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What are some steps I could take in high school that can lead me to be either a Database Administrator or a Systems Architect?

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Adhiragni’s Answer

Hi Jenny, start with basics. If you have Computer Science as a subject in your school, take that up. To become a Systems Architect you need to understand computers, servers, storage, virtualisation, networking, cloud, software, security etc. Start with basics, understand what computing components are needed to run a data centre or any company in general. Make sure you understand the concepts clearly. Integration and implementation of these are important as well. You could also take some certifications online. Learn to code if you are interested. Good luck!
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Karan’s Answer

There is some good feedback from others on the classes and focus areas. But what I would suggest is also read about how some of the big companies are designing systems for scale. They are usually in the form of white papers. They help you walk through the Theory, understand the problem space a bit better (why some systems need millisecond lag design for example) and how they chose to solve the problem. It will help expand your awareness of different systems and how they are setup. Youtube is also a great resource with lots of different people talking about systems and how to design them. And if you get an opportunity and can code, always try and build your own mini database or system with multiple components and see how they work. Good luck on your journey.
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Toby’s Answer

Jenny you have some good advise here from others in the industry. I'll supplement with some different advice on choosing a career in technology. Technology is a great career and a great way to earn a living, high growth, high pay, upward mobility. My advice would be to think about the skill set you would like to develop ... ultimately you want to be in high demand throughout your career. In other words, you can be a great software developer or database administrator ... but end up working for a dead end no growth company. Research high growth technology companies and find out what skills they are hiring for ... big companies like Oracle, Microsoft, Google and even early stage companies Zscaler, Crowdstrike, Cloudflare ($300M in revenues or larger). Look thru their career sites and see who they are hiring and what skills they would like to hire. This will provide you a broad range of jobs exposure that you may not have thought of.

Once you understand what companies value in their technical employees ... then you can make a plan to start learning those skills. And you don't need to limit yourself to just working in IT. Look at silicon valley type technology companies ... they typically lead the industry and set the bar. Software development, software design ... or solving business problems with technology is what companies need. Managing software applications is something companies can outsource to foreign countries and you may find your skillset in low demand. R&D, technology development, software engineering are all high level skills that US companies cannot get enough of. Learn to develop a good business acumen and understanding of how businesses operate so you can communicate technology in terms of business benefits ... ie. develop this software to solve this problem to either drive down costs or generate more profits. Learn to be good at presenting technical solutions so that executives can understand them and make critical business decisions.

See what jobs involve these kinds of business/technical skills and then look for a mentor in those job roles. This will give you an inside look at the job so you can understand whether you'll enjoy the job or not.

Toby recommends the following next steps:

Learn the basics of software development, design and coding ... this is an invaluable skill set in today's technology company
Learn about enterprise systems architecture and how to make systems work together to achieve business results
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Teresa’s Answer

Hello! If your school offers Computer Science, I would start there. Your school may not offer other classes for that career track, but there are so much available on the internet. I would highly recommend learning code as soon as possible. This is such as good baseline for moving towards Information Technology. Check out this website for free coding classes - https://www.freecodecamp.org/
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