My job at a major telecommunications company provides me with the interesting challenge of being on the forefront of the exciting field of technology. Currently, I work as an electronic technician, building and maintaining systems which tie together fiber optics, traditional phone cable, and switching equipment. Recently, my wife and I heeded God's calling to move to North Carolina to fill a job opening at my company there, and continue work in the ministry. What I found is a job doing what I normally do, with some new equipment our company bought that nobody knows how to maintain. We have training, but we're scratching our heads over some of this stuff!
The changing face of the company means that employees must train as often as possible to keep up with the competition. One subsequent side-effect of this aspect is that the higher up the training scale employees go, the more narrow the area of expertise. This has both positive and negative aspects.
The positive side is that we employees learn more valuable skills which keep us sharp. The negative is that the narrow, more focused skills center on products that could be replaced. Moore’s Law states in general terms that technology for a given product doubles in performance every 12 months (Stokes, 2008). This means that not only are fewer employees needed to maintain large networks, but the items we are trained on are inevitably replaced, rendering our training obsolete.
With that in mind, one personal policy that I have is that any time the opportunity for training surfaces, I will take advantage. This applies to information regarding my work as well as classical educational opportunities which may prove valuable in the future should my job be outsourced or eliminated altogether.
My short-term objective connects to my personal policy. My objective currently is to finish graduate school before the next union contract is settled in August 2009. This way, I will be more equipped to find employment that is comparable in compensation should our union strike or our jobs are reduced. Previously, my personal career strategy has been to work toward a management position. However, our company was acquired by a larger firm which traditionally utilizes fewer managers over larger territories. This translates into lower job security, especially for employees with under 15 years of service like me. In response to this trend, I shifted my strategies to position me for a job as a mentor or trainer.
Hopefully, I can finish school this year and pursue my dream job: teaching at a secondary school like a junior college or vocational school somewhere. I think it would be the bomb to train adults in continuing education classes, business math, electronics or something.
I would encourage anyone in technology jobs to try to keep your training up-to-date, and do have a backup plan. It never hurts to learn how to do more than one thing, even if it means sacrificing some spare time and a bit of money. It's an investment, not unlike investing in an I.R.A. or stocks. And don't be too freaked about the current state of the economy. I personally believe that an upswing is inevitable, it will just take some time. And besides that, the last time I checked God's throne is not empty. He is still in command, not the stock market, not Alan Greenspan, nor anyone else. Keep your eyes on Him, and thank Him that He hears and answers prayer.
reference:
Stokes, J. (2008). Understanding Moore’s law. Retrieved April 18, 2009 from http://arstechnica.com/hardware/news/2008/09/moore.ars
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