Technollgoy Rat Race!!!

[Adam Knight]

Hi all,

I am just wondering what skills sets most people adopt.
I have been coding for a few years now; and am getting a little tired of
learning a new language or framework every time i open my eyes.

Just wondering what everyone elses strategy is in keeping current and puting
themselves in a position to be being rewarded (Financially).

Do you just master one or two technolgies or are you being a jack of all
trades like i have been
tempted to be..

I initially started with C & Visual Basic, then adopted ASP Classic, and
then became proficient with PHP/MYSQL., along the way adopting various
client side
technologies. Recently i have adopted .NET & SQL Server (which i prefer). I
have looked at adopting java also..

Just wondering how every one approaches the technology rat race, for the
most benefit?

Cheers,
Adam

 

[Mr Newbie]

I choose Webapps/Web Services,XML and C#, SQL Server. This and all the
technology surrounding it is the most in demand as far as I can tell. It
will be impossible going forward ( pretty much is now really ) to know all
of .NET well.

Strive for a good appreciation of most areas and then strive to be the best
in one or two.

Thats my opinion anyway.


Cheers - Mr N.

 

[Karl Seguin]

It depends what your professionally doing I think. Enterprise developers
tend to stick with the same language for most day to day usage, namely
because there's no benefit to the company to develop 1/3 in java, 1/3 in
..net and 1/3 in php. Consultants tend to (not always mind you) _advertise_
a broader skillset, except it's my experience that good ones will still
limit themeselves to one or two.

To be honest, classic ASP and PHP/Mysql is stuff I did years ago, and if I
had to, I could pick it up again in a couple days. If I ever find myself
out of a job, I might spend a day on the latest and greatest PHP 5.0 so I
can put it on my resume and keep a straight face, otherwise, it isn't what I
do so I'm not going to bother.

If you don't have a job, i'd say broaden yourself as much as is reasonable,
but try to focus on one (maybe two) technologies which seem to be strongest
in your area.

Karl

 

[Kevin Spencer]

Hi Adam,

Thos of us who have been around for awhile, like yourself, have given this a
lot of thought from time to time. It *is* a daunting task to keep up.

I'm sure that quite a few people are in positions that allow them to keep
track of a limited skill set, and even those people have a tough time
keeping up with the changes, but not as much as those whose jobs are more
eclectic in nature (like myself). You might refer to them as "specialists."
Of course, these specializations do tend to overlap, but not as much.

The way I see it, you have several choices, which I list in order of
difficulty:

1. Become a maintenance programmer, who works on existing legacy software.
Depending on the technology used, there are quite a few legacy systems out
there, and one may manage to remain happily employed for a long time
maintaining them.
2. Become a specialist. Stick to one or two areas of technology, and master
that/those. Keep up with only those areas of technology that affect your
specialization.
3. Give up your social life, pay less attention to your wife and kids, work
longer hours, and sleep less. While this lifestyle is unappealing to most,
and impossible to achieve for any number of reasons to others, there are
people (like myself) for whom this is the only way to live. Of course, it
helps if your children are all grown up, and you are somewhat anti-social by
nature. Having an obsessive personality helps. Oh yes. It is also helpful to
convince a psychiatrist that you have adult ADHD, and get a presecription
for Adderall. ;-)

--
HTH,

Kevin Spencer
Microsoft MVP
..Net Developer
A watched clock never boils.

 

[Mr Newbie]

Hmmm...

Interesting that you mention having an obsessive personality. I've often
wondered if the word tenacity is really just another way of saying OCD (
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder ) The 'Bit between the teeth', 'Dog with a
stick' are all phrases that come to mind when one is wrestling with some
coding problem or another.

One often hears programmers smugly present that personality trait as being a
badge of honour, 'I beat whatever it threw at me' sort of mentality, but is
it something far more insidious?

Do you have trouble switching off at night ?, do you suddenly leap out of
bed at 2:00AM and rush to your computer to try a fix that troublesome
predicament?, do you mistrust what people say and find yourself checking
them and yourself just to be sure ?

Is so, then perchance you are suffering like many others from the dreaded
OCD at some level or another!!

;-D

The Inimitable Mr Newbie . . .

 

[Guest]

Find out what is hot in your market, as that skill is most likely to get you
a job. Then, figure out the niches that pay the best and determine if you
like them. If so, learn the niches and you will be both employed and well
compensated.

Learning languages/techs for the purpose of expansion has some value, but it
can be a rat race if you are learning things that are not used in your
market. Perhaps your town (or the town you want to live in) is very hot on
Java. If so, then Java is a smarter focus than .NET, unless there is enough
..NET work and not enough talent (then you fetch a premium).

Unless you know your market (or the market you wish to live in), you are
simply learning without a direction. You might luck out, but you might just
waste a lot of time on technology that does not help you in any way.

I, personally, have focused on .NET. Nashville, TN is a Microsoft town, so
learning Java is not the best use of my time (I have worked on Java in the
past, but have not kept up my skill). It is very useful to know SQL Server
here, although many shops use Oracle (I have worked on both skills and kept
the coding aspects up to date in both -- more proficient in SQL Server,
however). I have no interest in learning PHP (at least not for the moment),
as it takes away from my time to learn something that enhances my career.

My suggestion is you do the same thing. Understand your market (or the
market you want to move into). Investigate the job boards and see what is
hot. As much as you can, figure out which additional specialty skills will
improve your pay scale, but only choose those you are interested in (life is
too short to work on skills that piss you off). Then, study and become the
best you can be at those skills.

Other suggestions:

1. Buy beta books to get info on new technology and not to learn the right
way to do things. Most authors of early books are experimenting themselves,
so the methodologies generally suck. You can still get great information out
of them, but do not focus on the methodologies (the "mental masturbation"
portions of these books).

2. Spend money and time to improve your skill. If you get one great idea out
of a book, it is worth it. Do not shy away from spending your money on your
education. The world is full of developers that wait for their company to
train them. Many developers get paid very well to clean up their messes. Be a
well compensated janitor, not the drooling kid.

3. Be flexible enough to adjust your direction when you see trends in the
marketplace. You will make mistakes and choose wrong directions, but each can
be a wonderful learning opportunity.

4. Don't be afraid to join betas, but make it a calculated risk. YOu can get
burned by jumping on technology that goes nowhere, so be careful with your
time. Spend enough time to be ready if you see a move on technologies you are
not sure of. This guarantees a foundation if it goes somewhere, but does not
completely waste your time. On technologies you are fairly sure will go,
spend more time (SQL Server 2005, .NET Framework 2.0, etc.).

5. Don't try to learn everything. You can't do it. This is not a challenge,
it is just reality. You cannot master everything with technology advancing at
such a high rate.

6. Learn the fundamentals. Pick up books like Code Complete or take courses.
Too many programmers do not know the fundamentals, which is a crying shame.

--
Gregory A. Beamer
MVP; MCP: +I, SE, SD, DBA

***************************
Think Outside the Box!
***************************

 

[Kevin Spencer]

Now, Mr. Newbie, three is a distinct difference between having an obsessive
peronality, and having Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. I have the first; I do
not have the second. I have know people with OCD. Very strange disorder.
They tend to do things repeatedly, or in a certain specific order.

An obsessive personality, however, is not a disorder, although it can
present problems if one does not channel it correctly. When channelled
correctly, it can be a great strength. It is, for example, a strength to
programmers, as programming can be very frustrating, and tenactiy is
required in order to ensure that software is reliable and efficient. On the
other hand, unchecked, it can lead to missed deadlines, and poor time
management. There is, after all, a time to "fish or cut bait."

I don't consider an obsessive personality, high intelligence, good looks,
muscular strength, or any similar genetic traits to be badges of honor. We
are all endowed with various qualities in various proportions. These
qualities can be useful if one chooses the type of work one practices based
upon them. Short skinny people, for example, can be great jockies, but lousy
basketball players. People with Type A personalities make great leaders, or
machiavellian dictators. I have heard that blondes have more fun, but this
may be a rumor. ;-)

How one treats ones fellow humans is the true measure of a person. And that
is not something one is born with. I'm still working on it, but hopefully I
get better at it every day. I strive to.

I do have trouble switching off at night, especially if grappling with an
unsolved problem, but once asleep, I sleep quite well. I have a prescription
for Sonata, for just that purpose! Its effects are short-lived, wearing off
in about 2 hours.

--
:-D,

Kevin Spencer
Microsoft MVP
..Net Developer
A watched clock never boils.

 

[Kevin Spencer]

Good points, Gregg.

I should mention that, while I am quite eclectic regarding Microsoft
technologies, I do not have the time to learn everything about all of the
competing vendors technologies, even with my obsessive schedule of work.
Just keeping up with all the new innovative changes in the Microsoft world,
and world-wide standards, such as HTML, XML, CSS, XSD, XSLT, SQL, HTTP, TCP,
and so on, takes all of my time. I peripherally scan the "also-rans" (as I
think of them), but that's about all I can manage.

These competing technologies don't play very well with Microsoft, and vice
versa, so it's really not necessary to cover the whole gamut. Whatever one
does, I believe it's best to stick to one compatible set of platform
vendors, and work within those limits, whether it's the Microsoft crowd, or
the Sun-Java-Unix crowd. Of course, some overlap is necessary, as these
technologies do interoperate with one another across networks. But that's
where the standards come in.

--
HTH,

Kevin Spencer
Microsoft MVP
..Net Developer
A watched clock never boils.

 

[Guest]

This is the way I look at it:

We are in a line of work that requires constant learning. Even though some
of us might have graduated college years ago, we are still constantly
learning on a day to day basis. The second you stop learning, is the second
you fall behind. Next thing you know, your that guy who talks trash about
every new technology and will never stop using qbasic. LOL!

I really think that while reading white papers, tech briefs, and coding new
projects I am constantly picking up new techniques.

Just my 2 cents!

J

 

[Mr Newbie]

You know its too late to continue and you may as well come to a stop when:-

* You reminise about the good old days when a 32K was all you had to work
with, and compact coding was a mans job, and not meant for wimps !

* You reminise when 10 PRINT "Hello World"; 20 GOTO 10 didnt get you
laughed at !

* You remember typing in a 500 lines of code from a computing magazine for
some stupid text based adventure game like 'Death In Poglovia'

* You still think Captain Kirk, Scotty and Spock were the coolest of all the
Trek folks

* You open the shrine doors and move the candles out of the way to reveal
that ZX81, and gaze at it with a longing glint in your eye.

* You remember loading DOS high to allow enough of the 640K to be available
for your network drivers to load.


:-D

 

[Kevin Spencer]

* You still think Captain Kirk, Scotty and Spock were the coolest of all

the Trek folks

My favorite is still Data.

--
,

Kevin Spencer
Microsoft MVP
..Net Developer
A watched clock never boils.

 

[Jon Paal]

Classic ...

Folks who try to learn a skill and set of tools then go out and try to find a customer.

Unless you are selling a product, as opposed to a service, identify your customers first, then develop the skills and tools
necessary to produce a deliverable at a profit. If you are an employee, then you know your customer .

If you are a contract developer, then you need to identify the customers. Learn what those customers expect to be doing in the
coming years so you can get out ahead of them. Otherwise, you will end up up trying to learn many things and most effort will fall
by the wayside because of the "use it or lose it" reality.

 

[oaksong]

I don't know about you, but I was using a plug board. What's "memory"?

That being said, I'll pretty much go with the guy from Nashville. Find
out what's popular in your area in go with it. There are two or three
places in the states that are "Multi-Cultural", that is you can find a
job regardless of your disinclinations.

Me, after 25 years building stuff, I went and got a Masters, to certify
that I kinda knew what I kinda knew. Along the way I've been through
Fortran IV, APL, Dataease (SQL), Prolog, SmallTalk, VB 1, 2, 3... and
stuff and I don't even remember. (Who recalls Revelation?)

I think that basically you learn what you need to get a job done.

 

[Mr Newbie]

Data was pretty cool, but Robert Picardo 'The Doctor' from Voyager takes the
crown in my opinion.

 

[Mark Rae]

My favorite is still Data.

Dianna with her hair down...

 

[Mr Newbie]

For sentient female life forms, in this order

1.) Seven of nine

2.) B'Ellana Torres

Dianna Troy was good looking but she had some weird sh*t going on with her
body shape which the jump suit didnt hide !!, and I would hate to be married
to a woman who could read my mind. My girlfriend almost manages to do that
now, and it's most disturbing