From Business Student to Self-Taught Tech Professional: A Learning Journey

August 22, 2025 Learning Career Development

My relationship with computers started way before I knew what a “tech career” even was. Growing up with financial constraints, Linux became my gateway to technology, teaching me to squeeze performance from limited resources. This journey from necessity-driven learning to business-grade technical skills shaped my approach to both technology and problem-solving.

From Business Student to Self-Taught Tech Professional: A Learning Journey

Growing up money was tight. When I wanted to run game servers or even run applications on the weak hardware I had, Linux became my best friend. It could squeeze performance out of old machines that Windows would kill, being extremely scalable, lightweight, and versatile. That necessity taught me terminal commands, bash scripting, and how to make computers do exactly what I needed with minimal resources.

Open source software stood not only as a philosophy, but also a form of survival for me. Can’t afford Adobe Creative Suite? Learn DaVinci Resolve and GIMP. Need vector graphics? Inkscape works just fine. Want to compress videos to save storage? FFmpeg and open source tools got the job done.

I’ve been embedded with computers my whole life. Building systems from scratch, even starting a small computer building service for people in my area. Hours spent on Linux ricing to get my desktop perfect, video editing and compression, working with music software, game server management, basically any creative or technical outlet I could find with a computer, I dove into.

So when I started my Commerce degree with an Entrepreneurship focus, I already had this foundation of making technology work on a budget, and had developed strong software literacy from youth to my adulthood. The difference was now I needed to turn hobbyist computer skills into actual business-grade infrastructure and development capabilities, and invest in stronger hardware beyond gaming or leisure. Here’s how I bridged that gap.

The Foundation: Books and Structured Learning

My technical journey began with carefully selected foundational texts that provided both theoretical understanding and practical application:

Programming Fundamentals

Systems Administration

Infrastructure and DevOps

Hands-On Implementation: The Homelab Laboratory

Reading provided the foundation, but real learning happened through building. My homelab became my primary learning environment, where I could experiment with enterprise technologies safely. Homelabbing required stringent research of documentation, and leveraging the man(manual), apropos commands, and the Arch Linux wiki along with StackOverflow. The prime appeal of Linux is the strong documentation, many users providing and requesting solutions, working as a large community that helps one-another learn and continuously improve the platform.

Infrastructure Evolution

Starting with a basic understanding of virtualization, I progressively built:

  1. Proxmox VE Deployment - Chose open-source hypervisor over expensive, proprietary VMware licensing
  2. TrueNAS Implementation - Learned storage management, RAID configurations, and network shares, the latter two learned from computer building
  3. Docker Service Stack - Deployed 8+ containerized services including Nextcloud, Pi-hole, and monitoring systems
  4. Network Security - Implemented WireGuard VPN with DNS filtering and SSL certificate management using DuckDNS, all free

Learning Through Problem-Solving

Every service deployment taught new skills:

Programming and Automation Skills

Python Development

Beyond basic syntax, I developed practical Python skills through:

Infrastructure as Code

AI and Machine Learning Integration

Local AI Deployment

Research Automation

The Business-Tech Integration

What makes my learning unique is the constant connection between technical skills and business applications:

Market Research Technology

Project Management Integration

Lessons from Self-Directed Learning

What Worked Well

  1. Project-Based Learning: Every book was immediately applied to real projects
  2. Documentation Habit: Maintained detailed notes and configuration files
  3. Community Engagement: Forums, YouTube and Reddit provided crucial problem-solving support
  4. Iterative Improvement: Constantly refined and rebuilt systems with new knowledge, learning as mistakes were made

Common Pitfalls

  1. Hardware Planning: Gaming hardware (AMD 6900XT) has significant limitations for AI/ML workloads
  2. Security First: Early DNS security incident taught importance of proper configuration from start
  3. Backup Everything: Non-ECC RAM requires enhanced backup and monitoring practices
  4. Documentation: Underdocumented early work created challenges for maintenance, which over the course of deployment improved

Current Technical Capabilities

After 2+ years of dedicated self-study, I now possess:

Infrastructure & DevOps

Programming & Automation

AI & Machine Learning

The Business Advantage

This technical foundation provides unique advantages in business contexts:

Informed Decision Making

Rapid Prototyping

Cost Optimization

Looking Forward

The learning journey continues with planned expansions:

Immediate Goals

Long-term Vision

Advice for Other Self-Taught Learners

Start with Applicable Projects, and Open Source, Documented Solutions, Not Theory

Choose technologies that solve real problems in your life. My homelab addressed genuine needs for secure remote access and family cloud storage. It also untethers your life from subscriptions, and provides you means to understand the technologies running your IoT devices beyond.

Document Everything

Maintain detailed notes, configuration files, and decision rationales. Future you will thank present you. Creating audit logs actively, day by day, or even discussing changes or mistakes made will help you in the future, especially if issues re-arise with continuous deployments.

Embrace Failure as Learning

My DNS security incident was embarrassing but taught more about network security than any book could, and showcased how perpetually aware you have to be when dealing with your network topology, cybersecurity, among others. Diligence is key, but also understanding that you will make mistakes.

Connect Learning to Career Goals

Every technical skill should connect to your professional objectives. Business students learning tech have unique advantages in understanding practical applications, and it can save you money, allow you to be responsible for technical aspects most business owners shy away from, and glean insight on what runs your business’ infrastructure.

Community is Crucial

Forums, Reddit, and documentation are invaluable. Don’t hesitate to ask questions and share your solutions.

The combination of formal business education with self-taught technical skills creates unique opportunities in today’s technology-driven business environment. While the learning curve is steep, the ability to bridge business requirements with technical implementation provides significant competitive advantages in entrepreneurship and innovation. And as most of these services are free and open source, the bar of entry is only the time you are willing to commit.