Support Tips #2 - The importance of your toolbox
Tags: career, softskills, learning, tips
Published: 2022-06-08 12:14:08


Photo by [Антон Дмитриев](https://unsplash.com/@ehmitrich?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText) on [Unsplash](https://unsplash.com/s/photos/toolbox?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText)

A few years ago, I shared an apartment in the Historic Center of São Paulo with a very dear friend. During this period his mother had some difficulty at her house and needed to spend time with us. It wasn't a problem for me, as we had agreed on things like that, about sheltering family members in difficulty or even other friends before we signed the partnership.

Everything ok so far. There were no problems during her stay, we became friends, we talked a lot about many things and it was a very gratifying experience to learn from someone with more experience than me, even nowadays I have more contact with her than with him, but a thing struck me during this period and that was the reason for writing this article today.

I don't remember the exact day, but I was taken by surprise when we were cleaning the apartment with a quote from her:

– I don't know what you have a toolbox for if I've never seen you use it.

I laughed, it was funny that she pointed this out, in fact, I hardly ever used that toolbox and only cleaned it once or twice a year, to check for rust or sometimes when I needed some pliers and remembered it existed. . At the moment I just replied:

- Oh, it's there for when you need it. Better to have than not to have.

And we go on with life.

## What do this situation and the Technology Support Sector have in common?

All.

Your toolbox doesn't need to have pliers, a hammer, a little slurry in an old mayonnaise jar, and pounds of recycled screws from things that no longer fit me, like mine. The truth is, you may not even need a physical toolbox, it may be easier to hire a professional for woodworking services or to tinker with your plumbing if you find that more convenient.

But when we bring this concept of the toolbox to the technological environment, we have a slightly broader notion of the importance of having the right tools to carry out your work or your hobbies.

I explain. When my friend's mother said that having a toolbox was useless for me, a guy with more PC skills than the physical disposition to sand a wall, for example, she wasn't looking further. Who has never had a problem with the shower in the middle of the night, a melted wire, or a switch that stops working and had to open it using a kitchen knife and several minutes of patience?

Well, having the right tools and not needing them is much better than not having the tools and needing them. After all, as the proverb said: "It is better to be a warrior in a garden, than a gardener in a war.".


![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/13z4vwtbr1dfqc123ing.jpg)

Photo by [ThisisEngineering](https://unsplash.com/@thisisengineering?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText) RAEng on [Unsplash](https://unsplash.com/s/photos/technician?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText)

Knowledge, more knowledge and a lot of knowledge.

This week, I started a new job. I was all excited and found myself thinking about this article and how I should write it, after all, the idea had been hammering in my head for a week.

The new job brought bigger challenges for me, I already have a good background working in the area of support and technology, so it was not a surprise for me when some new concepts appeared in the job description and a training path was presented to me.

I really liked the content and went through the paths, until at one point, one of the topics that the trail suggested was a training at Bonnie Biafore's LinkedIn Learning, on Project Management Fundamentals. I opened a wide smile, it was very nice to see it there, because about three weeks ago I had already completed this course.

It just served as an example for me about how important it is for you to have the right tools in your head, nestled right there in their corner. When I took the course, I thought: "Wow, it will be a cool experience, it will add things to my curriculum and well, knowledge is not lost."

But I didn't expect this knowledge to be used so quickly and especially recommended by my managers. The fact is that having the tools, or knowledge prepared in advance, saved me precious time and I was able to dedicate myself more to the specific areas of knowledge that the role requires.

This also happened with my recycling in Excel, since I had completed a very fruitful and extensive trail on LinkedIn Learning (see it here again) with instructors like Karine Lago, Laennder Alves and Cristiano Galvão. I thought to myself that I didn't use Excel a lot in my daily life, but it was really good to recycle and review the concepts I learned years ago, that is, polish the tool and fight rust, get the cobwebs out of the set.

It was great to have done that, because the test for the vacancy was exactly that, an Excel spreadsheet with several needs for advanced formulas and PivotTables that, to be honest, I knew how to do it, but I didn't even remember where to start before the course .


## And what are the best tools to have in my box?

Well, that's relative.

If you work in development and are an excellent Java programmer, why not take a look at alternative languages to the model, which follow the same paradigm? You won't lose anything by learning a little Kotlin, or keeping up to date with recent advances in using the Go Language.

If you are a project manager, Scrum Master or something similar, why not increase your knowledge by seeing similar cases of people in the same role, or even studying other agile management methods and taking the best of them to apply in your day-to-day tasks?

It is always possible to learn something new and, even if that knowledge seems useless or unnecessary for the moment, having a brief notion about the most varied areas will be very important in some unexpected situation and maybe even give you a competitive advantage in specific points of the your career.

That's all folks, I hope you liked it! See you next time.