What core technical skills would you want to learn if you could go back to your early stages of career?



I was gifted a server in the early 2000s with the hint to install linux on it. I was a teenager at this time and rather playing counterstrike 1.6 at this time. I'd probably be an Unix wizard today :(
 
I'd be all in into learning as many programing languages as possible and getting skilled with coding in as many areas as possible.
One has to be young for this because it takes years to master.
No no no. I made that mistake in the 1980's I made a hobby of "collecting" programming languages but failed to develop expertise in what they might be used for.

Yes, learn multiple programming languages. Really -learn- them, too. But if -this- language is pretty much like -that- language that you already know then don't waste your time. Learn a language that's different in more than just the syntax and keyword choice. My suggestions would be:
  • Learn C. Just quit your whining and learn it.
  • Learn Assembly. It doesn't really matter what flavor.
  • Learn an object oriented language
  • Learn SQL
  • Learning MUMPS (as a counterpoint to SQL)
  • Learn FORTH (get a handle on stack handling)
  • Learn shell scripting
Maybe javascript for the object oriented choice. Maybe throw in some python.

Ruby, perl, lua, lisp, etc etc ad nauseum - maybe later, on an as-needed basis.

That should keep you busy for a while. A selection of languages like the above list will emphasize key elements that you will use often throughout your career. Also learn certain common algorithms - how to implement a quick sort vs a bubble sort and why one might be better than the other and that sort of thing.

But also
  • Learn "Systems analysis" - the steps before "coding" are critical.
  • Learn data structures - stacks, queues, linked lists, arrays, structs, etc, etc.
  • Learn system administration. Yes, Windows too. Even if you don't plan on getting certs.
  • Learn "networking" - often lumped in with system administration
  • Learn at least a little about security
  • Learn at least a little about file transfers.
  • Learn about many facets of -business- because employers want "subject matter experts"
  • Learn at least a little about hardware control
  • Learn git
  • Learn grub
  • Learn English, both written and spoken
Depending on where your career takes you (or where you expect to take -it-...
  • Learn a little about word processing
  • Learn a lot about spreadsheets
  • Learn a little about slide presentations
  • Learn about CAD
  • Learn about graphics
  • Learn about application support and even customer support.
Become an expert in -something- but don't be "one dimensional"

Do not let yourself start to believe that the technical stuff is important and the "soft side" (user / customer interactions) aren't.

Do not just depend on my advice - I learned some of these things too late in my career and some of them may not apply today.
 
I'd do what I did then. Learn mathematics - advanced mathematics.

Math is a language designed to determine logic - it's logicism. Programming is logic, generally speaking.

So, the foundation in logic would make me more able to adapt to changes and I could learn as needed.

I'd also learn some soft skills, like public speaking and management - but that's not a part of your question. In my life, I've employed many people. Those two skills are essential to move up the ladder and get paid better. I think you could learn those skills outside of formal education.
 
Yes, learn multiple programming languages. Really -learn- them, too. But if -this- language is pretty much like -that- language that you already know then don't waste your time. Learn a language that's different in more than just the syntax and keyword choice.
I agree with you, some languages are too similar and learning these is indeed waste of time because knowing only one is enough.
I meant to learn as many distant languages like you said, e.g. as distant as assembly, C and ruby, but not 2 similar ones like C++ and Go since one is made against the other, in which case I'd opt in for just one of these.
 
Let's learn soft skills, What resources are there/?

Head to your favorite search engine and look for 'best management books'. Better still, go to your library and ask at the desk. Libraries still exist and are still awesome places to go learn things.

At your nearest school, take some classes - like public speaking. You can even audit the class without paying (often) but they won't give you a grade or anything. But, they might let you participate in labs. You can also just find ways to practice it. If you have a local bar you can head there on open mic night to sing a song, or start doing sets at your local comedy club. Go read books to children at the library. It's a big world.

This will be more difficult if you live in a very rural area.
 
At your nearest school, take some classes - like public speaking.
Toastmasters - if that's still a thing, is highly recommended. it sure helped me a bunch. I'd probably want to get familiar with a few languages as well - not just the programming kind - Spanish, German, French, Japanese, etc. though to be fair just being fluent in English is good enough for most jobs.

tech wise, if I had to do it over again, I'd start at an MSP. that's a lot like learning by being on the business end of a firehose but you'll pick up a lot of good skills - or you'll wash out and learn early on that you cant hack it in the support end of things without wasting too much time. I'd probably also get more certs, those are good for getting your foot in the door at a lot of places - but real world experience is always better (hence the MSP suggestion).

dunno really, IT is a huge field - there's bunches of stuff in it that never interested me, but you might find riveting.
 
How to not express anger while in a meeting. Had a bad stuffs yesterday, might as well get terminated...
 
I think for me. Python. Even though I have been using Linux a long time, I never really started using Python until about
2009 or 2010. Everything in Linux used to be Perl. I thought Perl was the way to go. I never was an expert, but I was good
enough to do most of things I needed done with it. Somewhere in a last 10 years, it seems Perl has all but disappeared.

Everything is Python now. Oh, other programming languages are still popular, I just mean a lot of internal Linux utilities have gone over to python. I do use it, but again, I don't consider myself an expert by any means. Love it or hate it, it's here for
the long haul I think, so we might as well get used to it.
 
I, and all the other techies of my generation, was setting up my graduation as a computer tech right before the 2008 financial crisis. Before the crash, it was considered to be a "vocation of the future", with companies offering scholarships if you sign an exclusivity deal to go work with them after college. After the crisis, those companies treated us like we had lice.

With no financial means to continue my education, and that same education being insufficient for steady employment, I spent the next 8 years in between dead-end jobs, with each passing year drifting further "out of the game", until one day, just as my twenties were running out, I have had enough and decided to switch over to the same career path of my late father, who was a welder. There was such desperate need for welders, that my own country fully financed programs which gave vocational training for welders. Now I can basically cherry pick the jobs I want.

So if I started my career again in 2025, I would still go for coding. That sector has obviously recovered and has once again become a viable prospect. But being a welder is also a lucrative path, and also hardly a stressful one, since you have the option to tell your boss exactly what you feel about him at the slightest hint of disrespect, make one phone phone call and have another job lined up 5 minutes later to start the next day.

Best above all, the stability allows me to do the things I love in my free time - computers!
 
Now I can basically cherry pick the jobs I want.

They should make low-profile respirators that fit under a welding hood. Breathing in all the fumes is pretty unhealthy. Statistics suggest (the last time I looked at them) that welders die younger than many other tradesmen.

Heck, they even had higher rates of skin cancer.

I can dig up the numbers again, but you probably already know them. If nothing else, I hope you manage to at least find a respirator that works. My understanding is that you want something more thorough than the N65 types.

That said, even here in the US, if you can certify as a welder than you can pick your job - and many of those jobs pay very well.
 
They should make low-profile respirators that fit under a welding hood. Breathing in all the fumes is pretty unhealthy. Statistics suggest (the last time I looked at them) that welders die younger than many other tradesmen.

Heck, they even had higher rates of skin cancer.

I can dig up the numbers again, but you probably already know them. If nothing else, I hope you manage to at least find a respirator that works. My understanding is that you want something more thorough than the N65 types.

That said, even here in the US, if you can certify as a welder than you can pick your job - and many of those jobs pay very well.
We got regular yearly exams - full bloodwork, spirometry, sight, lung x-rays, hearing and psychiatric evaluations. It is unfortunate that we can't have complete protection from gasses, but we're doing pretty well as far as fumes are concerned.

We have several retirees that are doing part time welding on the company, and none of them really look worse for wear. The only one for whom they discovered a mass on his lungs, was the guy who is working on the plasma/acetylene CNC combo cutter, but that guy used to be a deranged smoker and heavy drinker.

Surprisingly, I'm in it for 10 years now, and I haven't gotten skin cancer, but my cousin did - and the closest he ever got to welding was when he was tacking some chicken fence.

The only problem I DO have is that the heat and dust are drying out my mucus membrane, causing me to cough. But I'm managing that easily enough by flushing my nose with saline.
 
We got regular yearly exams - full bloodwork, spirometry, sight, lung x-rays, hearing and psychiatric evaluations.

That's a good thing. I can do a bit of welding but I wouldn't really trust it for structural welding. I mean, I'd weld a trailer used to take stuff to the dump, but I'd never weld on my heavy gooseneck trailer. Well, if I did weld on it, it wouldn't be structural. I guess I'd trust my welds enough to add more tie-down spots.

I mostly stick weld. I can do some gasless fluxcore TIG stuff but it won't be a stack of dimes.
 
Well, not necessarily, my "career" since I've never had one as such. TL;DR I've work menial jobs, freelanced in everything from debugging code to caregiving, and now I'm a sales rep. If I could go back in time/reboot, definitely the following (even if 2025 was the start point and I'd been born in, say, 2005):

If I could also reboot my education:
Focus on school (still don't know how to study, I drifted through with a "Merit Pass" for Matric (high school graduation) which ain't enough for a scholarship). So I'd have done that and gotten a scholarship, then gone to uni and taken mathematics and computer science (and physics and psychology as minor subjects just because they're interesting).

If only my "career":
Failing the above, i.e. if I couldn't reboot my entire education: definitely woulda done trade school and become and electrician. Highly in demand, well-paid, and stable. Either that or joined the police/army. Basically, I'd go for job security where I'd have been looked after when the epilepsy started instead of having to push myself despite my health.

In either case, I'd have been financially secured, and could've still followed my passion for writing (heck, I probably woulda published stuff when I wrote it, not 16 years later). So my advice to anyone would be:
Don't have pie-in-the-sky expectations. Go learn something stable. If you have talent, go the academic route, if not or it's too late / not affordable, you want a stable and high-demand trade or a govt. job. Otherwise you're hopping job to job sideways, and you'll probably end up in sales -- and you do not want to work in sales!

*PS: When I say "academic route", i.e. uni, I mean real subjects like sciences and proper disciplines, not the new-fangled BS like "women's studies", "gender studies" and that ilk as it won't get you a job, just tons of student debt.
 
Practical plumbing, heating and electrical wiring skills for me.
So you wanna get paid to be wet, hot and deep fried? XD

Sry, bad joke, hehehe. But regardless, its a good choice you made, those job paths are in high demand. You know about Mike Rowe and what he's on about?
 


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