“The Exam Was Easy, I Finished in 10 Minutes!= 221;
Recently on CertTutor Live someone posted about a coll= eague of theirs who had made a statement such as the above regarding a certificat= ion test they had passed. Initially I, probably like many others, simply dismis= sed the claim as being someone who cheated their way through braindumps to pass= the exam. However, the more I thought about it the more I realized how much that simple statement is a microcosm of the life of an IT professional, and how = attitude directly impacts the type of professional a person is.
On the surface level, someone bragging about an exam b= eing so easy that they finished in 10 minutes likely did cheat. Microsoft exams especially have a lot of reading, and unless you are a true speed reader you simply can’t get through the questions that fast. The only way is rat= her obvious … if you’ve seen the questions before (braindumps). We’ve talked about braindumps in the past and how they do both you and other certified professionals a disservice, so we’re not going to reh= ash that discussion. Instead, we’re going to focus on the deeper issue of attitude.
Beyond the surface level we see an all too common prob= lem with people in general and IT professionals specifically, and that is a bad attitude. Is an exam a speed performance test? Of cours= e not. What does it say about someone who is more concerned with racing through something they consider easy than with ensuring they got it right? This typ= e of attitude reflects how you will perform on the job, and is exactly the type = of thing I’m looking for if I’m interviewing you for a position. W= hile it is expected that you would complete tasks in a reasonable amount of time given their complexity, it is also expected that you would have a certain attention to detail. Arrogance clouds our ability to clearly think through = even an easy task, and makes it easier to make mistakes. It also makes it harder= to ask for help when we need it, which can cause a lot of further problems.
IT is a service industry, and as servants in our respe= ctive companies it is important that we set aside our personal agendas and egos a= nd focus on the needs of the company. When we’re arrogant we’re focused on making ourselves look good at the expense of others, which serve= s no useful purpose other than artificially building up the person being the jer= k. IT professionals tend to be stereotyped by a lack of social skills and personality, but as business increasingly relies on IT it is especially important for IT professionals to relate well and work well w= ith others. The ability to do so will separate you from those who can’t or choose not to.
Another aspect of serving others is being a mentor for= those who don’t know what you know. All too often we hear stories of junior admins or entry level IT professionals who can’t get higher level IT personnel to teach them anything or show them what they are doing on a particular project or task. There are a number of reasons why someone behav= es like this, from “protecting their turf” such that no one else k= nows what they know (falsely thinking it will make them indispensable to the company) to simply trying to maintain a façade that they know more t= han they do (afraid that others will find out they don’t know as much as people think). The latter tends to bring embarrassment only if you’ve= had an arrogant know-it-all attitude in the past. The former is almost never tr= ue. Even if you are the only one that knows a particular process or task at a company, the company will not let you hold them hostage over it. I’ve seen people let go who thought they were immune to being replaced. I watched one company even change a particular server product to something more “industry standard” because of the costs associated with having= so much tied up in proprietary/irreplaceable knowledge.
To sum up, a successful IT professional is one who understands that there is always more to learn, and inflating one’s e= go at the expense of others is a dead-end street. As you progress through your career, focus on doing things right and serving others before yourself, and *that* is what will make you indispensable.