Post 7 - Tech Topic Connection

In Week 3 of the Fundamentals of Information Technology and Literacy course I had to select a topic for my final project; I chose IT careers. I felt this made sense because a big motivation to take this course was exploring different facets of IT to be better informed in my career choices. And having decided that I wanted a career in IT, a basic literacy and overview is required. You wouldn’t call yourself a chef if you’ve never been in a kitchen and never cooked for other people. On the other hand a chef is not required to know everything about every recipe, general knowledge and an area of specialization is all that’s needed. In a similar way learning about different areas of IT helps to prepare me for upcoming career choices and to figure out what I want my area of specialization to be. This week I got laid off of a long time position. While some might view this as a catastrophe, I choose to see it as an opportunity to venture out into new areas and broaden my horizons.

The topics discussed in the course are all essential to understanding how to navigate in the IT world. Knowing the history is essential, because computing is based on the same principles as when it began, as a series of switches or transistors that are either off or zero, or on and one (Vahid, 2017). Based on Moore’s Law, every two years the switch sizes decrease by half  (Lasky, 2017), but the underlying principles are the same. “For reasons of efficiency and speed, the central processing unit of a computer is designed to recognize instructions coded using only the 1's and 0's of the binary number system” (Shirer, 2019). Computers run programs, that have become more complex and are based on computational thinking. In the same way that arithmetic builds into more complex math like algebra and calculus, the basics of computational thinking are important to working in the modern IT field.

Knowing the major hardware components and function of modern computers is important to having a career in IT. Just like the chef must know his knives and different types of pots and pans the different types of hardware are critical to being successful, especially if the career I choose is a support or network type of position.  What if I have to update RAM or a video card? What if there’s a drive malfunction or I am working with a server or changing a keyboard? These are all types of hardware and knowing what they do is essential for a career in IT.

It’s likely that the career I end up in will have programing as part of the job tasks since this is something I enjoy and have done successfully in the past. “Programming languages provide a convenient way for people to issue instructions to a computer. Such a language is built from a fairly small set of natural language words and algebraic symbols, usually no more than a few hundred in number, chosen so that they reflect the actual operations to be performed by the computer. Many types of programming languages are available, some specialized for a particular processor, some suited for solving particular types of problems, and others designed for general use with many machines or procedures” (Shirer, 2019).

According to Tiobe (2020), Java, C and Python make up the current top three most popular programming languages, but the principles of programming are transferrable once the basic concepts are understood.

If hardware and programming are essential then applications must be as well. Applications are what the hardware runs via computer programs. In terms of IT careers the Business Analyst role is an area I’m interested in and uses applications like spreadsheets (Excel), word processors (Word) for documentation, and workflows (Visio) in order to document business processes. The Business Analyst also has to know how to access data, as does my prior role as a Reporting Analyst. This IT career path relies on knowing how to access data via an Electronic Data Warehouse and build models and reports in applications that write queries and display data in meaningful visual ways like tables, charts and dashboards.

Reference:

Lasky, J. (2017). Moore’s law. Salem Press Encyclopedia of Science. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com.proxy-library.ashford.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ers&AN=125600130&site=eds-live&scope=site

Latest news. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.tiobe.com/tiobe-index/

Shirer, D. L. (2019). Computer programming languages. Salem Press Encyclopedia of Science. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com.proxy-library.ashford.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ers&AN=89316936&site=eds-live&scope=site

Vahid, F., & Lysecky, S. (2017). Computing technology for all. Retrieved from  zybooks.zyante.com/