Teaser: How I'm Helping My Best Friend Get Into I.T.

This article is intentionally left unfinished. I can't give away everything that I do! :)

This however should give you a good idea of what's to come.

Please Note: I make videos because I'm a terrible writer.

Before we begin, we've been the best of friends for the last 20+ years so I already know just about everything there is to know about him.

We meet weekly to go over different tasks I've given him and to discuss what he's learning, I'm not gonna lie when I say it's mostly to keep him pumped up and excited(not that he isn't) I just want to be there rooting for him because that's the type of person I am.

Enough about that, let's get started. These are some of the first few things that I'm doing to get him started.

OSINT

I often find the best ways to teach people is by learning and understanding more about that person.? The first that I do is take the time to learn more about that specific person, I want them to share their story with me, and tell me the things that excite them about life and of course, why are they interested in technology?

• What is their current position and industry?
• What types of work have they done in the past?
• Did they go to college?
• Do they have any other training/apprenticeships/certifications unrelated to technology?
• What types of things/hobbies/interests do they have?
• Do they have a family?
• What types of technology do they utilize on a day-to-day basis?
• What have they used in the past?

Because I’m working with this person one-on-one, the more information I have about them, the easier it will be for me to relate similarities of the technical information with them in a way that they can understand based on their life experience.**

** I reference this exact method with the person when we start talking about soft skills and communication.??

“Do you remember/Do you notice how I try to relate things you are familiar with to you in a way that makes sense in a technical way?”

This is the same method you will take with your end-users to provide the best support you can.??

Security

Once I’ve learned about them I want them to understand the most important aspect of the information technology field, which is obviously security.

I’ll explain the security mindset, why security is important, and will constantly remind them of the importance of security and will often pose questions like “why is learning x,y,z important?”? SECURITY.

In just about everything that I’m teaching I try to reference something security-related, it’s extremely important that they understand how important this aspect of technology is.? I’ll also give a few examples of why having this mindset can be beneficial to them in an interview.

You don’t need to know everything.

If you’re familiar with technology more specifically information technology you already know that there is no possible way to know EVERYTHING related to I.T.? The first thing you need to do is reassure the person you are helping that they don’t need to know everything and you will constantly remind them of that.??

There is a lot of information to learn and when you work in I.T. you will ALWAYS be learning and you’ll still never know enough.? Now I know that sounds kind of terrible in a way but it should also be refreshing.??

You might be wondering why this is refreshing?? This is where I RE-introduce them to their best friend they didn’t even know they had…Google.? So we spend some time talking about how often Google is utilized not only in technology but I’ll tell them about my past experience working in a hospital and watching Doctors Google things that they didn’t know.? This is only to reassure them that even some of the smartest people in the world still have to look things up and as I.T. professionals we are expected to be wizards in the art of Google, AND THAT’S OKAY!

What is I.T. and what does an I.T. Team Look like?

Sometimes people are very familiar with their I.T. teams from past experience, so it’s easy to ask questions about their interactions with the team and use this to reference things if the opportunity is there.

First, they need to understand that every single team is different, every single organization is different, you can have the same role/title at one job and compare that to another organization with the same role/title and you could be doing completely different things, so it’s important not to focus too much on titles and roles, more so let's understand at a general level how those roles/titles interact as part of the IT team.??

I also use this same comparison when it comes to technology.? You can utilize the same exact equipment in two different organizations but everything will be utilized/configured/managed in a completely different way from organization to organization.

Policies & Procedures

Whether this person is a career changer or just graduating high school and trying to get their foot in the door, they are going to be familiar with some type of Policies & Procedures that were put into place in the environments/organizations they were part of.? The first thing I’ll do is ask them about the ones they know about or are familiar with.? Again the purpose of this is to just learn more about their personal experience so that I can relate any of that to I.T.

I don’t talk about the standard policies and such you would see across the board, but we do go into detail on the different policies & procedures you might see in the industry that directly relate to I.T.? Such as:

• Healthcare(HIPAA)
• Payment Card Industry
• Industrial
• Etc

Now I do emphasize there are standards that you have to follow for each of these, but I also talk about different policies that might be put into place for data retention or talk about procedures you might take if a computer was infected with a virus.??

This could be something they’re familiar with in past experience working in the food industry for instance.? Say there is a spill on the floor, P&P might dictate that you need to section off the area, put up signs, then depending on the type of spill it is, use the proper cleaning tools and chemicals.? There are many different ways to compare someone's past life experience to something technical, but when I’m just starting with them I like to emphasize “some of what I’m going to tell you is going to go over your head right now, don’t focus on the technical too much, just understand that in the I.T. world we too have to follow specific policies and procedures.”

Something really easy to reference right away is a User account, you can compare this to past accounts they have had for work or school or even their email account.? In the I.T. world, there are specific policies and procedures that we have to follow when we create a new user account, when someone needs permissions or access to specific files or folders, and when they depart the organization.? I want them to understand that they should be aware of these types of “rules” and be sure to ask as many questions about how things should be done in a specific environment they are working in.?

Let’s Get Technical

Once I’ve laid down some solid foundations to work upon we can start jumping into the technical skills we’ll be learning.

Again, this will directly relate to that person's specific experience with technology.? The friend that I’m currently helping is pretty technical savvy, he’s built countless computers and has solid knowledge of hardware, in his past experience he’s utilized ticketing systems and inventory management systems(THIS IS SO HUGE!!!)

So the first bit of the technical skills that we start diving into are…

To be continued???

One thing I can tell you is that he's just built his first Active Directory lab and I can't believe how excited he was about this. It was amazing to see.

If you want the full article you're just going to have to wait until the new Discord server is launched because someone might be getting picked to go through this experience one-on-one with me.