Many professions and hobbies come with extensive and long-lasting expectations for the concept of "practice". When considering yourself and most of your peers in IT, InfoSec, SRE, DevOps and Software Engineering (or other closely related field), do you find that the concept of "practice" is happening or not? Please share any detailed thoughts in a comment!
Continual practice is needed to be a top-tier performer year after year.25%
Continual practice is needed to remain viable at all.55%
Some practice is needed, but most growth can happen "on the clock"12%
Professionals do not need to practice anymore.8%
Other. (Leave a comment)
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My personal experience is that very few technology professionals continue to practice after a few years of professional employment, and they fall into the trap that their experience will keep them growing fast enough to keep up.
The best technologists I know continue to stretch themselves on and off the job, keeping up with areas outside their primary focus and staying current on technical trends and advancements.
Just like learning to play the piano or guitar or building athletic skills at a professional level, it takes constant practice (weekly, if not daily) to keep those skills at a top level.
I'm not saying that everyone should dedicate hours a day to their profession for 5, 10, or 20+ years, but this kind of dedication separates top performers from average performers.