How to get into I.T. and win! | Interview with Symbiont President Johnathan Lightfoot

How to get into I.T. and win! | Interview with Symbiont President Johnathan Lightfoot Johnathan's contact details: Email: jlightfoot@symbiont.com Phone: 301-650-0069 Johnathan Professional Bio Johnathan Lightfoot has been involved with IT for over 20 years. He has worked in various roles including Help Desk, Level II and III Desktop Support, Networking, Windows and AS-400 Server Administration, Developer, SharePoint Architect, and Vice President of Applications Development. Companies he is fortunate to have worked for in the past include Electronic Data Systems, Hawaiian Telcom and Norwegian Cruise Line (yes. he actually worked on the ships as a Systems Manager). However, the best experiences he says he has had were his nine years serving in the United States Navy. Johnathan has also published three books on Microsoft Technologies. Due to his experience he is called upon to work with new startups to establish their software architecture as well as their technical teams. Johnathan can take the strategic direction and dreams of a company and transform those into technology reality. Currently, he is the President of Government Contracting firm Symbiont, Inc. an Information Technology confirm. A 36-year-old Family owned, operated, and managed business. ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• --------- Contents of this interview -------- 00:00 - Interview Starts 03:56 - Mr. Lightfoot, how did you get started in IT? 13:23 - The business you took over from your father he actually took over from his father? A black owned IT company that has been around for 36 years? 15:31 - Was your grandfather in the military? 16:48 - Was your father in the military? 17:14 - What year was that when you started learning SharePoint? 17:35 - You mentioned that you took stopped working for 6 or 7 months and focused on SharePoint, what made you do that and how did you benefit from taking that time and just focusing on just one technology? 22:52 - At that time you must have been financially stable to make that decision? How did you get the confidence to take that leap and still be able to support yourself? 26:03 - What is your advice for someone to get the skills to get those positions? How did taking 6 months to focus on a hot technology pay dividends for you? 29:12 - Have you ever burnt out in your career? 37:15 - What's your advice for avoiding that? 41:22 - What does it look like to employers if you have a history of leaving jobs every 6 months to one year or 18months? 44:33 - How long does it take to learn the job? 48:58 - Good employees don't have leave good managers, what's your thought on that? 52:52 - If you were to advise someone on getting into IT, would you tell them certification or college? 59:12 - If you going to get a certification make sure you know what you just learned 01:03:35 - Embrace the journey and run the marathon 01:05:55 - I wanna get in tech, I'm in customer service, I have management experience, where do I start? 01:07:07 - You do government contracting, how hard is it to take your project management skills/certs and get into government contracting? 01:09:23 - What's your opinion about delving into cloud computing? 01:10:49 - How can I get into IT other than certification? 01:14:55 - Is it ever too late to transition from a career outside of IT? 01:16:13 - Can you work for a government contract via remote? 01:17:43 - For someone that maybe thinking of getting a government contracting or having their own business, what’s your advice on that? 01:21:39 - When it comes to betting on government contract, is it easy or hard? 01:26:42 - When it comes to being a sub and you have a task, can you describe what the task might be? 01:38:51 - Jonathan says: I wanna address something in comment that someone said about working for an ISP 01:45:58 - Mr. Lightfoot if you could take us out 01:45:44 - Outro 📚Books I am reading: Black Fortunes:https://amzn.to/3jaPc1N Deep Work: https://amzn.to/3j9qRcI A Man and His Watch: https://amzn.to/3j9kAO5 Basquiat: https://amzn.to/2WiUMqm Black Titan: https://amzn.to/3jhbaAx 📚Python Books: Python Crash Course: https://amzn.to/3msr2Ce Automate the Boring Stuff with Python: https://amzn.to/3msk2F6 Mastering Python Networking: https://amzn.to/3msRzzg Python for Kids: https://amzn.to/2XSl1nZ Grokking Algorithms: https://amzn.to/3Db2nrB Du'An Lightfoot on Social Media: https://twitter.com/labeveryday DISCLAIMER: This video and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. This helps support the channel and allows us to continue to make videos like this. Thank you for the support! #LabEveryday