At Coeo personal development is huge part of our ethos. Since I joined the company a little over 3 years ago now I have studied for, and passed 7 MCP exams, and these haven’t just been in SQL Server. We’re constantly encouraged to explore other areas that complement the work we do. In the last 3 months or so I’ve completed 2 Azure related exams. Migration to the cloud is now in almost every project I’m working on.
Customers don’t just want to move their SQL Servers to the cloud, they’re looking at entire datacentre migrations. This means I need to be able to hold conversations and discussions at reasonable depth in areas such as:
- Networking
- Virtual machines/server infrastructure
- Web application/service deployment
- Storage
- Data platforms
- Data analytics
Some of these areas I’m more familiar with, and some I need to improve. I’m lucky to work somewhere that allows me the time to improve and diversify my skills to make me a better consultant. It’s great to work with customers who really appreciate the work we do, and how we help them undertake their digital transformation projects.
It’s cool to be working with the latest cloud solutions to complex problems. I wouldn’t be able to do the best by my customers if I didn’t constantly look to improve my own skills. With IT now being a business enabler rather than just a cost centre, as IT professionals everyone wants our help. We’re now the cool kids that everyone wants to be friends with. But what we need to remember is something that I once read on a birthday card….
Does your employer give you the time and support to improve your skills? If not and maybe you’d like to work somewhere that does, check out our careers page: http://www.coeo.com/careers. We’re always looking for people who are keen to learn and want to practice, so that you can help make us awesome.