Engineering is a profession that requires ability, and the IT industry is an industry that is constantly changing. Therefore, engineers cannot survive in the IT industry unless they are constantly growing. It can be said that growth as an engineer is essential to continue to acquire knowledge and skills and continue to demonstrate competence in the ever-changing IT industry.
What kind of growth strategy does such an engineer specifically need? In conclusion, it can be said that the necessary growth strategy is to create a mechanism that continues to learn by repeating input and output.
This time, I will explain the specific growth strategy from the mindset of the engineer growth strategy.
What is important when considering the growth strategy of engineers
The IT industry is an industry where the flow of technological innovations and trends is fast daily. Therefore, engineers working in the IT industry are required to continue learning every day so that they can keep up with the flow.
A concrete strategy for engineers to grow is to repeat input and output. Input is important because new technologies are being developed every day and have an impact on existing technologies, but at the same time, the output is also very important.
For engineers to grow, input alone is not enough. We can indeed acquire various knowledge and skills through input, but humans are creatures that forget as soon as they learn. Output is essential to firmly establish knowledge and skills.
Also, the quality of the input will greatly improve even if you only input with an awareness of the output. Because it is necessary to convey information to others at the time of output, it becomes impossible to perform an input in the state of “somehow understood”.
By output, the input information is organized and established as one’s own knowledge and skills. Therefore, as an engineer’s growth strategy, the output is as important as input, and continuing to do both will lead to growth.
Engineer Growth Strategy ①: Input
Now let’s look at specific growth strategies. As the first growth strategy, I will divide the input method into four and explain them. By being conscious of the output, you can improve efficiency and quality of input, so let’s proceed with that point in mind.
How is daily information gathering?
Daily information gathering is the basis of input. You may feel that it is difficult to collect information every day while working, but you can collect information just by following technical accounts on SNS and checking them in your free time.
Recently, many accounts send useful information on Twitter. It would be a good idea to follow them to collect information. However, there is a possibility that information will be biased only with SNS.
Therefore, we recommend that you also subscribe to feeds such as RSS on sites that publish technical news articles on the Internet. RSS has existed for a long time, and its use has decreased recently, but it is an effective method for obtaining the information you need from the vast amount of information on the Internet.
If you subscribe to feeds such as RSS, you can check when information is updated, so you can collect information efficiently. There are also RSS readers, and web services dedicated to collecting and viewing RSS, so make use of them to help you collect information on a daily basis.
Programming as a hobby
Programming is a basic skill for engineers. Even if you are an infrastructure engineer, there are opportunities to do programming such as creating server shell scripts.
Programming at work is done based on the determined specifications, and you can’t do it very freely. Even if you want to use new technology, there are many cases where it cannot be used depending on the design policy.
Therefore, programming as a hobby, increase opportunities to come into contact with technologies and languages that you do not normally use. Programming at work tends to be biased toward technical fields. Using programming methods, new technologies, languages, etc. in various fields, becomes a new input and leads to growth as an engineer.
participate in a study group
Engineers must constantly acquire knowledge and skills, so there are many study groups held by volunteers. There is a wide variety of content covered in the study sessions, from free ones to paid ones.
At study sessions, you can learn the latest knowledge and techniques, and even those who are not good at securing study time can semi-forcefully secure study time by participating. During that time, you will be able to concentrate on studying the knowledge and skills that will be covered in the study session. Also, by participating in study sessions, you will be able to interact with a variety of engineers, which will also serve as an opportunity to broaden your own knowledge.
At first, it would be a good idea to participate as an input specialist and a participant in a study group. After that, when you have confidence, you can use it as a place to output by going on stage and speaking in front of people. If you become the output side of the study session, the preparation process itself, such as creating presentation materials, will be an action to deeply establish the input content in yourself.
Participating in study sessions is also a very effective means of accumulating your own knowledge and deepening your knowledge and skills.
In addition, there is also a group called Mokumokukai, where engineers gather and study freely, although it is not as large as a study group. For those who are not good at study sessions, it is also recommended to try it from Mokumokukai.
join the community
Study sessions are often held offline, but knowledge and information are also exchanged online in the form of communities. If you participate in the community, information will be exchanged among more engineers, so you can acquire new knowledge and skills.
You will also be able to ascertain the accuracy of your own knowledge and skills. For example, if a question has been asked by another engineer, discussing that question will show you the accuracy of your own knowledge and skills. By communicating with many engineers, you will be able to deepen your knowledge and skills.
There are so many online communities for engineers out there. Of course, there are many offline communities, so why not try looking for a community that suits you?
Engineer Growth Strategy ②: Output
Input is very important to grow as an engineer. But the output is just as important as the input. This is because the output of the input information leads to a deeper understanding, which leads to the establishment of knowledge and skills.
Here, I will briefly introduce the output as a growth strategy.
In addition, the output of the engineer is explained in this article along with the merits, so please check it out as well.
Publish on blogs and sharing sites
As an engineer’s growth strategy, it can be said that one the strategies are not only to deepen one’s own knowledge and skills but also to improve the evaluation of others. One way to do this is by posting on blogs and sharing sites.
By sending out information on blogs and sharing sites, you may receive feedback on the output content, and if you input the content, you can further deepen your knowledge and skills.
Also, if you can produce good output, the contents will be evaluated and your value as an engineer will increase. It will lead to the improvement of market value as an engineer and will be useful when finding a job or changing jobs.
Participate in open source projects
Engineers are very exposed to open source. In addition to using open source, it is also possible to create opportunities to receive objective evaluations as engineers by participating in projects.
Engineers from all over the world often participate in open source projects, so connections as engineers expand, and it can also be used as a place to exchange information and acquire new jobs.
Publish your service
Creating and publishing your own services and tools is also a very effective growth strategy for engineers. The input content cannot be used as it is. By actually outputting services and tools, you will be able to actively use the input.
Also, if you consider the case of publishing a service, you can expect to improve not only your programming ability but also the general skills required to provide the service. There are bound to be many failures and new discoveries when actually creating services and tools. They can also be valuable input opportunities, so they are very effective as an engineer’s growth strategy.
Engineers should always strive to grow!
Engineers work in a constantly changing IT industry, so they need to keep learning the latest information and technology. The repetition of daily input and output is indispensable for the growth of engineers.
For input, we gather information on a daily basis and participate in study sessions, and for output, we publish blogs and publish services. Input and output are two sides of the same coin, and you cannot expect to grow as an engineer if you only do one or the other.
Let’s make efforts to grow as an engineer by repeatedly inputting and outputting a lot of the latest information and technology.
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