Church IT: The next step
| Posted in Uncategorized | Posted on 08-12-2006
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As you may have read last month in my Church IT post I have ended up in my position with no formal training in the tech field. I feel without a doubt I’m doing the right thing working in Church Technology, my question is how do I get better? What’s the next step? Should I go for my certifications? should I get a degree? is there one? Can I learn from your mistakes? and triumphs? I’m looking for Paul and Barnabas, hoping to be a Timothy.
Hey Derek,
I just now came across your post, kinda behind on feeds. I was the sole tech volunteer at my church for about 2 years and now I do contract work for a couple of churches and my heart is really in the church, but my day job is still in corporate IT.
Everything technical I have learned has been learned on my own, I have business degree but I’m motivated to just get in there and figure things out. I’ve come a long ways over the years. When I was volunteering at my church, they paid for me to become A+ certified and I’m now halfway preparing to take the Network+ exam.
I have mixed feelings about certifications, I think it looks good to someone who is non-technical but it doesn’t give you real hands-on experience. I find that if I’ve read it in a book, I still have to figure out how to do it when I’m in the situation, but studying to become certified does help me personally to focus and at least learn concepts. I get a lot more out of actually doing it though.
Last I knew, A+ and N+ serve as an elective for MCSA and that’s kind of my long term goal, only 3 more tests after N+.
So, certifications are good, in my opinion, to prove you know something, but the real experience comes from doing.
I’ve learned a ton from posting things on my blog and getting feedback and now I’ve got some good contacts that I can email or call directly when I hit a wall.
I’ve never been afraid to ask, either directly or thru my blog. I’m always the first to admit that I don’t know it all and I’m always learning, and I’m not afraid to get in there and figure it out.
I don’t know that I’m your Paul or Barnabas, there are many others with more experience and knowledge, but I do share your heart for church and technology.