IT Job Advice: Documentation

Back when I started in IT, specifically back in college, there was a lot of advice I never got. When I got my first real IT job,I'm I thought the most important thing was technical skills. Now, I've learned something very important I wish I knew when I started. There's is a way to make a huge impression very quickly, faster than you can with demonstrating actual technical skills, even with limited technical skills, and secure your way to actually getting promoted. The biggest skill you can have is documentation. 

When I started in IT, I never thought about documenting because a lot of it seemed super simple. After years of pricing what I could do, I got asked about documentation. When I wrote it, I got told it was the first thing they ever read. I didn't understand what they wanted then, but now I know what was wanted. It may sound stupid and annoying, but what a lot of bosses in IT seem to want is easy to follow documentation so that anyone on your team can do the exact same things everyone else can in a pinch. 

This leads to a few different types of documentation you can make. The first is instructions. Given a scenario, follow the steps and even a trained monkey can look like a tech wizard. Another type of documentation is the broader troubleshooting guides. Give some commands or things to test and some dynamic workflow to either get a solution or information for a solution. Then we have diagrams. Explain what is plugged in where, how, why, etc. so that people can find what they need even if they don't really know what the setup should be. We also have the contact list. Who to contact for what with all the information needed. 

By creating documents like this in any format your job might have available, you can get instant praise at any IT job. A common problem occurs, link a document so no one needs to even ask about it repeatedly. Internet goes down, have the number and information on have ready to go with emergency level speed. Need to find where a specific device is plugged into or where a cable goes, check the diagram. Don't know how to troubleshoot some proprietary software your company uses, have a guide ready for your specific use case. 

I never really documented until my current job. Now, I work on a OneNote and SharePoint with a coworker. When a new lead took over, simply linking the document got us praise before we even demonstrated a single technical skill. It's even gone a step further into us attempting to document all the historical changes so we can go back and reference anything that anyone else has done. 

Now let's talk about verbosity and technical level. For emergency info like contacts, cut and dry works. For everything else, assume whoever looks at it, it's their first day on the job. Be specific, hand hold, and if needed, reference other references to detail acronyms, systems, and software. We're taking RFC level verbosity with day 1 technical hand holding. 

This is the advice I wish I had from day 1. Now let's say your job already has documentation, then what? Update everything you come across, full in any missing detail, and always tell people you updated or fixed it. You will get on much easier in your IT career if you document, talk about documenting, constantly respond with new updated documents, and make a workflow all about documenting.

Hope that helps anyone getting stuck in their IT career!