What I study — and why I have never stopped learning
Updated: 6 days ago
Lifelong Learning: connecting technology, people and business.
A form, an idea and a door that opened
Get your favourite drink. Today we are taking a short trip back in time.
About fifteen years ago, I was working with ServiceNow, although I was not yet part of the platform’s development team. Some of my tasks involved filling in forms, and I wanted to speed up that work.
I had an idea: create a Google Chrome extension to fill them in.
I just needed to learn how to create a Google Chrome extension.
I started the traditional way: asking our old friend Google, opening several articles, reading and testing. When something did not work, I went back to researching. JavaScript, HTML and CSS became useful in a very concrete way, because every discovery helped build something I needed to use.
Eventually, the extension became useful to me.
I decided to share it with the Service Desk team. It caught the attention of the ServiceNow Product Owner, who asked how I had done it.
My answer was simple: studying and practising.
Then came the invitation to join the ServiceNow team. And the rest is history.
Looking back, I wanted to make filling in a form easier and ended up opening a door in my career.
Learning while tackling the challenge
For as long as I have been working, I have sought out different challenges. That brings me face to face with subjects in which I am not yet a specialist.
To build that experience, I study and put things into practice as I learn.
The extension was one example of that process. My career also took me through development, support, integrations and consulting before reaching solution architecture.
My studies in Data Processing are part of that foundation. Later, Software Engineering broadened my studies to include requirements, modelling, architecture, testing and the evolution of applications.
These subjects help us examine a solution from the inside: what needs to be built, how to organise its parts and how to check the result.
For roughly ten years, I worked extensively on this technical side. It was very much in the spirit of “Talk is cheap. Show me the code.”
But there came a point when I saw another bridge to cross.
I wanted to broaden my work from development into platform management. My technical background remained with me. Now I needed to make more room for management and the human side of work.
The questions were getting bigger.
Code met people, priorities and business
Project Management brought topics such as scope, schedules, costs, risks and communication into my studies.
A solution is part of a delivery. There are objectives, priorities, dependencies and choices about what is feasible at that moment. Technical work needs to connect with all of that.
My studies in People Management and Corporate Education added another perspective: team development, adult learning and knowledge management.
Knowledge needs to circulate. People need to understand guidance, develop autonomy and be able to work together.
When we discussed why I had pursued these qualifications, the sentence that best explained the change was this:
It is about people and how they work together to do business.
That understanding helps connect the subjects I have studied. Technology has an important place in a relationship involving people, organisation and shared objectives.
To understand that relationship better, I needed to keep learning.
Those who teach need to learn too
My studies in Teaching in Vocational and Technical Education are part of the same story.
My studies covered teaching planning, assessment, inclusion, learning methods and the use of technology in education.
Knowing a subject and helping someone else understand it are different challenges.
A learner already brings experiences, questions and a context of their own. An explanation needs to take that starting point into account.
This connection between education and technology appears in simple situations. Some guidance may need a different example. Documentation may need more context. Sometimes an explanation improves considerably when we remove three acronyms from the same sentence.
Looking back at that Chrome extension, I also recognise this process of learning and sharing. I started by looking for information, turned reading into practice and then shared the result with the team.
The knowledge left my screen and became part of a conversation.
Building, monitoring and improving
As I broadened my perspective towards management, I also pursued studies in Corporate Governance and Compliance.
Internal controls, risks, audit, digital compliance and the human dimension of governance became part of my studies.
These subjects add questions about responsibilities and criteria: who decides, how is a decision monitored and which risks need to be considered?
Quality Management brought processes, productivity, analytical tools, audit and methods to support decision-making.
This perspective helps examine how work is carried out, how to assess a delivery and where to look for opportunities to improve.
When I bring these areas of study together, I see a conversation between them.
Software Engineering examines how things are built. Project Management organises delivery. Education and People Management bring learning and collaboration together. Governance and Quality add responsibility, monitoring and improvement.
It is this combination that helps us understand how people, processes and technology connect.
Certifications are part of the same story
ServiceNow continued to accompany this journey, including my studies and certifications.
My journey includes the mainline certifications Certified System Administrator (CSA) and Certified Application Developer (CAD), as well as Certified Implementation Specialist certifications in IT Service Management, Customer Service Management, Risk and Compliance and Data Foundations (CMDB and CSDM).
The names mark different parts of the journey: the platform foundation, application development, service processes, risks and the data that underpin solutions.
These subjects intersect. An application depends on information. A service process involves people and responsibilities. A technical decision may raise governance and security questions.
This journey also includes Google’s Generative AI Leader certification, connecting my interest in artificial intelligence with an understanding of its business applications and possibilities.
Certificates mark milestones. Learning continues when I put knowledge into practice and find something I still need to understand.
That is how it was with the Chrome extension. It still happens today — although the tools have changed considerably.
AI shortened the path to experimentation
Today, it takes less work to reach an explanation or begin an experiment.
I use artificial intelligence to understand subjects, support documentation searches, develop code and break complex problems into smaller parts.
That last possibility interests me a great deal. A problem that seemed enormous can become a sequence of simpler questions to examine.
At the time of the extension, I needed to work through several articles to put the pieces together. Today, I can discuss a question, ask for another explanation and reach something I can try more quickly.
Practice remains my way of checking.
I take what AI has brought together and apply it. Sometimes it works; sometimes I find errors, gaps or something that needs to be better understood.
I have also run my own experiments in leaving more of the investigation to it. On some paths, AI progressed much faster than I did. On others, it did not find a solution.
Those were the moments when my own education made a difference.
The knowledge I had built through traditional methods was still there, helping me see what was missing and find another route.
I am very enthusiastic about this partnership. And it has also given me new reasons to study.
More possibilities, more questions about security
In September 2026, I began postgraduate studies in Cybersecurity in Artificial Intelligence Applications, which are ongoing.
The programme connects subjects such as AI, application security, digital compliance, digital investigation and security policies.
My choice comes from a concern that accompanies the enthusiasm: the possibilities of technology can also be exploited to cause harm.
I want to understand this intersection of capability, protection and responsibility better.
The AI Risk Management Framework 1.0 from NIST includes security, resilience, privacy, transparency and accountability among the characteristics relevant to trustworthy AI systems.
In my experience, providing relevant information helps AI work better. Carefully choosing that information and the access granted is also part of this partnership.
The new programme connects with my earlier studies in technology, governance and management. The knowledge comes together while challenges keep opening up new questions.
Life needs to be appreciated too
With AI doing so much, someone might ask whether we still need to study.
My own experiments reinforce my answer: continuing to learn makes a difference.
I need knowledge to assess what I receive, recognise limitations and contribute when the tool cannot find a way forward.
Especially when the question ends where so many professional questions do: one human being dealing with another.
That is where I think about empathy. About trying to understand the other person and recognise what that situation means for their life.
I see enormous possibilities for a partnership with artificial intelligence. And I want to preserve that care for people within it.
Because life, as it is, needs to be appreciated.
There are relationships, experiences and meanings that deserve attention. Not everything fits into the rush to turn the day into a sequence of solved problems.
Lifelong learning is the familiar term for learning throughout life. UNESCO includes different ages, settings and ways of learning in this concept, both within and outside formal education.
In my story, that journey includes books, courses, postgraduate studies, certifications and plenty of practice.
It also includes the curiosity to face what I do not yet know.
About fifteen years ago, that curiosity led me to research how to create a Chrome extension. Today, it leads me to study artificial intelligence, security and new ways of working.
The question changes. The willingness to learn remains.
Sources and editorial transparency
This article was developed from an interview with André Costa Moreira and the educational background in the professional profile he provided.
The Chrome extension story, the transition into management and the experiments with AI are the author’s personal accounts. His assessments of AI reflect his experience and are not a scientific comparison between tools and professionals.
The connections between the areas of study are an editorial interpretation based on the profile and interview. Degrees and the current validity of the certifications mentioned were not independently verified.
Public references:
Content consolidation and writing support: NORA — Market Signals.
Editorial review and final approval: André Costa Moreira.
