Learning on the job is everything for me? What works for you?

N2IT

It seems with my personality that no matter how much I study outside of work, the bottom line is I am going to have to learn on the job. A lot of the studying outside of work seems to have little value add, at least for the positions I have worked in the past and present.

Please don't get me wrong I am not taking a shot at certifications or self improvement, I am just saying it seems for ME that it doesn't do a whole lot. When the pressure is on and I have an objective I turn up the heat and deliver. Sure it may require googling or asking other team members but I learn the fastest, most effeciently, and most accurately that way.

Example creating images on a WDM deployment server. I could spend weeks labbing and setting up these mock environments, but at work when I do it once for real, I got it and it's locked in. Same with Excel spreadsheets with macros and formulas or access databases with queries. SQL is the same way, I can lab and run views and joins but when I get into the real environment it doesn't help all that much. There is always something that I am missing that I need to have to complete the task.

I was just wondering you thoughts on this? I have a family and friends and I would rather spend most of that time with them rather than labbing. We are in all different parts of our walk so that is critical to call out and I need to ramp up my SQL and MS Access skills by quite a bit. But in the end at work is the best place for me to learn this.

One side note: I am a very visual learn. I can read and pass test all day, but to truly know it I have to do it.

Thoughts?

paul78

I definitely agree that most of what I need to do for my job are generally learned on the job. But it could never substitute the knowledge gain by tinkering around in my lab or reading adhoc materials from the library or online.

Like you, I'm a kinesthetic learner, so for me, experimentation and self-discovery is the best way for me to internalize knowledge. The knowledge gained from self-discovery does have very tangible impact on my career. While, it is true that most of what I do in my lab has zero direct impact on my job, the knowledge gives me great insight into breadth of possibilities.

For example, you been playing with SQL, Excel and Access - if you were given a data analysis problem to solve, I would guess that your labbing will give you better insight into which tool to use and how to frame a solution.

Having google at your fingertips is nice to find tactical answers on specific details but you still need to know what to search for

N2IT

You make some excellent points. Thanks for replying to my word soup, I really appreciate it.

DevilWAH

Like you I only ever learn by doing. reading out of a book might plant the ideas and theories in my head but i need to put them in to practice to cement them in to place. And the only way to really do that is to work on a live network. Labbing is good for getting individual ideas together, but the live network is what teaches you how the whole thing fits together.

I was lucky, since almost the first day I walked in to IT, i have manged to some degree a network, starting with 1500 users and with no other network engineers to ask how to do things. That was a double edged sword, on the one hand I had no one to help when things where going wrong. But it did force me to learn, and I had a whole network to "play" with as my lab.

However one thing I would say is that doing some certs is great for filling in the gaps. If you just learn on the job, and you are in one job any length of time you miss how the outside world is evolving. studying for certs is a great way to open up your field of knowledge. and get you looking at areas that you might not currently be working on but are useful to know in the big picture.

elTorito

Same.

The one thing I do obtain from books and technical guides are best practises, the basic concepts of a technology, and ideas that can potentially be applied that might promise an improvement. Otherwise, most of what I've learned is from simply doing. Most of the products I've used so far can for the most part be managed using basic common sense (though, I've learned that purely Windows admins and purely Linux admins can have very different notions of what constitutes 'common sense'...)

Things I read from books, I tend to forget very quickly if I don't actually use any of it.