I've seen it take place time and again to programmers, network engineers and administrators, as well as other IT personnel. They get a solid IT position, a good-paying job, and they get comfortable. They cease keeping up with the latest technologies, they quit studying, they no longer preserve their CCNA, MCSE, and other business certifications up-to-date.... and then one day, their comfy job is gone.
Maybe they get laid off, perhaps the company moves and they don't wish to move with it... but for one cause or yet another, they are in the worst position conceivable. They have no job, and they've allowed their IT abilities to deteriorate for the point exactly where they may be no longer employable.
If you're in IT, you must be continuously studying. You will need to continually take the extended view, and ask your self 3 critical concerns. Very first, exactly where do you want to become in 3 years? Second, what are you currently undertaking now to be able to reach this goal? And lastly, for those who had been laid off today, are your current competencies sharp adequate to quickly get yet another job?
That third question may be the hardest of all to answer honestly. I am reminded of Microsoft announcing years ago that they would no longer be recognizing the MSCE four.0 certification, since the network operating systems that certification was based upon would no longer be supported by MS. (Keep in mind that this change was announced months in advance, giving these holding the MCSE 4.0 plenty of time to earn the most recent MS certification.)
Some MCSE 4.0s just went nuts. Microsoft's certification magazine printed letter following letter from angry MCSEs saying that their enterprise would generally run NT four.0,MCITP: Virtualization Administrator, and that there was no cause for them to ever upgrade their certification.
This wasn't just denial. This was profession suicide. Let's say that their network under no circumstances moved from NT four.0. Let's also say that they got laid off yesterday. Would you wish to go out in to the existing IT workplace and have your most recent network operating technique knowledge be on NT 4.0 ? I certain wouldn't.
The reality is that you've got to continue studying, continue growing, and continue understanding new things in order to possess a profitable long-term IT profession. If you ever program on studying only one topic, acquiring into IT, after which under no circumstances cracking a book once more, you're entering the wrong field. And for those of us that have been in it for a when - again, ask oneself this query: "Am I prepared for what would happen if I had been laid off today?" And if you are not, do a thing about it!