Spiceworks Community Digest: New year, new skills

As the year winds down, it’s a natural time for reflection, goal-setting, and planning those New Year’s resolutions. For IT professionals, this is often time to focus on strategic skills that expand their skills and set them up for success. A recent discussion in the Spiceworks Community highlighted some of they key focus areas for IT professionals in the year ahead.

Automation, Linux, and security lead the way

The majority of career-focused resolutions center on three areas, reflecting the industry’s shift toward efficiency, platform independence, and risk mitigation.The sentiment is clear: mastery of scripting languages like PowerShell and Python is critical, not just for systems administration, but for implementing security and monitoring solutions.

• miguelmorningson: “i really am focused lately on brushing up my debugging and programming skills. it has made work a WHOLE lot easier, even just as a sys-admin.”
• aJason: “I’m always interested in learning how to do more automation. Learning how to do more with GPOs, scripts, Action1 is always something that I’d be interested in. Oh, and PowerShell of course.”
• CAG16: “I want to grow in my Linux understanding. Mainly for personal growth, but also professional. I can see where it is gaining in popularity and, depending on what direction MS goes with Win12 (possibly involving subscriptions), I may consider moving some of my users over to Linux.”

The soft skills you can’t really teach

While tech skills get you in the door, soft skills are increasingly seen as the levers for career advancement and mental health.

• Terecia5538: “How about we teach a course on critical thinking? Mainly, don’t rely on AI to solve all the problems. Investigate the issue and symptoms. Plan before you execute the solution.”
• MooreBeers: “I’d like to see a class there on how to translate your Tech to User. Yes it’s Communication and Communicating, but we work with a vast area of users and translating the details to a machine shop, production floor, or front line tech is way different from translation for HR, Accounting, C-Staff, etc.”

Strategic learning for a sustainable career

The New Year’s learning priorities of the IT community are highly strategic. They are investing in automation to gain efficiency, exploring platform independence to manage risk, and seeking better soft skills to ensure their technical expertise is understood and applied correctly.

What skills do you plan on learning in the new year? Let us know on the Spiceworks Community!