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 resurgence. 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 strived 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.
