How Can I Learn Information Technology

Information technology is such a broad topic that you will need help in dissecting and breaking it down to understand it. It's like saying, "I want to learn medicine." The next question you'll probably be asked is," What or which area in medicine do you want to learn or focus on?" e.g., doctor, nurse, or pharmacy, And to break it down even further, under doctor, there are surgeons (heart, spine, brain – the list is endless), psychiatrists, and different types of nurses (auxiliary, cancer specialist, etc.). This applies to IT as well, which includes professions such as web design/web developer, programmer, cybersecurity, infrastructure, and cloud. When those are broken down even further, there are different languages under programming like C#, C++, asp.net, Java, JQuery, JSON, HTML, PHP, and PowerShell. There are domains such as GRC (governance, risk, and compliance) under cybersecurity, engineering, and penetration testing. Infrastructure will include service desk/helpdesk/1st line support, 2nd line support, 3rd line support, networking, database, big data, etc. The cloud is another huge topic with different vendors like Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Alibaba, Salesforce, and IBM - all still within information technology. Let's not forget gadgets like smartphones, TVs, monitors, printers, tablets, gaming consoles, monitors, and cameras. These are still classified under IT.

The question "How can I learn information technology?" will ultimately come down to starting with what piques your interest naturally, or what tickles your fancy. The next questions from there will be who to learn it from, what to learn, and where to go to learn it. These are the necessary steps to follow. Let's break these down.

 
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Who to learn from?

Who in your circle currently works in the field you've identified, or who amongst your circle is knowledgeable in that area that can be approached to help you break into that sector or give more information about it.

Another approach is to volunteer in your IT department. This can be challenging, as policies in place might keep one from being recruited internally. Or there could be to fill out. As they say, what you don't ask, you don't get! There might not be any hindrance at all regarding policies, paperwork, and obviously, office politics!

What to learn?

As they say, Google knows all things, and I think YouTube knows all things these days, too. One can go on either website and search for "How Tos," such as how to learn Python, and it will return results that will be overwhelming. It can be difficult to comprehend as it's not structured. And it's easy to get distracted by junk information that isn't applicable or tailored to the desired subject area. There are also ads to deal with, which are unwanted distractions.

Where to Learn from?

This is the ideal place to be after identifying your interests. Learning will be much more structured and geared towards growing, potentially making one an SME (Subject Matter Expert) within a few weeks!

This is where Cybrary comes in, getting students to their goals sooner than the two options above. Cybrary is a great platform, and it provides all that you will need, from the best quality courses, online virtual labs, and career paths that will lead you on the right path to achieving your dreams.

Interested in programming? Start with "Intro to Python" course. How about the cloud? Start with the "Intro to AWS" course.