Working in IT is more than just a job.
It's a career path.
Research shows that the field of IT support is
a launchpad for future career growth and better wages.
In fact, a study on the subject was recently conducted by
the Harvard Business School Accenture and
Burning Glass entitled Bridge the Gap.
It found that among today's middle-skilled jobs which
require training but not a formal college degree,
IT support offers clear pathways to prosperity.
We saw this phenomenon play out here at Google,
in our IT support program.
Those who push themselves to learn how to code in
Python typically saw strong career growth.
They built skills that are critical to
accessing higher level positions in the IT field,
and after honing those skills
through hard work and determination,
they advanced into more technical IT support specialists.
Systems administrators, technical solutions engineers,
and even site reliability engineers.
The common thread across all of these roles is
knowing how to write code to solve
problems and automate solutions.
By expanding your toolbox to include coding skills,
you open a window into the world of systems management
that can lead you towards
more advanced technical roles down the line.
Python in particular is having a huge surgeons.
According to the 2019 Stack Overflow Developer Survey,
Python is the coding language most people want to learn.
The second most loved by those who already
know it and the fourth most popular overall.
So why take this program to learn how to code in Python?
Well, first it's geared towards people who are
already in or aspiring to be in the field of IT.
Maybe you're thinking bigger about your current IT role
and want to work towards managing operations at scale,
or maybe you're just starting out and
looking to break into the IT industry.
Perhaps you've taken
our IT Support Professional Certificate program
on Coursera already,
or you have equivalent IT support
knowledge with basic computing skills,
like working with files and directories,
familiarity with networking concepts,
and understanding how to install
software on your computer.
In any case, this program is tailor-made for you.
Second, this program offers three
hands-on methods of teaching coding
and Python and automation.
Code blocks, Jupyter notebooks, and Qwiklabs.
Third, we've assembled an awesome group of
Googlers who will serve as
your instructors in each course.
They all started their careers in IT support then learned
programming and moved onto more technical roles like me.
We can't wait to share our stories with
you on how we use Python in our day-to-day.
Oh and hey, I should probably introduce myself.
My name is Christine Rafla,
and I'm a Systems Administrator at Google.
I will be your instructor in this course.
This program has been
entirely designed and developed by Google
and we even filmed each course
at different cool Google spaces.
It will introduce you to
the Python programming language with
a special focus on how this language
applies to automating tasks in the world of
IT systems support and administration.
I'm super excited to be here with you.
When I was younger, I had
no idea that careers in IT even existed.
There are a lot of reasons I wanted to
participate in the certificate program.
But one of my biggest motivations is that I
want to see more women represented in the industry.
I remember going to
a System Administration Summit where there were
hundreds of men and
about three women that were sysadmins.
A lot has changed since then but there's still so much we
can do to bring new ideas and
representation into the IT field.
That's why I want to share my knowledge
with as many people as possible.
I love my job and I love the people I work with because
they make it easy to ask for
help and offer their guidance.
This type of support network allows our team and
ultimately our industry to be more successful.
I understand from experience
that it can feel pretty intimidating
and maybe even a bit scary to learn a coding language.
Just remember, everyone started where
you are right now with the first command,
the first script, and of course,
the first of many errors.
When I started out in my career,
I strive to get everything
perfectly right the first time I tried it.
But that actually slowed down my progress.
So don't be afraid to make mistakes,
it will give you a leg up.
So let's get down to it. What's ahead?
The program begins with
a crash course in Python where you will
learn to write simple programs and
understand their role in automation.
Next, we'll get more hands-on focus
on how Python interacts with the operating system.
After that, we'll cover how to use Git
and GitHub to manage versions of your code.
Then we will focus on
troubleshooting and debugging techniques to
find and solve the root cause
of problems in IT infrastructure.
The next course covers
automating at scale where you will learn to
deploy configuration management on a fleet of
either physical or virtual machines running in the Cloud.
Last up, we will bring
all this knowledge together and complete
a final project designed to solve tasks that
you might encounter in real-world IT settings.
Bonus, you can post your projects to GitHub to show off
your fancy new skills to employers or friends or both.
That was a lot to rattle off.
Are you excited or what?
Now I'd like to quickly introduce you to
my fellow instructors who
you will get to meet along the way.
Hey, my name is Roger Martinez.
I'm a Linux System Administrator,
and I'll be your instructor in the course on using
Python's interacts with operating system.
Hi. I'm Kenny Sulma,
and I'll be your guide in the course about using
Git and GitHub to manage versions of your code.
Hi there. I'm Amanda Ballas,
and I'll be teaching you about
troubleshooting and debugging.
Hey, I'm Phelan Vendeville, and in my course,
we'll learn about Automation at scale
using Configuration Management and the Cloud.
Thanks everyone.
This all-star team was brought together
to guide you on your adventures in coding.
You're in very good hands.
Okay, I think that's everything.
Let's get ready to learn some new skills
and maybe even have some laughs along the way.
I'll see you in the next video.