If you want to land and or keep a job in the tech field sometime in the next 10 years, the best advice I can give you is “Do more, now!”
Recently I got a glimpse of the future at my son’s summer camp graduation. He just completed a week at video game camp, the week he waits for all year long and passed up birthday presents for a chance to attend. This isn’t the sort of video game camp where kids play Wii for a week. We’re talking intensive instruction where children as young as 7 learn to design and program their own platformer games in 5 days.
In our case, my son has Aspberger’s Syndrome and is particularly interested in and suited for this sort of field. There’s no doubt in my mind there’s an amazing tech job waiting for him but I realize now it’s not just children on the Autism Spectrum that are wired to understand the variety of emerging interfaces available.
Born into a post 9/11 society, boys and girls as young as 10 have a different perception and connection with technology and how it functions in practice and society. There is a distinct difference in the interaction and conceptual understanding today’s children have in comparison to previous generations including workforce noobs, the Millennials.
Two year olds are topping their parents’ high scores in gaming, six year olds are video conferencing with family members, eight year olds text their friends, ten year olds are on Facebook and fourteen year olds are founding their own record breaking mobile app corporations. They don’t remember the days of typewriters or land line phones but they see the future of technological integration if life and in leisure.
So what are we old fogies supposed to do to try and keep up? Open your mind with child-like curiosity to the potential of possibilities presented. Take classes, ask questions, and be diligent in obtaining new information. Start by subscribing to magazines and RSS feeds related to your field. Join forums, watch tutorials and like a lot of these kids... do “homework” just for fun.
By Heather Fairchild - Heather is a multimedia developer with experience in web, film, photography and animation as well as traditional fine arts like painting and sculpting. In addition to writing for TechCareersBlog.com, she is co-founder of design and promotion company. Heather’s spare time consists of making puppets, teaching Sunday School, building Legos and doing science experiments with her children.
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