Women Entrepreneurs

What moves us, empowers us and engages us helps us develop our personal brand, but also weaves its way through the lives of those around us, motivating others and inspiring them to grow. That was resounding message at The Power of Your Story, an event featuring Millennial women who are changing the world by sharing their stories and building tech businesses and brands.

Held on July 24, CompTIA’s Canadian Business Technology Community hosted the event with partner Benchmark at Toronto’s Verity Club, a women’s club in downtown Toronto. While listening to the panelists, you could hear murmurs of amazement, words of encouragement and see nods of agreement from the more than 100 women in attendance who are all looking to help shape the future of the tech industry to ensure women are heard and represented. In addition to sharing their stories, the panelists also shared important advice for anyone building a personal brand or a business. Here’s what they had to say.
Clear the Noise

Riya Karumanchi is the 15-year-old founder and CEO of SmartCane, a company focused on revolutionizing mobility for the visually impaired using a proprietary computer vision technology that enables real-time object detection functionalities to describe a user’s surrounding environment. Being passionate about coding led her to realize that, while change is happening all over the world, it is leaving behind many communities.

When asked how she manages to balance attending high school and running a business, she shared the advice she received from her mentor: Make a table. On the left side, make a list of everything that’s taking up your time; on the other side, write down where do you want to go in life. Cross out everything on the left that isn’t getting you to where you are going.
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Cloud Computing and Digital Transformation

Do you have an interest in cloud computing? Are you wondering how it plays into digital transformation? Then you have come to the right cyberplace. Following is a preview of DuWayne Harrison’s ChannelCon presentation, The Role of Cloud Computing in Digital Transformation. Whether you attend in person or virtually, you’ll want to be sure to check it out.

What does digital transformation mean? I define digital transformation as the combined use of technical solutions, such as cloud computing and blockchain, to modernize existing processes, procedures and overall strategy for an organization and enable rapid modification.

There are several meanings depending on who you ask, and my definition does not make the others wrong. But using my definition will anchor our discussion with the same understanding, ensuring a fruitful discussion. Cloud computing plays an integral role in a digital transformation strategy, and you cannot have one without the other. There are many technologies that cloud computing enables – smart cities, smart buildings and blockchain, for example.
When moving to the cloud, several things need to change within an organization to completely reap the benefits of cloud computing. Several technology vendors have written operations guides and/or provided guidance on how an organization should change its operations procedures and processes within a cloud computing world.
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IT Certifications: Performance

Technology is in nearly every workplace today. From the biggest multinational enterprise to the smallest of small businesses, business is conducted via connecting to networks day in and day out. So, while the specific skills needed are always evolving with technology, there’s a constant need for skilled staff that understands how IT infrastructure functions, how to secure it and how to maintain it.

In a world where nearly everyone is an end user, the question arises of how valuable it is for IT pros to not only earn vendor-neutral IT certifications, but also keep them current. A recent study by IDC found that it’s very valuable for those who are new to IT, those who have taught themselves, those who have done apprenticeships and even those who have worked in IT for a number of years.

The IDC study, Impact of Certifications and Training on Career Milestones, illustrates how CompTIA appears to improve the lives of IT certification holders along three points of evaluation:
Performance
Professional Influence
Promotion potential

Digging deep into what each of these means gives us a feel for a cycle of career improvement, supported by CompTIA, as certified IT pros advance through their careers.
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Treat Cybersecurity for What it Is

Security isn’t part of technology anymore, it’s part of business. That’s a concept that still eludes many businesses—which spells opportunity for solution providers.

Businesses are changing the way they think of security, but they’re not necessarily investing properly, according to CompTIA research analysts Carolyn April and Seth Robinson, who talk about the state of security and preview CompTIA’s upcoming cybersecurity research report on the latest Volley podcast available here.
Security Moves from the Data Center to the Boardroom

Security is moving more into lines of business and more business heads are purchasing security, Robinson said.

“Technology is becoming more ingrained in business operations and security is becoming really critical to business operations. A lot of companies had security as part of the function of their overall IT team, but we're seeing it now pull out more and more into [into business],” he said. “The more I've looked at security over the past few years, the more I almost begin to think of it the same way that I would think of accounting or legal. You have to have it and you have to have some pretty deep knowledge and specialization around it. And I think that that's kind of the theme behind this new security report.”

Businesses have been stagnant the last few years regarding their security, but many are starting to take a more modern approach—understanding that it’s not just the technology and it’s not enough to just have a secure perimeter anymore.
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Business Tips to Survive

Experiencing a natural disaster—or any emergency—can be a nerve-wracking experience. Guiding a business through that situation is even more stressful. Not only do you have to worry about your customers, you have to think about your employees, your offices, equipment, and much more.

It can be overwhelming, but if you take the proper precautions, plan out a strategy, and rely on anything and everything in your power, you can not only survive, but thrive.

In this first part of a three-part series, we’ll examine advice from solution providers who successfully led businesses through hurricanes, tornados, flooding and other disasters. This blog focuses on advice on how to manage employees through a disaster. Part 2 will explore how to manage customers. Part 3 will examine lessons the solution providers learned going through their trauma.

And make no mistake—disastrous situations are traumatic to virtually everyone involved. They impact everyone differently, but through strong leadership, community support and human resolve, businesses—and lives—will come out on top, the solution providers said.

Here are five things solution providers said can help when it comes to managing employees through a disaster:You also need to consider what types of applications you’ll be using and how they’ll be handled by the cloud service provider. For example, moving from an off-the-shelf application like Microsoft Office, to Office 365 may make sense. The IT administrator will compare the advantages of keeping desktop licenses versus paying annual fees for the cloud-based version.
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How Cybersecurity Analysts Use Threat Intelligence Platforms

Now that I have Yeti installed, let’s take a look at how to use it. Let’s suppose that I worked for a hospital. I could record information about attacks specific to my organization using Yeti. For example, if I was worried about an attacker obtaining a Kerberos Golden Ticket via Mimikatz, then I would start storing information about this particular form of attack. Or if I discovered several attack attempts, I could record the information easily inside of Yeti.

Many organizations are enduring Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks. Let’s suppose that I was a cybersecurity professional asked to record DDoS attacks specific to the Memcached service, which is often used to speed up web applications by storing information in memory.

Attackers use poorly configured Memcached services to wage DDoS attacks. So, if I wanted to record information about actual Memcached attacks, I would log on to Yeti, then go to Investigations > Import to upload information.

From here, I can edit the information I wish to import. I would only want to include relevant information that helps my fellow workers recover from this specific attack.

For example, I could focus on a specific technique, such as investigating the IP address 188.138.125.254 and its relationship to the Cloudflare organization. I might find that it’s completely non-threatening and standard. Or, I might decide it’s an indicator of attack. This is an example of the types of decisions made by cybersecurity analysts.

Based on this information, I could then create links from one system to another to uncover useful information about the source of the attack. Figure 6 below shows how I attempted to link several sites to try and identify a specific cause of an attack. It’s a pretty messy map, but cybersecurity professionals are expected to sift through and sort messy information so that it’s more useful.
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Time to Update Your IT Skills

Being a successful IT pro means keeping pace with everything that changes and evolves so you can make the right decisions for your organization. If you’ve ever been at a loss for words when asked to compare two new technologies or your stomach has dropped when seeing the names of tools you’re unfamiliar with, it may be time to update your IT skill set. The good news is that there are a number of ways to keep your finger on the pulse of all things tech.
Signs Your IT Skills May Need a Refresh

If you can relate to any of the following, it may be time to give your IT skills some TLC:
Coworkers who have less seniority and experience than you are now your supervisors.
You don’t feel confident at work.
If you are a private contractor, you’re being passed over for the cool jobs you want most.
You aren’t getting the endorsements on LinkedIn you need.
You haven’t gotten a promotion in years despite wanting one.
You often find yourself asking your coworkers for help.
Your coworkers rarely ask you for help.

Woods, who mentors a lot of tech hopefuls, said the question he hears most often related to IT jobs is, “Do I have to get a degree or can I go to a tech school or get a certification to get a good job?” He points people to certifications first. “Get the CompTIA A+, Network+ and Security+ as the baseline and then move from there,” is his advice.

“It’s a shift and a mindset change,” Woods said. “There’s nothing wrong with a four-year degree or a two-year degree, but let’s look at certifications as a stepping stone.”

According to a new whitepaper on the Impact of Certifications and Training on Career Milestones, IT professionals who are certified before their first position are 50% more likely to get a promotion within one year of first being hired than people who have never certified and are promoted almost twice as often as noncertified IT professionals.

To address the skills gap in IT, Woods said the whole industry needs to share the message that a four-year degree isn’t required to develop a technology career. “It’s important—very important—that we, all of us in this room, have a vested interested in doing that. It’s going to really do some game-changing things to make this happen.”
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Things About CompTIA

When you hear CompTIA what’s the first thing that pops into your mind? If you’re relatively new to our organization, it’s very likely that you think of CompTIA A+ – after all it’s our flagship certification, known as the best place to start for those pursuing a career in technology. While our industry-leading certifications are a huge part of what we offer at CompTIA – it’s by far not the ONLY thing we do. To that end, we’ve compiled a list of facts, resources and opportunities that CompTIA offers that just might surprise you.

1. We’re 3+ Million Strong.

CompTIA is the leading provider of technology-neutral and vendor-neutral IT certifications worldwide, with over 3 million individuals holding CompTIA IT certifications today.

2. We Break into IT Security, Cloud Computing and More.

We’re best known for our signature CompTIA A+, CompTIA Network+ and CompTIA Security+ certifications, but we have a suite of 13 total that are organized in easy-to-follow pathways to help you start and advance in your IT career.

3. We Stay Ahead of the Curve.

We recently launched a new version of our flagship CompTIA A+ certification that features a greater emphasis on the problem solving and critical thinking skills necessary to operate today’s enterprise networks.

4. We Understand How You Learn.

We now offer a mix of training options – from self-study to instructor-led – to help you pass your certification exam.

5. We’re Way More Than Certifications.

CompTIA has three categories of association membership: Individual, Corporate and Public Sector/Advocacy. Each offers exceptional benefits to support your individual and business success.
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Tips for Recruiting Tech Pros

The EMEA Member and Partner Conference kicked off with Nancy Hammervik, executive vice president of industry relations at CompTIA, revealing the top 10 cities on CompTIA's first-ever UK Tech Town Index at the UK Channel Community Meeting.

Watch the presentation on Facebook.

Among CompTIA’s top priorities in the UK and around the world are advocating for the IT industry and IT workforce. “We are the world's largest advocates for the technology industry, focused on emerging technology and closing the skills gap and the confidence gap in the tech workforce," said Hammervik.

The UK Tech Town Index highlights the opportunities available to start and grow in a career in cities and towns around the UK. With more opportunity than ever and the need for a skilled workforce growing, it’s important for businesses to understand how to recruit the next generation of IT pros. Felix Ekman, head of marketing and channel sales at Harmony Business Systems and winner of the CompTIA ChannelChanger Award, joined Hammervik to discuss what businesses need to take into consideration.

Learn more about the CompTIA UK Tech Town Index.
Tech Workers Prioritize Growth Opportunities

Recent research from CompTIA suggests that IT professionals and students are willing to move for their career—in fact, 78% of professionals said they would consider leaving their current city for the right tech job. Ekman agreed with this, saying the next generation wants to go where the next challenge is.“I have moved for a job. I’m originally from Sweden and for me, it was the chance the do new things,” said Ekman.

According to Ekman, seeking new skills and new opportunities are top reasons IT pros look to change positions or companies. For the next generation, “a new job is an opportunity to gain new skills,” he added.
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businesses using AI to interact with customers

Responsiveness is key. It’s not just a function of speed, but also the channel through which you respond. There are so many people who you want to be responsive to, but you also want to quickly and efficiently get to whether they are a potential fit. With web chat working both on mobile sites and your website, and through other third-party sites, such as on Facebook or via text message, you're not limiting your ability to capture the total available pool of new clients who want to reach you. People prefer text communication because it is fast and controlled, but not exposed. The more you understand the importance of responsiveness—that is the single most important factor of whether a potential client will hire you—the less you're missing out.

There's very low switching friction and cost when interacting on website chat. Also, chats are extremely discreet because they are silent, so plugging in a website chat for small businesses, such as medical offices, lawyers, financial advisors, accountants, or companies that have clients who need discretion, is a service that their clients need, expect and appreciate. By offering web chat and positioning it this way to clients, you demonstrate how you’re looking out for them and their business in a highly attentive and helpful way. This breeds trust and loyalty and of course, increases potential lifetime revenue.

Also, utilizing chatbots is an opportunity to demonstrate that you're keeping up with the market and the latest emerging technologies. For the client, since it's not quite emerging but rather adopted technology, it’s an expectation that your site will have chat because it does increase access and it does improve responsiveness. Clients are expecting instantaneous responses and already know how to use website chat widgets. I’d encourage you to ask yourself: As an MSP, what will they think about you trying to sell them this product if you don’t already show buy-in on your own website? Validation that a tool is effective can start with you. It also allows you to give clients a demo by saying, “Just interact with the chat on our own website,” facilitating more DIY tire-kicking on their end and less time on yours hosting individual demos.
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Infamous Cyberattacks

Sometimes learning what not to do can be just as helpful as learning what to do. When it comes to cybersecurity, we’ve learned that history has a habit of repeating itself. Even if the cyberattacks are bigger or better, the motive remains the same. If your company stores any kind of data, your company is at risk. Anything confidential is valuable. Just ask Sony, Target and Marriott. These infamous cyberattacks can teach us that even the largest brands in the world, with the most experienced cybersecurity teams, need to stay educated, vigilant and guarded in order to protect and preserve private information. What are you doing to keep your company off of this list? If you aren't sure, check out our new security awareness training guide and the IT certifications along the CompTIA Cybersecurity Career Pathway to get started.
10 Infamous Cyberattacks to Learn From
Sony’s Sorrows

In 2011, hackers stole personal data from 77 million Sony PlayStation users, including confidential banking information. The hack was a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack and not only shut down PlayStation Network (PSN) for 23 days, but also cost the company $15 million in compensation to users. But Sony’s problems didn’t end there. In 2014, Sony Pictures was attacked using malware to gain access to sensitive information including film scripts and employee emails. In fact, studio co-chairwoman Amy Pascal had some compromising emails exposed – and eventually lost her job. Later, the FBI placed blame on North Korea surrounding criticism of the movie, The Interview.
Trouble at Target

During the Black Friday holiday shopping season in 2013, 40 million Target customer credit card accounts were compromised. The cyberattack happened again in early 2014, this time affecting the records of 70 million customers. It was later discovered that the breach occurred when a username/password was stolen from an authorized Target vendor. But the data may have been made vulnerable by the retailer’s failure to properly separate systems handling payment card data from the rest of its network. In the end, Target shelled out $18 million in a multistate settlement as a resolution.

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Women to Pursue Cybersecurity Careers

Everyone needs good IT security these days and while there’s zero unemployment in cybersecurity there are also not enough people to fill the pipeline. CompTIA’s Advancing Women in Technology (AWIT) Community is working to bridge that gap for girls and women of all ages.

“You have to have diversity of thought and diversity of experience in order to address the whole ecosystem,” said Kathleen Martin, CompTIA Community leader for AWIT. “Getting women into these advanced IT roles is critically important.”

People working in the business of technology can have an impact on the number of women getting into cybersecurity, from middle and high school through career women looking to pivot into a new career. Use these tips to make security more accessible to people who may not have considered it an option.
Women Pivoting Careers

Bridging the confidence gap is the most important thing we can do right now to get women into cybersecurity. Cybersecurity is a great field for women, who can start with projects like penetration testing to look for vulnerabilities in a clients’ systems without much technical training. “People are afraid there’s a big learning curve,” said Martin. “We’ve got to get women to stop self-selecting out of cybersecurity jobs.”
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The Elastic Stack Free Tools

In the same way that many value visual models of the spread of COVID-19, execs and cybersecurity analysts alike are interested in viewing and visualizing trends when it comes to the cyberthreats that their organizations face. We’ve discussed visualization before in parts of our DDoS Protection Guide. Also, I discussed the need for visualization a bit in the article Cybersecurity Skills Your Boss Wants You to Have. Today, let’s dive a bit deeper into threat visualization.
Free Cybersecurity Tools: DIY Your SIEM

Smaller businesses sometimes feel they’re priced out of the market when it comes to visualizing cybersecurity threats. For example, they can’t afford the security information and event management (SIEM) tools that larger organizations use. This expense can also hinder cybersecurity students from learning how to use virtualization tools. But that doesn’t necessarily have to be the case.

Check out the basic elements necessary for visualizing security data:
First, you need to obtain, or capture, network packets and log files.
Then, you need an engine to “slice and dice,” or process, those packets.
Finally, you need a visualization tool to represent them in a nice, friendly way.

You can add alerting and incident response to the above, but let’s first focus on what it means to get the packets, process them and then visualize them.

The good news is, you can compile these elements with free, open-source resources, which means anyone – whether a small business, a student or an IT pro who wants to practice and improve their skills – can develop their own, free visualization tool.
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CompTIA Cloud Essentials+ Specific IT Certifications

When deciding on an IT certification, choosing a vendor-neutral option shows that you have the competencies required to perform a job role regardless of the specific tools used. Additionally, vendor-neutral certifications can help prepare candidates to work in multi-vendor environments, which is an increasing trend within organizations.

CompTIA certifications, all of which are vendor-neutral, provide an excellent foundation for earning vendor-specific certifications to increase a professional’s overall skill set and expertise. For example, CompTIA Cloud Essentials+ covers the foundational knowledge and approach to cloud computing that professionals need so they can compare and choose vendors and subsequently earn vendor-specific certifications like AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner or Azure Fundamentals.

CompTIA Cloud Essentials+ validates the skills needed for making sound business decisions within any cloud environment. It also prepares individuals to assume a managerial role in which they will demonstrate an understanding of cloud computing approaches and the implications and business impact of cloud migration and governance. This will aid them in making the best possible cloud recommendations.

Making data-driven cloud recommendations is a critical skill in today’s workplace. CompTIA Cloud Essentials+ ensures that professionals understand how to evaluate business use cases, financial impacts, deployment models and cloud technologies.

With this knowledge, employees can make effective cloud recommendations that will reduce costs and add value to their organization. The cloud business skills CompTIA Cloud Essentials+ offers create the ideal foundation for earning vendor-specific cloud certifications down the road.
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Authentic Leadership Style with a+ network+ security+ jobs

Becoming a leader is no longer as simple as being promoted into a management position regardless of your talents. Whether you’re already a manager or aspiring to take on a more senior role in your organisation, it’s important to understand your own leadership style so you can behave in an authentic and inspiring way. This was the topic of a recent ANZ Channel Community Webinar. Listen to the webinar on-demand.

Even the meaning of leadership has changed as the realities of and expectations about work have evolved. In a world of constant change and disruption, good leaders must be adaptable to new ways of thinking and working and must understand the complexities of their staff to provide the support necessary for teams and individuals to thrive. Leaders today must make themselves available as mentors to guide the next generation of workers. The strongest leaders maintain a close connection to others which allows them to inspire and empower staff.

How do companies ensure they’re focused on the end-user customer experience?

TF: The reality is that in the MSP world, all that you're going to hear about are vendors, distributors and MSPs. Very, very rarely are you going to hear about a thought-out customer experience, and never, ever will you hear about the end-user. An example of that is: How often do vendors that have a channel-only play and provide customer facing documentation? Never — or rarely. They're going to provide MSP-facing documentation, and then, that must be translated by the MSP to the customer. That hurts the customer experience.

Becoming a good leader doesn’t happen because of a job title. While management is quite a tactical position that involves keeping teams on track to achieve business objectives, leadership leans more toward communicating vision to inspire teams and building strong employee engagement by fostering trust among staff.
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Skills to Boost Cybersecurity Efforts

IT projects have many moving parts and require the kind of strategic approach provided by a project manager to limit problems and delays. Applying project management skills enables IT pros to maximize budget and resources while maintaining the scope of work.

Cybersecurity professionals are increasingly expected to master project management, but technical skills are only the tip of the iceberg. It’s essential to approach cybersecurity not just from a security knowledge standpoint, but also with business goals in mind. Below are six project management skills that can help more cybersecurity projects succeed.
Set Clear Project Expectations, Focus and Outcome

When expectations are not clear, projects can lack focus and project participants have a hard time seeing how their tasks tie back to the final outcome. With project management training, IT pros learn how to prepare a clear and complete project plan so everyone knows what they are supposed to do, what to expect from the final product and how what they’re assigned relates to it.

“Often something is produced and it doesn’t really meet the needs of the group,” said Richard Rieben, director, audit operations, at KirkpatrickPrice. “Clients are unhappy with what’s been created or produced because requirements weren’t successfully evaluated in the initial stages of the project.”
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The New CompTIA Linux+

From emerging tech and the cloud to cybersecurity and DevOps, Linux is everywhere and used to manage everything from cars and smartphones to servers and supercomputers. This week, CompTIA launched the latest version of CompTIA Linux+ (XK0-004), which was revised in many ways beyond the obvious change from two exams to one. The new CompTIA Linux+ validates the skills you need to use Linux in today’s tech environment in jobs such as systems administrator, network administrator, web administrator, Linux software developers and more.

We know you have questions about the new exam, so we’ve asked Zach Hill from I.T. Career Questions to help you understand what’s on the new exam and how it will help you in your IT career.
What’s on the new CompTIA Linux+ exam?

The new CompTIA Linux+ validates the competencies required of an early career IT professional supporting Linux systems.

In addition to topics traditionally associated with systems administration tasks, such as configuring, managing, operating and troubleshooting in a Linux environment, the new exam has an increased focus on the following areas:
Security
Kernel Modules
Storage and virtualization
Enterprise-level device management
DevOps basics, through Git and automation
Networking and firewalls, especially involving security issues
Server side and command line, for server management in a multi-server environment
Troubleshooting
SELinux, with a focus on implementation of this robust security system
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Linux and IoT Scalability

Over the past several months we have covered a number of topics on Linux and IoT:
From Embedded Linux to IoT
3 Benefits of Embedded Linux in IoT Development
Linux, Cybersecurity and Protecting Industrial Control Systems

This series concludes with the background of Linux and IoT scalability.

What Makes Linux So Scalable?

There are many reasons for the scalability of Linux:
Building on UNIX: UNIX was designed for ease of portability across processor architectures.
Writing the Linux system in C: The C language was designed to be portable in support of UNIX design standards.
Being an open source product: Linux has the backing of thousands of open source developers.

While these are all contributing factors, insight, successful design and the need for a portable operating system are the most likely reasons for the scalability of Linux.

How Scalable Is Linux?

It would be easier to count the processor architectures that Linux doesn’t run on than provide a list of all the architectures that it does work on. As of this publication, 31 different processors are currently supported for Linux. These architectures range from postage stamp-sized computers to mini-computers, and all the way up to the IBM Z-Series computers. Linux systems are scalable from computers that fit in your pocket to computers that require a full floor of a large building, and everything in-between.

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Compliance in Cybersecurity

If you are not familiar with cybersecurity compliance, you will be soon. More and more companies are forced into compliance as privacy issues and theft affect their businesses. IT compliance is defined as the actions or facts of complying to a regulation. Regulations are high-level guidelines created for specific industries to address specific problems.

Here are a few real-world examples of regulations that impact IT pros:
The global finance industry uses credit card numbers, and those numbers must be encrypted to avoid theft, so the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) was created.
The health care industry uses patient health information (PHI) that must be securely transmitted to doctor’s offices and insurance providers, so the United States created the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).
Federal governments work on national security, so the United States created the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) to ensure all agencies secure their data.

More recent privacy laws such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) ensure customer data is protected and stored locally to the consumer. That means if you are a U.S.-based company and you have customers in Europe, you must ensure the customer data is stored in Europe and bound by European laws, even though your company is in the United States. IT teams must work harder to ensure they comply with the growing number of regulations.
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Reasons comptia a+ eLearning

eLearning is easy to love because it enables you to learn from anywhere, engage with training content, practice what you’ve learned, combine new learning with prior knowledge and test with confidence.
Learn from Anywhere: If you aren’t able to get to a class or one isn’t offered near you, eLearning lets you learn from anywhere with an internet connection. And you can decide if you want to work on your own schedule or attend a virtual class.
Engage with Training Content: There’s nothing more frustrating than zoning out while you’re supposed to be learning. Online learning takes the boredom out of IT training by integrating games, simulations, quizzes and multiple types of media into learning content.
Practice What You've Learned: One of the most powerful ways to retain knowledge is to practice what you’ve learned. eLearning gives you the chance to pause and replay a lesson over and over and take perfectly timed quizzes to ensure you retain the information long term.
Test with Confidence: No matter how much you know, going into a testing situation with low confidence can sabotage your success. eLearning tools build your confidence by giving you plenty of opportunities to practice what you’ve learned and get a sense of what testing feels like.
Combine New Learning with Prior Knowledge: If you already have some knowledge on the topic you’re studying, you may want to prioritize your studies based on what you don’t yet know versus what you do. Some eLearning platforms are designed to build upon your existing knowledge to help you learn new skills.


Working with someone that is picky about the projects they want to be involved in can be tough. But as an IT generalist, you provide flexibility and dependability. Working with a jack of all trades is enjoyable, and when there is work that needs to be done quickly, being the go-to guy or gal is extremely respectable.

The 2020 IT Industry Outlook highlights the following as some of the top skills IT managers are looking for:
Teamwork: Your broad knowledge allows you to dive into a variety of projects at your organization, making you a great team player.
Breadth of Skill: IT managers note that having a wide range of abilities is valuable because it helps mitigate everyday work challenges. As an IT generalist, this is your bread and butter.
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MSP Trends, Tech Career Paths and More

The IT job market is always a hot topic, especially with college graduation season around the corner. The Technologist Talk podcast spent March doing a deep dive into three pervasive topics for today’s technologist—both those beginning their careers or in the middle of it. In Episode 23, CompTIA’s Amy Kardel, vice president of strategic workforce relationships, and Angel Pineiro, vice president of strategic academic relationships, discuss the way the IT industry communicates with the next generation of technologists—and the people teaching them.“There’s such work to be done making sure education and industry are talking to each other; there’s an unnecessary gap between the two worlds. So we talk about what quality certifications the industry is looking for because they want to produce students who are ready to go into the workforce, and who knows that better than the people who are close to the industry? We need to be at those tables and share that information and talk to the quality of standards that we see.”Amy Kardel, Vice President, Strategic Workforce Relationships, CompTIA

In Episode 24, Mark Plunkett and Jason Mangold of CompTIA consider another branch of the IT job landscape. Listen in as they explain why organizations investing in IT receive the highest ROIs for their businesses, and most importantly, the workers in their local communities.“If we’re going to build the pipeline as we need to and shorten the skills gap, we need to break down the perceived barriers to a career in tech. A lot of that goes back to the flexible approach and creating opportunities for individuals to learn, of going against the norm to try new things and putting different methods out there.”Mark Plunkett, Senior Director, Custom Training Solutions, CompTIA

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