Part 1 of 4:

4 Key Lessons in IT – #1 INIATIVE: “Energy or aptitude displayed in initiation of action”.

“Did you know that 90% of IT employers consider initiative a top hiring priority? Taking the lead and demonstrating a proactive approach can truly set you apart in your career journey.”

I was asked to speak with a friend’s daughter we will call Compass for privacy’s sake, who was trying to find her way into the IT field, specifically in Cyber Security. She was looking to get into a Cyber Security program at a few major technology institutes and universities such as MIT. She’s currently working at a local college in New Jersey which unfortunately doesn’t offer any programs in the IT security sector to help her towards her career path.

After listening to her plans, I suggested that she go online and study for the CompTIA Security+ or equivalent associate Level security certification, while she waits to be accepted into a Cyber Security program. This will provide her with an active certification that may help her get entry level job experience and potentially lead to opportunities where the company might invest in her education.

As I spent time discussing possible career paths, one thing stood out based on my view and that was a lack of initiative. She was waiting to get accepted by a school to begin learning about Cyber Security, instead of learning as much as she can while she waits. I told her that she can start studying now, using free online resources, books, practice questions and scenarios. She may even be able to take the test and get certified in the process, as entry level certification exams like CompTIA’s Security+ normally don’t require pre-requisites. Just the act of studying for the certification prior to being accepted will instill the spirit of initiative into her mindset and jump start her career.

I emphasized the importance of setting goals and moving towards them, and that initiative is the ability to take the first step often without any outside instruction. It is a highly critical and sought after skill that is the steppingstone to self-development and finding untapped potential.

I gave her an example of a time when I was her age that I took the initiative at company I worked for, where the previous systems engineer left due to the intense workload and fast paced environment. On my first day at the job, I was left with no documentation or configuration information for the location and a huge backlog and incoming trouble tickets. The company used voice recognition convert voice recordings from surgeries into documents that had less than 24 hour turn around. As time went on, I started noticing a pattern and needed a way to cut down the constant flood of high priority tickets. As I was creating documentation and policies, the chaos of the environment helped me understand the previous engineer’s frustration. I quickly isolated the top 3 reoccurring issues and decided to learn scripting to automate the troubleshooting and resolution procedures. I knew a little bit of coding and was able to start learning in my spare time. Within a few weeks of testing, I created an application and asked the customers if they had any issues to run my app before calling support and it will tell you if it was able to resolve the problem. Immediately, the calls and tickets went down 85% while the customers and management thanked me for helping them increase productivity and satisfaction.

I found that in life, there are more positive lessons learned by taking the initiative to go above and beyond than there are by doing the bare minimum. Initiative is an important step in anyone’s career, and can significantly increase the chances of achieving your goals and objectives.

Key Questions:

  1. Do you remember a time when you took initiative and successfully completed a goal that would have otherwise failed had you not taken the initiative?
  2. What was the reaction of the team towards you?
  3. How did it feel?

– Bernard Hardy