I am a consultant in IT technologies, basically a programmer by night, a project manager by day. Being a consultant I have to remind myself constantly not to feel safe at any job I am working, since you will never know when the next recession hits or suddenly your boss doesn’t like you anymore or I don’t like the job anymore, for this reason I always have to be working in keeping my skills relevant to the current trends of technology in general and in the local market.

That is why this blog post from Rocky Lhotka is so significant for me, I specially liked this paragraph:

“All through my career I’ve been lucky or observant enough to jump ship before any technology came down on my head. I switched to Windows before the VAX collapsed, and switched to .NET before VB6 collapsed, etc. And honestly I can’t think of a case where I didn’t feel like I was stepping back in time to use the “new technology” because it was so immature compared to the old stuff. But every single time it was worth the effort, because I avoided being trapped on a slowly fading platform/technology with my skills becoming less relevant every day.”

I think that the biggest question for most of us interested in staying relevant is: how? Well, I think I have a plan:

Get Certified: This is not necessary for the paper, if you take seriously the certification, it is a great oportunity for you to learn about an specific set of technologies.

Get a hobby: Most of us don’t have the luxury to be able to explore new technologies or learn while doing our jobs, which means we need to find an outlet to practice our new skills, this can be our personal web site, the web site of a friend or an non-for profit organization (or for profit), an educational software for our children, helping with the computer task at work, school or church, etc.

Try to earn extra money: For many of us, one way to get motivated to learn a new technology is simply the money, how many of us have no time due to our home chores to spend the time needed to learn? I know, many of us, what about we pay for someone else to do them and we spend that time saved earning the money to pay for that? I know, it might be more work but it is worth it since you are getting paid to learn and to pay for not doing those chores that you might not enjoy. e.g  mowing your lawn.

I hope this helps all of you!

It never ceases to amaze me how much technology has improved our lives, most especially my generation’s. Twenty five years ago in the Philippines, news about a far away loved one was always a month delayed, because that’s how long it took a letter to arrive from another country. Oh sure, you can make a phone call-if you’re willing to wait ten years, which was how long it took to get a landline in those days. The lucky few who did have landline phones made a killing charging neighbors/customers who borrowed their phones to make their own phone calls.

When my father worked in Saudi Arabia in the 80s, we would send letters to communicate. More frequently it was the handwritten kind but every now and then we would spend the extra time and money to send the audio version: state-of-the-art cassette tapes. Whichever way you did it, it still took the same amount of time: one month.

Nowadays it seems if you can’t get something in an instant then it’s too slow or unacceptable. Whether it’s email, IM or text messaging, whatever you want to say can be heard halfway across the world and by as many people as you want–all in a split second. So my father, who literally lives halfway across the planet, can ask me what I had for lunch and he would have had his answer before I even started on dessert.

As fantastic as instant communication is, even more life-altering is the world wide web. Any information is literally at your fingertips. Looking for a phone number? Go to whitepages.com. Need directions to go somewhere? Go to mapquest.com. Need to know the meaning of a word? Go to dictionary.com. It’s a phonebook, map and dictionary, all rolled into one, and much, much more.

But if I had to pick the single most paradigm-shifting web site for me, it would have to be Google. Not only can you find information that you’re looking for, but you can also find information about things you never even thought to look for before! Take yourself, for instance. Before Google, had anyone thought of searching themselves on the net? Unheard of. But nowadays, “googling yourself” is such a common concept that it’s almost a prerequisite before dating someone.

When I tried to google myself, one of the topmost hits was a profile on LinkedIn. Wow, I thought, a lot of people must be viewing my profile. When I followed the link, I was puzzled for a while at the information, until I realized that it was a different Jon Zafra! Apparently, in Spain I am an IT Project Manager in a big pharmaceuticals company. Interesting, I thought. Maybe I’m in the wrong continent.