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Words for Training Contest — 2nd Place Winning Essay
Editor’s Note: This is the 2nd Place winning essay of our Words for Training Contest written by Kevin Jackson. If you missed the Grand Prize winning essay you can read it here.
Why I Wanted to Get Into the IT Field
It was about 17 years ago when I took my first computer apart.
I remember my wife, noticing parts everywhere, looking at me and saying, "I hope you know how to put that back together." She turned around and walked away.
Well, I was able to not only put the computer back together, but I was able to get it working. This began my love of technology.
At the time I was in the military. Several jobs later I became a Police Officer. As the years went by, the children grew, a job became a career, and I still had the urge to work with technology. I knew I would not be able to have a meaningful career in the technology field unless I got back to school, though.
I finally decided to return to school to get my Bachelor’s degree in Management in Information Technology. Throughout my education, I was thrilled to learn about cutting-edge technologies in the computer field, and how they worked.
My wife watched patiently as I took more computers apart and put them back together.
My final class paper discussed why the police department needed to update their firearms simulator technology. The paper earned an A, and the police department used my research and recommendations to purchase the latest firearms simulator available. I quickly became the firearms department’s technology guy and was given all the new weapons system that had to deal with technology.
I was trained as a Master Taser Instructor and put in charge of training all Taser users for the police department. Working with technology on a daily basis led me to realize that I wanted to learn and work even more with technology, and I decided to continue my education and pursue a Master’s degree.
As I went through my courses for my Master’s degree, I felt surer that the IT field was where I was meant to be. I began to think that maybe the police department was no longer the path I was meant to travel.
My graduation date got closer and I told my wife I would like to take a chance and make a complete career change. I started to look for a new position in what I hoped would be my next career.
I came across a job posting by the GE Healthcare Institute for a Technical Instructor. They were looking for a person who loved technology and wanted to teach others about technology. I knew I had found something interesting!
After making it through several levels of interviews, I was informed that this was an entirely new direction for the Healthcare Institute. They wanted an instructor who was willing to learn and teach several different areas of technology including computer repair, networking, and security.
I knew that this meant more training for me to get all of the different certifications needed to be successful in this position. I’m currently working on my CCNA and I’m preparing to hit the CompTIA certifications next.
I really love being in the IT field and I’m looking forward to all of the new opportunities that may come my way.
Leaving the police department and the City of Milwaukee after 18 years was a big step. But I feel confident that transitioning into the IT field has been the best decision.
I am able to both continue to learn about technologies, and teach others about IT technologies. The world we live in will continue to develop new technologies, and I am happy to be in a position to take the lead with those technologies.
…
Kevin Jackson works as a technical instructor for GE Healthcare. His career in IT started this past December after Kevin retired from the Milwaukee Police Department.
As a technical instructor for GE, Kevin teaches IT courses to hospital biomeds and GE field engineers . Hi approach to teaching IT is "If you are not having fun, you are not learning."
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3 Responses to “Words for Training Contest — 2nd Place Winning Essay”
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Kerri West Says:
August 7th, 2008 at 6:21 pm
Kevin, I’m so proud of you!!!
gil Says:
August 12th, 2008 at 8:03 am
Hi, kevin! im so happy for what you are doing right now. I’ve learned something from your essay.
Kevin Jackson Says:
August 12th, 2008 at 10:16 am
Thank you all for your comments. I hope this essay shows that you should never be afraid to take that next step.