realize this, you recognize that learning tech skills is critical for any career, not just those specifically in technology. Further, when done right this can really give you an advantage over others who choose not to do this.

You can only get benefits from learning tech after years of training

Many people believe that they will only get benefits from learning tech once they are done with their training. For example, after some big event like graduating school or achieving a technical certification. This is often a costly and painful mistake, and does not have to be the case. Further this mistake can be especially disappointing when you realize that technical training takes years and not months.

The best way to develop in technology is to reap some of your learning benefits while you are still on your learning journey. This is best achieved by using the right technical skill development approach. This can be things such as getting initial part time jobs in non-technology fields using your developing skills, teaching others or through volunteering while you learn.

Key considerations when learning or taking tech courses

Once you start taking tech courses or training there are also many considerations that can help when learning tech. Here are the top ones.

Learning tech takes time

Getting an initial understanding to guide your next learning decisions in tech can come quickly. This is a big consideration when learning tech by itself. However, your whole tech learning journey for the most common objectives and goals will take time. So how much time? While this can vary greatly depending on your objectives, for most it is safe to say it will take one to three years to get even a base competency in technology. Again though, this does not mean that you cant reap benefits in a much shorter timeframe.

Further, this is also taking multiple aligned programs and not say just a college degree for two to four years. Yeah, years not months and multiple programs at the same time during that span.

The best way to look at this is developing in tech as a professional user or worker is more like developing as a professional athlete. Do you see many professional athletes going from start to pro in six months? So why would you think that you can become a technical professional in that time period? Further, developing athletes are not just learning about the game, they are practicing skills, working on nutrition, weight training, mental toughness, ability to execute, etc. All these are complementary training programs that help them get to their end goals aside from just their base training.

In tech, these are things like communication skills, execution skills, etc. Also, by the way, nutrition is one for us in tech too, at least it should be.

Graduating a class or getting a certification does not mean you will get hired in tech

As mentioned before technical training takes time. Also, just like you would not become a professional at a sport like soccer by taking one course on it, the same is true for technology. It takes a series of trainings in different but related disciplines over long durations with repeated practice as you learn to become first proficient and then as an expert.

Many certifications or isolated training programs focus on teaching you so you can meet just the objective of that certification or course. However, this often does not align to provide you the right training to meet a certain objective such as getting hired in a certain technical job.

For example, in soccer getting certified in how to kick a ball with your left foot when your goal is to start on a professional team playing center forward. The certification may help with that goal but it needs to be intertwined in an approach that teaches you all the other things you need to be a professional center forward. Most of these many technical certification programs do not train people like this and this is why so many are then left in the cold.

Organizations want complete players that can play the center forward position, not just players that can kick with their left foot well. If you want to work in tech or best use it day to day, you need to recognize this.

Finally, we believe at CyberForward Academy technical skill development is more like athletic development then simply school work. This is why we are set up more like an athletic academy and we hire a lot of athletic coaches.

Teams work together on all technical jobs so people should not develop technical skills alone

In a nutshell, learn tech early in a team based environment as this is critical to quicker and more effective development. Unfortunately, many are developing their technical talent alone in isolation which causes many problems. First, it can be super lonely and demoralizing. I mean, who wants to learn anything that is new, big and can be scary by themselves. No one. However, may tech training programs do just that.

Especially ones that are not team or class based. For sure too this includes on-demand training when not part of a more comprehensive technical skill development program.

Also, aside from being lonely, this will also slow development as you need these team skills to work in tech. The quicker you learn to work in teams in your development the more effective and quicker you will develop. If you don’t like working in teams then a tech career is probably not for you or you will want to focus on the few tech positions that are for lone wolfs. But again there are not many.

You need to measure your technical skill level often while you develop

Today, there are not many ways for training professionals to measure their true level of technical competency across all the programs they are using to develop. Further, there is not a relationship between getting an A in a tech class at school, graduating a boot camp or earning a technical certification and being hirable in tech.

However, such a tool is important to understand current state and your strengths and weaknesses. It should be part of your development approach for sure.

This is why we created a measurement system at CyberForward Academy. To our knowledge it is the only one of its kind at this point we have seen. We offer it through our tech skill development pass program.

Many do not build an action plan during their skill development

As mentioned above, technical talent development takes time and a lot of work. Further, many training and development programs can also cost you a lot of money. Any time things take a lot of time, work and resources building a plan of action can really help.

However, we have again found that many developing workers do not build such a plan. It is critical to build a plan for your technical talent development efforts to best move forward.

This plan will work best when paired with a strong assessment system that aligns to your short and long term goals and objectives.

You can become a technical teacher or coach faster then a technical expert

While it is important to receive the proper training first both in what you will be teaching and how to teach it, as well as proper supervision while doing it, it is very possible to provide technical instruction before you are a technical expert. Even more important, you really do not know something until you can teach it.

So by becoming a teacher early in your learning journey this can turbo charge your ongoing training and development aside from its other benefits. These other benefits include the great feelings of being able to give back as well as to start getting paid earlier in the development lifecycle.

Key considerations when transitioning from a student to a worker when learning tech

Developing technical workers need access to supportive practice environments

As you take courses and learn you will want to practice what you are learning to hone your skills. But many people do not have access to affordable practice environments to put in this crucial extra work.

This is often the case for both hard and soft technical skills. You will want to ensure that you have a place to practice as you develop. At CyberForward Academy, this is again offered through our tech skill development pass.

You will need access to experts and coaches while you train

In addition to a lack of practice environments, many also lack access to coaching while they training and practice. We call these entry supported environments that provide both a training environment as well as access to coaches. These coaches provide support and guidance while you develop your talent.

There are not many entry level jobs in tech

While entry level jobs are great for early developing students, they are very expensive for employers. Further, this includes most internships and apprenticeships. This is because employers must provide extra training for these workers and they do not produce much output while they develop. As a result, it just does not make business sense for employers to create many of these positions. As a result, they are very competitive for those that want them.

Further, you will often be competing against others that have experience. So the best way to win even an entry level position is to ensure that you have developed your skills enough beforehand to be more than entry level. You will need to be competitive and to offer as much value as possible early-on to an employer. So in a nutshell, there are no entry level positions in tech.

Considerations while working in technology after learning tech

Once you start working in tech, if this is your goal, there are also some key considerations.

You will always need to keep learning more tech

Technology is always changing and improving. As a result, you will always need to continue to learn new things even once you are a senior worker. The key is that you should master the learning process so that it becomes easier to learn new things. Trust us, you will always need to use it.

The best way to continue learning tech is through teaching others

While we recommend that you start teaching even earlier in your technical development lifecycle, it is never too late to start. Teaching helps to enable the next generation of technical talent that is desperately needed. It also provides you great benefits as well.

Next steps

Understanding these considerations when learning tech can help in avoiding mistakes and wasting a lot of time, energy and money. If you are ready to start moving forward our tech skill development pass might be a nice option for you. It is designed to address many of these early issues for those looking to learn tech.