Maintaining Proficiency

I believe this goes with a lot of things. CCNA (or any Cisco certifications), driving (a car/commercial vehicle), riding a motorcycle, flying an airplane, programming, using Linux...

I'll use CCNA as a prime example. If you didn't know CCNA, it stands for Cisco Certified Network Associate. I was certified back in 2013, and that sort of help me get my job as a Helpdesk System Engineer/NOC operator at a IT Solutions/System Integrator company (it's actually a buzzword in Hong Kong IT field).

The job itself didn't use my full knowledge of CCNA. Although I was touching Fortigates, JunOS, Juniper ScreenOS and Extreme Networks, that was literally turning it on, checking the serial numbers, and that's it. I didn't get to play and tinker with them thoroughly, so gradually I start forgetting stuffs.

When the 3 year validity was coming to an end, I was hoping to at least pass the CCNP switching exam, but I failed it. There was a lot of stuff I need to re-learn again throughout the study process because I forgot them.

I don't blame the company, because like stuff you learn from university/high school, in real life, chances are, you don't use those knowledge. Not to mention, people "brain dump" the answers for these exams without understanding it, and that makes it even more likely to forget what you were certified for. I'm a very hands on person. I think being certified means proving to other people, I really know my stuffs and I wouldn't get caught out in job interviews.

Muscle memory, Google it, ("Ask it", remember the search engine?). You learn stuff by repeatedly doing it and the more you do it, the more you'll improve. But once you stop doing it, you start forgetting.

Every winter, I take a few months off riding my 2014 ZX-6R motorcycle. When spring comes, when I ride my bike again for the first time of the year, I felt uneasy, a bit not knowing what to do. The controls seemed unfamiliar, and the weight of the bike in slow maneuvers seemed unsettling, causing me to nervously twitch...

I used to ride my bike up to 160km/h, and proudly present my smooth slow riding ability with full lock turn on the ZX-6R. All of that went out the window when I first climbed on the bike in the coming new year. But of course, by riding my bike more, it slowly builds up my confidence and skills, and before I know it, I'm back to my glory days.

Same goes with Java programming, I didn't touch programming since University, so when I had a new idea of what I want to make, I overcame this first stage of "not knowing how to start". Thank you, Internet. I went through the Java introduction tutorials, and that brought me back to understanding other people's Java code. I wrote my little program in 4 hours. (It was actually a program testing the Server's port response and recording the result into a txt file.)

So I just want to say, be humble. Don't be too proud of yourself. Don't resist the idea of practicing something you thought you mastered. Reach out to new technologies. You might be surprised when you actually start practicing after a long period of time. That's how you maintain proficiency.

I had my bus/24ton truck license long ago, I might need to start practicing driving those before I really forget. But where do I find a truck that big to drive?