What's Your Origin Story?
Posted by TestOut Staff on
Every superhero has an origin story: an event, or series of events, that led him or her to put on a costume and start saving the world. Steve Rogers was a scrawny youth who wanted to help Uncle Sam fight the Third Reich. Then he got recruited to a secret "super soldier" project, received a dose of experimental serum, and — blam! — Captain America. Bruce Banner was a researcher assisting in a test detonation of a "gamma bomb." Then exposure to massive amounts of radiation caused him to transform into a mysterious "hulk."
In just a few weeks, Hollywood is relaunching the movie version (for the third time since 2002) of one of the most popular superheroes ever, wisecracking "webslinger" Spider-Man. At this point, we've heard teenage Peter Parker's origin story so many times that the details — radioactive spider, accidental bite, cue strange new abilities, adios "gentle" Uncle Ben — are probably more readily familiar to many than the Declaration of Independence, the Founding Fathers (except maybe for Alexander Hamilton) and the American Revolution itself.
Spider-Man, Captain America, Hulk, and all the rest are needed, of course, to protect their comic book realms from dastardly supervillains. Most of the actual problems in the world we live in, on the other hand, are solved by our ever-increasing ability to manipulate objects and systems with information technology. The real superheroes are the savvy IT professionals who are increasing both the breadth and application of human knowledge every day. And you don't even have to get bitten by a radioactive spider to become one.
Really, anyone who has a basic degree of computer fluency and likes to work with technology can join the IT ranks. There's no requirement that you be a punk kid like Peter Parker, or any number of high school students emerging into the world and thinking about their futures. With many IT professions in desperate need of qualified workers, the field as a whole is wide open to career switchers.
Like any superhero, of course, aspiring IT professionals do have to develop some special abilities. And that's where TestOut Continuing Education can help. TestOut CE offers the best, most effective IT training on the market. There are a lot of places where you can read, or watch videos, to get up to speed on IT. TestOut CE, however, offers the best integrated training solution you'll find, combining the usual study approaches with "live" practice in a simulated environment.
It's one thing to read about computer technology, or watch a video. What really solidifies that learning and locks it in place, however, is practical application. Learning how to do something is only Step 1 — Step 2 is actually doing it. With TestOut CE's LabSim tool, you complete both steps, one after the other. It may not be as dramatic as receiving a dose a super-soldier serum, or getting a bite on the arm from a radioactive spider, but the results are just as transformative.