How do you keep your IT skills current?

How you learn: vendor documentation and release notes for the platforms you run, a home lab or free cloud tier for hands-on practice, and certifications where they fill a structured gap. Be honest that certifications demonstrate knowledge rather than experience — claiming otherwise is easily exposed.

What is worth prioritising:

• Fundamentals first. Networking, operating systems, identity, and how DNS actually works underpin everything and do not go out of date. Someone who understands these can learn any specific product.
• Automation and scripting. PowerShell or Python is now close to essential — the manual work IT used to do is increasingly expected to be scripted, and it is the clearest way to move beyond repetitive tasks.
• Cloud platforms, because almost every environment now includes them.
• Security, which has become part of every IT role rather than a separate specialism.

How you apply it: pick one thing you do repeatedly and automate it. That produces a demonstrable result, teaches the skill properly, and is something concrete to talk about in an interview.

Note: Naming the specific next thing you intend to learn and why gives a much more credible answer than listing everything you have looked at.