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I'm interested in computers. How can i get more information about the people in the community?

I would like to get to know how/what people do in the industry. How they make the hardware. I would like to get more information about this topic and other related topics. #technology #tech #computers

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Elizabeth (Lizzie)’s Answer

Hi Cristian! Great question.

I'd recommend finding people you want to be like on Twitter, people who work in technology and with hardware.

Here are some people to maybe get you started:
Apple hardware engineer Colin Szechy (https://twitter.com/cszechy)
Apple hardware engineer Adeline Wang (https://twitter.com/AdelineWang13)

You can learn from their tweets, DM them questions about their educational backgrounds or experiences, recommendations for learning materials, and more, and maybe find their emails on their personal sites if they have one.

You can also find more hardware engineers by searching LinkedIn! https://www.linkedin.com/search/results/all/?keywords=apple%20hardware%20engineer&origin=GLOBAL_SEARCH_HEADER

Hope this helps--I found my first internship when my future-manager tweeted about the open role on her team. She was a woman of color in tech so I followed her, and I'm glad I did! I tweeted at her and responded to some of her tweets, engaging with her, so she recognized me when she saw my application. Social media can really help connect you, and people usually want to help!
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Alexandra’s Answer

Hi Cristian,

It is so good to see that you are interested in computers. It seems that you are interested in hardware and would like to know more about the topic as well as how it is manufactured.

The first thing that I would suggest and trying a search online. There is so much information related to technical hardware. It would help if you even narrowed it down to the type of hardware. Are you interested in hardware used in data centers? Do you want to build or fix laptops? Do you want to focus on networking hardware? If you narrow down to the type of hardware that interests you most, it would make the search process easier.

After you have done the above, I would suggest that you check out some of the companies that manufacture whatever it is you are interested in. 9 times out of 10 they have tons of free documentation or user guides right on their website.

In addition to that, let's say you are interested in fixing laptops. You can also look within your own community to see if you can identify any local businesses that do this exact thing. Then you could reach out to see if you could shadow someone for a day or two. When people really love what they do they really enjoy teaching/talking about it.

There are likely many videos on youtube and blogs by tech bloggers online that will go over some topic of interest. For example, here is a link that I found giving an overview of the basics inside of a computer: https://www.instructables.com/Introduction-to-hardware-Learn-the-basics/

Alexandra recommends the following next steps:

Identify the type of hardware you want to learn about.
Search online for large businesses that sell the specific hardware. Use their websites for free documentation/user guides.
Search on youtube for channels that may cover various hardware topics and may have a learning path that you can follow.
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Tony’s Answer

Christian, I suggest reading the book "The Soul of a New Machine" by Tracy Kidder, it documents the real-life challenges of designing a new computer. My co-worker had worked with Tom West, one of the hardware designers mentioned in the book. This will give you an idea of the different roles involved, and then perhaps you can decide which role fits best with your personality.
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Deepak’s Answer

Hey Cristian,

That is a very good question. It is often difficult to stay to up to date on the latest technology while trying to learn something completely new as well. I would suggest doing a mixed approach.

Start subscribing to tech news feeds whether it is on twitter or reddit. I would suggest subreddits like: technology, hardware, and any other specific topics which you are interested in.
Next start reading these feeds regularly, especially looking for new things happening in the industry. Invariably you will come across a term or a word that you don't understand. When this happens, I would suggest googling it to find out what that is and read up on it. This way, while keeping up with the news, you will still be gaining knowledge about.

I would also suggest taking online courses if you have time to learn some of the fundamentals. Coursera, Udemy, are some good sites with a lot of course which might contain courses which could help you.

Once you have started with these steps, you will also realize there are a lot of different sub fields within the general computer science and technology field. Find the one which interests you the most and try to dig deeper into one field. You could also try to do some small projects. For e.g. using kits like this https://www.arm.com/resources/education/education-kits

Good luck on your educational journey!
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Paul’s Answer

Hi Cristian,

Well the technology field is an entire ecosystem. Kinda like medicine where most folks will specialize in certain areas, but it takes all these different roles to make it work.

If you like STEM related subjects you may want to look into programming or design work. If you like writing and language arts maybe you would want to look into Program/Project Management. There are a hundred options in-between too :).

Its exciting to thing about starting a career in this field because there are so many options. I suggest you think about the kind of work you like doing now while your in school and pursue a job that would let you practice the skills you favor.

Then start at the beginning, you can access tons of free content for learning about technology subjects, you can pursue some of the basic certifications early. That might open the door to a cool internship, then you have a big head-start when you get into your career.

Paul recommends the following next steps:

you can access tons of free content for learning about technology subjects
you can pursue some of the basic certifications early
That might open the door to a cool internship
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Ken’s Answer

The computer technology community is vast and always open to sharing. I would suggest searching for user groups in your area as most of them are virtual these days and it is easy to attend activities. For instance VMWare has a great user group called VMUG and many manufactures present on a monthly basis.
As others have suggested, Linkedin is a great place to get plugged into local activities focused on your topic of interest.
Most manufacturing of computers is performed out of the country these days. But there is still a ton of work for installation and troubleshooting techs.
I have worked in the industry my entire professional career and am still going strong after 30 + years. You must be a personality that is open and adaptable to rapid change as tech is constantly evolving. That is the fun part!
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