🎯 THE BIG STORY — How I'm Hedging My IT Career Against AIIt's becoming harder to predict what an IT career will look like ten years from now. But it's much easier to figure out what you can do over the next year. I've been thinking about this quite a bit as I consider how to protect and grow my own career. I don't think most experienced IT professionals need to abandon their specialties to become AI engineers. If you understand networking, infrastructure, cybersecurity, or identity, you already have knowledge that businesses depend on. AI gives you an opportunity to do considerably more with it. But there's another side to this. The bigger threat isn't necessarily AI replacing you. It's someone with less experience using AI to become more valuable than you. Someone who understands how to use AI effectively might accomplish work that previously required years of experience. That's a reason to take AI seriously, even if you aren't particularly worried about losing your job to it. 💸 THE MONEY MOVE — The Next $200K IT Specialist Will Be AI NativeI've spent years developing technical skills that helped me move into better-paying IT positions. Historically, the formula was fairly straightforward. Learn valuable technology. Get experience. Become useful. Move into positions where companies will pay more for your expertise. I still believe in that approach. But AI introduces another variable. How much useful work can you accomplish with the experience you already have? Consider two engineers who understand the same infrastructure. One manually researches, configures, tests, and documents everything. The other knows how to use AI to accelerate much of that work while validating the results. The difference in productivity could be substantial. And I suspect employers will increasingly recognize that difference. Your next compensation increase might come from making your existing expertise more productive rather than acquiring an entirely new specialization. 🤖 THE AI BET — I Built an Enterprise IT Lab With a Voice NoteI used to spend days building technical labs. Configuring virtual machines, installing software, creating users, troubleshooting problems, testing configurations, and documenting everything afterward. Recently, I went for a walk and had an idea for an IAM lab. I pulled out my phone and sent my AI agent a five-minute voice note describing what I wanted. By the time I got back to my computer, I had a working lab with automatically generated diagrams and documentation for my GitHub portfolio. And it made me realize something. The gap between having an idea for an IT lab and actually building it is becoming a voice note away. Think about how many technologies you've wanted to explore but never got around to because building the environment seemed like too much work. This makes experimenting with unfamiliar enterprise technology considerably more accessible. I can spend less time setting things up and more time understanding how they work. 🧠 FOOD FOR THOUGHTThere's an endless stream of new AI tools being released. Hermes, OpenClaw, Dots, and whatever comes next. It's easy to spend more time experimenting with AI tools than actually using AI to solve problems. I've taken a different approach. I use one primary AI agent that understands my IT environment. It helps me build labs, test configurations, troubleshoot problems, and document the results. And when I need additional automation, I can use that same agent to build it. The goal isn't to have the most sophisticated AI setup. It's to become more capable at the work you already do. 🎧 ON THE PODCASTThe Next $200K IT Specialist Will Be AI Native I discuss why AI could change what employers value in experienced IT professionals and how I'm positioning my own career around that shift. If you're already working in IT, I think this is an opportunity worth paying attention to. 📖 FEATURED RESOURCE — The AI-Ready IT Professional85-Page eBook | $9 One-Time Purchase You don't need to spend months figuring out Hermes, OpenClaw, Dots, or every new AI tool that comes along. One capable AI agent is all you need to get serious value from AI in your IT career. I used to spend days building, troubleshooting, and documenting technical labs. Now AI handles much of that work, sometimes from a voice note on my phone. I wrote an 85-page ebook showing you how to build a similar environment. Inside, you'll learn how to:
The ebook includes hands-on labs you can recreate to develop skills used in real enterprise environments. Stop chasing AI tools and use one to become a more valuable IT professional. $9. One-time purchase. No subscription. → Get The AI-Ready IT Professional That's it for this week's brief. Yours truly, |
CyberAndChill Brief #3: Your IT Experience Isn't the Advantage It Used to Be
Originally published on CyberAndChill.