As some of you may know I deliver courses across several training vendors and despite the fact that I have been doing it for a reasonable amount of time – I have kept my ‘portfolio’ tight. Although I often dabble outside of my comfort zone – I have a personal policy that says – I won’t teach something if all I have done is simply learned it in a book. I often say “if I can’t close my eyes and remember the last time I actually did something – then I can’t teach it”.
In my view experience has to go hand in hand with credentials.
My main focus when I left the military was purely around training Microsoft systems and associated technologies. It was at the time between Windows XP and the new generation of Operating Systems coming online (Vista, W7, Server 2008 etc) and all of the extra technology that Microsoft was emerging into – such as virtualisation, cloud and new security concepts. I focussed on the Security side of things. It was quite an exciting time to be in technology.
When I first started out – I was disappointed to find that IT Security (which appears to have morphed into using the word Cyber in front of everything!) was very low down the pecking order both operationally and educationally. Nowadays, everybody wants a bit of that action!
I remember the initial worry I had as I embarked on a career in IT where I was clever enough to have acquired lots of certs and letters after my name – but had bugger all experience in several fields. However, I was lucky to be able to work with one of the best teams on the planet and gained a lot of experience in a reasonably quick period of time across many different areas of industry.
Several years later – my CV now looks quite good because of it and I have that magic ‘experience’ tick in the box!
One thing that experience allows you to do is reflect back on how life in IT was 20 years ago and how it has now changed on today’s modern networks. It also gives you the wisdom to make decisions on what is good and what is crap for your network and all based on previous experience.
But hold that thought! – Experience (like The Force) is only good, if you use it wisely.
Experience is a great asset – however couple that with knowledge and more importantly keeping that knowledge current and having an open mind – is an even greater asset. Of course, experience and knowledge are not the same thing.
Around the time of Windows 7 (I don’t use years anymore) there were some very major changes thrown into the world of operating systems by Microsoft and some of it was good and some of it was crap. When I say crap – I probably mean that some of it was requiring a tweak or two which came about in later versions like Windows 8 and Windows 10.
Although I also noticed that some of it simply disappeared as it was total crap (Windows Sidebar, Widgets, Vista Desktop etc).
As a Microsoft trainer – sometimes it can be tough to deliver to a class when you have experienced delegates who have known the crap that was layered into operating systems ‘back in the day’. And their vast experience of this gives them the knowledge to make command decisions. Windows Firewall – just turn it off, Windows Updates – pile of crap, UAC – disable as soon as possible, Windows Vista – shocker.
Because it was crap back then – it must still be crap today – right?
Some of us older readers (or should I say ‘those of us with more experienced years’) will remember in the 70’s and early 80’s – a great comedian and all round performer called Jasper Carrot. Jasper was the comedian of his time and was everywhere. Saturday evening TV, Top of The Pops, talk shows – you name it, Jasper was on it. He is still knocking about but I haven’t seen much of his work lately.
His live shows probably contained more ‘adult material’ whereas his TV shows were always on at prime time family viewing slots and so his funny stories and acts never included foul language or anything more explicit than the occasional ‘bloody’. He attracted a large audience young and old.
If you Google him you will see examples of his comedy with classics such as “How to get rid of a Mole”, “The Football Match” and in 1975 a chart topping hit, “The Funky Moped” (we had no shame in the mid 70’s). His rendition of the “12 days of Christmas” is a personal favourite of mine!
One line of humour Jasper launched into during that time was against Skoda motor car owners. Back in the mid 70’s, the Skoda motor car was a shocker. It was a cheap Czechoslovakian import which was made out of tin cans and egg boxes and was generally used as the butt of most jokes, spear-headed by Jasper Carrot. I don’t know why he picked on them but it started a whole round of Skoda owner jokes and as a young kid – it made a lasting impression.
Luckily my dad drove a Vauxhall Viva so I was safe from ridicule at school with my bad haircut and flares.
It was also probably true that Skoda cars were not great cars back then – but the negativity around the Skoda badge stuck. This is what I call – The Skoda Effect.
The story of Skoda is an interesting one. During the major shift changes in Eastern Europe and the fall of communism in the late 80’s and early 90’s the new Czech Republic went through a round of privatisation and Volkswagen came onto the scene and linked up with the Skoda production teams. VW brought new developments, new technology, brilliant engineering experience and skills which turned Skoda into something different.
You often hear a lot of people refer to Skoda as a cheaper VW with a different badge.
But the badge is important as it is still a Skoda. And Skoda are rightfully proud of it.
In the 1970’s Skoda was crap. 20 Years later with the help of some German friends, Skoda was good. 20 years later Skoda is World class. The badge is the same.
1970’s Phil remembers Jasper Carrot jokes about Skoda drivers so that’s what forms his decision making on what car to buy next. Even though it is a great, affordable car it still has a Skoda badge on the front so I will just make myself look clever by telling a 1970’s joke to explain why I won’t even consider it. And use the word crap a lot.
I picked up a hire car from Frankfurt Airport several years ago and to my horror it was a Skoda. It took me an hour to find it in the carpark as it looked like a VW. It took me 5 minutes to fall in love with driving it. Especially 120mph down the autobahn without a shudder.
The Microsoft badge has not changed for many years. Microsoft has had some crap applications and features bolted onto their operating systems. This is all true.
Microsoft (in my opinion) were slow starters in the world of Virtualisation and got that wrong to start with. Microsoft dabbled in the mobile (phone/tablet) world and got that wrong. But Microsoft create their own revolutions. And old Microsoft is a new republic these days.
They invest into tech companies and development ideas to enhance their own platforms. New engineers, new developers, new ideas. Their hardware, cloud and operating systems are all now benefiting from the new advances that the company have invested in. Even the changes to existing applications and software are impressive (Windows Defender, Windows Defender Firewall with Advanced Features, Windows Intune, Office 365, Azure …. The list is almost endless) . These technologies still carry the Microsoft badge.
I don’t care if you love them or loath them (but life is too short for loathing) Microsoft are a big player, with lots of talent, money and investment power to make significant changes in technology in a reasonably quick period of time.
It ‘does my head in’ when I see comments on platforms such as LinkedIn from all those self proclaimed ‘Linux Gurus’ and Windows haters who post mis-informed comments about Windows operating systems flaws and Microsoft vulnerabilities using their vast experience and bugger all knowledge of these systems. I am in no way advocating that Microsoft systems are perfect but as they run nearly 80% of our networks it seems obvious to me that they will represent the largest vulnerability source (apart from users). But I also reckon that a lot of the vulnerabilities are down to ignorant administrators.
I can guarantee that every time I deliver a Microsoft course, some old fart with years of experience will pipe up and say ‘I didn’t know it could do that’ or ‘when did they change that?’ to be told that it was about 10 years ago is always a shocker. Isn’t learning stuff great?
I once delivered a Microsoft Server Administration course to a wide spread of talented and experienced delegates. The sexy subject of creating File Servers normally doesn’t excite the crowd but it was the first time that most of my delegates had seen File Server Resource Manager (FSRM). Three delegates from a University IT support team asked to stay behind after class so that I could run through a couple of scenarios with them to see how it worked. The quote of the year was “Phil, if we had seen this last year it would have saved us £10K in third party software we use for the same thing – we never knew this was under the hood – and free!” Nearly 30 years of experience between them and suddenly a little bit more knowledge (albeit too late).
Like all technologies – nothing is perfect. But with proper knowledge and hands on experience you can make an informed decision about what is best for your IT estate.
Every company and product has probably come from humble beginnings and has had to invest in technology to stay competitive and focussed on the market. This post is about Microsoft as they appear to be the butt of a lot of ‘jokes’ – but you could quite easily exchange that for Amazon, Google, Cisco and all the big players out there.
Always keep an open mind. Do some research and get some knowledge. Add this knowledge to your hard won experience. It might change the way you look at things.
Great training and knowledge – will definitely save you time and money. Experience is the glue that holds it together.
