Facing Forward, Pursuing Progress
I’ve long been familiar with Marcus Aurelius, though have never taken the deep dive into his work. However, this statement captures a deep truth for me.
This quote reminds me of a Steven Covey concept: Focusing on your Area of Influence. When we focus our efforts and energy on what we can impact, we become effective. Add that to “…you have power over your mind…”, and I see the power of focusing on our thoughts. Controlling our attitudes, I guess.
My blogger friend, Pooja, wrote this post today: “BLOGGING ADVICE YOU SHOULD IGNORE“. If your blog is important to you, check out her advice.
Here is one I want to highlight:
Anyway, it’s a good post and worth reading.
So, a lot has happened since my last post in May (so much for posting more often!). Last month, I completed the last of my coursework for a Web Application and Cloud Developer Associate in Technical Arts degree at Edmonds College. This is in addition to completing the coursework for these certificates:
Currently, I’m taking a class in Enterprise Architecture (first day is today). Upon completing that class, I will that have earned these additional certificates:
So, I’m rather pleased with the results of the past two years of study. I feel well suited for my goal of moving into an IT career.
Another thing that happened: in April I accepted a role at Trinity Lutheran Church, where I’ve been involved for years. I also have worked there covering for the communications coordinator’s paternity leave a couple of years ago. This role is as the Pastoral Administrative Assistant. As it’s part-time, it gives/gave me room to continue studying while earning some income (my unemployment benefits have expired). It is also a contract position (until December of 2022), which will work nicely for me. I plan to find a new, full-time position this fall. Once I’m in my new role, I plan to continue with my technological education. More about that soon.
That’s the status and plan for the next few months. Do you have any advice or guidance? Or, even better, lines on IT roles in the greater Snohomish County/Seattle area? Let me know!
This morning I received an email where the content was predominantly jpegs. Nothing inherently wrong with this, I guess. However, putting blue-text “links” in the jpeg is almost useless. Sure, I can retype that 30-character URL, but most people are unlikely to do that. Lots of folks won’t even know to do that. This one was peculiar since the content is mostly text. Why a jpeg? Anyway, it pretty much ensures no click-through. Not to mention is not optimized for mobile, or for accessibility tools.
Personally, I retype these (if I only have an image to work with), though there are plenty of OCR tools to convert them to text. Often, the originator can provide the Word document that this was created in. One other option, which works reasonably well, is within Google docs.
As spring break is nearly done, I thought this would be a good time to recap my prior quarter. It was interesting and challenging.
My class load consisted of:
Career planning was mostly about creating resumes and completing >=1 MTA exam. I did Windows Operating Systems Fundamentals. I wanted to do a couple, but my workload was so full that I couldn’t fit another one one in. Of course, Microsoft is retiring the MTA certs in June of this year, so I won’t be renewing it.
Introduction to Cascading Style Sheets was fun, and core to my studies. Hindsight being 20:20, I think it would’ve been better to take that before JavaScript. So, if you’re thinking of pursuing the same program, I highly recommend taking HTML first, then CSS, then JavaScript. HIGHLY recommend that order!
Anyway, it’s amazing what can be done with CSS. Besides simply configuring colors and fonts, the ability to create vector graphics within CSS blows my mind. This course covered a lot, and I still have so much more I want to learn.
Lastly, Cisco Networking II. I survived the class fine. Ok, I more than survived, but I didn’t do as well as I would’ve like. The causality? A tactical miscalculation. I took the first quarter (CIS 171) LAST fall. Not as in fall of 2021, but, rather, fall of 2020. So, over a year between I & II. DO NOT DO THIS! I forgot so much. Also Cisco, bless them, added stuff to quarter 1. I had to do a TON of re-learning and, well, new learning. Fortunately, I have the internet and great Google skills. Also, I have a an amazing group of fellow students. And this course is in-addition-to my main coursework, which helped me keep things in check. The main lesson: if I decide to I want to get my CCNA certification, I need to review. It won’t truly be learning from scratch. I just need to refresh things like subnetting. But that’s in the nebulous future. So, we’ll see….
All-in-all, a fine quarter. I had to work hard, and take a mind-boggling number of notes. But it worked out well in the end. Now I start the last quarter towards this ATA program. And, more specifically, my last required class. But that’s another post.
This next quarter is the last one before I finish my degree in Web Application and Cloud Development. Additionally, I only need one class to finish. Currently, I’m enrolled for another full-time quarter, but I am not sure that will materialize. I’ve had several recruiters reach out to me, and I’ve actually had a few interviews. At this point, I expect I’ll end up taking the one required class (which can be done fully online) and working full/part-time.
My interviews have excited me, and I really like the people I’ve met with. This feels like the best time to get back into the workforce. It’s exciting, and a bit scary. But it mostly feels fun.
Really, the next week will be crucial in determining my next steps. So, I’m excited to see what comes.
Cybersecurity is not a main focus of mine, but it is something that I have an interest in: it impacts my work as a web developer and project coordinator. Earlier today a friend and I had a brief discussion about the news. We both stated we get much of our tech news via podcasts. Then we had the idea of creating a list. So, here is the summation of our brief discussion.
If you have ideas or additions, please let me know. I’ll update this list as I discover more.
I have one more quarter after this one. One! Currently, my post-school plan is to return to the workforce after I’m done. As much as I love web development, I feel that I can offer the most to a company within the realm of project management or systems analysis.
One of my “superpowers” is communication. I am excellent at connecting with people. As I’ve worked across a number of business functions, I understand the information they need, and how they think. With my developer skills, I think I would do an excellent job as the intermediary between IT and business units. I have been told that I communicate IT and other technology issues in a way that doesn’t make users “feel like idiots”. Plus, my career has a solid amount of project work (project coordination, documentation, etc). And I really enjoyed my project management and systems analysis and design coursework.
I intend to continue my studies, too. At this point, I’m looking at pursuing the Bachelor of Applied Science in Information Technology and Administrative Management degree at Central Washington University (ain’t that a mouthful) here in Lynnwood.
The past few years have been full of change and growth. I’m extremely grateful for the opportunities that have presented themselves. Now I look forward to using all that I’ve learned to add value wherever I may roam (queue up Mettalica) and make the world better.
As we approach the middle of February, and the middle of Winter Quarter, I think it’s a good time to talk about plans.
I have one more quarter: spring 2022. My goal is to land a new role promptly after that. More specifically, late June/early July. I intend to focus on project manager/coordinator or systems analyst roles. Though I’ve spent the past two years focused on learning web development, I see my greatest value add is in the convergence of that with my project and team coordination history. I know the language of the different project stakeholders, from financial to operational to technical. Being able to keep disparate groups of people engaged, on the proverbial “same page”, is something of a superpower. One that I’m looking forward to using.
Lately, Gary’s videos and podcasts have given me lots to think about. I really appreciate his focus on thinking higher. Why are we doing what we do? Why are we pursuing whatever goals we have?
I’ve long held that gratitude is critical to living a good life. Thus, I think he’s spot-on here.
It’s roughly 4 minutes and think it’s well worth your time.