Stay a Tech Savvy IT Consultant, Part 1

Being a seasoned IT consultant means you are expected to know many technologies that are out there today. You are also expected to be an expert in few of them. Working with Microsoft technologies for past 6-7 years, I found it overwhelming with number of new technologies they are coming out with and trying to keep myself up-to-date with them. I've always been struggling to find out what would be the best way to keep myself up-to-date and how I should go about mastering new technologies. I've sought advice from many seasoned developers. But what worked for them many not necessarily work for me. So I put down few points to help other IT consultants stay tech savvy and in the long run, become a great consultant.

So first thing first. What technologies are out there today? What are the purposes? How do they solve our business needs? There are number of ways to keep yourself in the loop. You can subscribe to magazines like MSDN Magazine (online is free), CoDe Magazine, asp.netPRO, or SQL Server Magazine. There are podcasts that you can listen to while driving or commuting to and from work. DotNetRocks is a great podcast show that will keep you informed of latest Microsoft technologies with interviews from many known figures in the community. You can also attend local .NET usergroups. How about attending MSDN Developer's Conference (PDC)? You can find out if there is one coming up near your town from MDC Website.

You can read blogs by some of the known people in the community. I enjoy reading Scott Guthrie's blog, Scott Mitchell's blog, and Rick Strahl's Weblog to name just a few. Just subscribe to their RSS and have the content emailed to your Outlook as new contents get published.

How about online communites? There are number of great communities out there for learning .NET. Starting with ASP.NET Site and MSDN Code Gallery, you can get very good tips and tutorials about .NET from 4 Guys From Rolla, 15 Seconds, Code Project, DotNetJunkies, ASP Alliance, and ASPFree. Believe me, there are more great communities, but those are what I came up with at the moment. As I come across other ones, I will add them here.

So for the first part of the article, I listed some methods and sources that will help you become a top-notch IT consultant. Above all, you should have the curiosity and desire to learn a new technology. If you happen to drive a lot, podcast is your friend. In part 2, I will talk about how to best master a technology.