@scottalanmiller said in Figuring out what you want to do professionally: @Kelly said in Figuring out what you want to do professionally: How I think my peers are doing (social media syndrom This one is tough because we tend to associate a lot of people as peers, and to some degree are correct. But, for example... If you feel as a Linux Admin that a Windows Admin is a peer, you will likely always have one person that feels that they are "behind" on PowerShell and object scripting, and one that always feels that they are "behind" on text processing. But really, it's because they aren't direct peers. Sure, they are equals, but they aren't doing the exact same job. Exactly why I refer to this as the Social Media syndrome. "Based on my perception of myself in relation to this narrow slice of what I see of you (not allowing for any context), I am not as good as you." Even two Windows Admins will not have the same sets of responsibilities and scope within their job. IT (and many other jobs) is full of "oughts". I ought to do more automation. I ought to have a <type> plan. I ought to have more documentation. I ought to understand this LOB software better. I ought... I have judged myself based on my oughts and other based on their successes. It is a deceptive, and ultimately destructive, perception.

Awesome to always listen to this!

@JaredBusch said in Advocacy Programs for the Tech Newbie?: Newbs don’t know enough to know what is good and bad. That is why they are new. That's a big deal. Any valuable advocacy program for newbs needs to be vendorless. This is a key reason why many university programs are so terrible - they are teaching newbs by definition, and are mostly just marketing arms of vendors.