Posts tagged change
A Post on Growth as a Developer
Oct 4th
My good friend and colleague David posted “Growing as a Developer” and highlights two key points that helped him grow as a developer. While he gives me some kudos for being one that influenced him, he also influenced me and gave me new perspectives to look at. I will miss being able to seek out his opinion in person, however, now that he has at least signed up to Twitter perhaps we won’t be that out of touch (*nudge*).
Give the post a read; it’s short and sweet and includes links to some books that every developer should read at any level in their career.
Changing with the Seasons
Sep 26th
There are big changes happening amidst a very busy time in my career. Firstly, I have accepted an opportunity to join Daugherty Business Solutions as a consultant. This is a big change for me as I am leaving the public sector where I’ve been for the last 10 years. I’m really looking forward to getting experience working with different technology stacks like Java and Business Intelligence and working with some great people. I’ll be joining one of my musically talented former co-workers as well and am looking forward to that (and hopefully she gets her album on the Zune Music store soon!).
The last several weeks have been a combination of interviews, pre-employment paperwork, and the deployment of one of the largest efforts I have been a part of in my career. Not all of it has been roses and there have been some really long days in there, and I’m learning a lot, and all of it will slowly get distilled down to some lessons that I will share as time goes on.
I have about 2 weeks at my current job and then I will be looking forward to about 10 days of being technically “unemployed”. Hopefully during that time I can finish some of the thoughts that have been swimming my head for the last several months. So, I realize this note isn’t entirely technical but this is what’s on my mind and will be for the next few weeks.
Until next time, here’s where you’ll see me around the community:
STL .NET User Group – Monday Sept 28 @ Microsoft STL. Wear your STLDODN 2009 Polo and have a chance to win prizes (first come first serve)! Our top-rated speaker from STLDODN 2009, Muljadi Budiman will be showing you what’s coming in VSTS 2010.
NIEM National Training Event – Join us in Baltimore, MD Sept 30-Oct 2 where you can catch me for back-to-back presentations on NIEM and .NET, and SOA and NIEM (aka Service-Oriented, Event-Driven).
Coders 4 Charities – Based on the very successful C4C in Kansas City, join us for a community event hosted at CAIT in Clayton, MO on Oct 16-18 where we will spend a weekend developing solutions for local charitable organizations that need IT help. Sign up to volunteer and put your skills to work for the community!
Transformation: Keeping Up With Constant Change
Aug 10th
I was in a meeting last week where some individuals had very real concerns. Their job has been relatively the same for the last 10-15 years and with changes all around our organization they are truly wondering where their future lies in the organization. As I listened to their concern it really hit me that this uncertainty travels to work with people all across the country and the world each day. These individuals are afraid that the knowledge they have acquired over their career is now irrelevant and they were questioning, I think, if it is even possible for them to change and to learn something new.
My IT career started about 12 years ago. Since then I have been through probably a half-dozen or more programming languages, operating systems, vendors, form factors, you name it. The only thing that has ever been stable in my IT career is that some people love computers and some don’t. That and change. I have never been part of a change exempt IT environment and really wonder if one does exist. I know that what I learn today is nearly irrelevant tomorrow. The question is, how do you deal with that?
Early on in my tenure at REJIS it was easy to accuse me of jumping on the new hot technology bandwagon. I did run with a few of them but in the end I have been a little more conservative when it comes to implementing. I did not quit following those bleeding edge things because sooner or later they are relevant, even if for a short time. Microsoft has an entire division devoted to this stuff and Microsoft itself are the ones driving some of the changes their own people get paid to keep up with.
I believe in order to deal with change we must constantly be changing ourselves. What we know, what we think we know, even things we don’t even know that we know. All of it has to be changing a little at a time in order to stay relevant. And I’m not talking just about our skills or those tangible things that enable us in our trade. At the core of who you are you should be challenging yourself each day to be sure of who you are and where you are going. If this isn’t happening then one day the big change comes; maybe you saw it, maybe you didn’t, but either way you will be asking yourself the question: Am I ready to or is it time to do something else?
I am empathetic to those colleagues and I am hopeful someone can find new ways for them to move to another level and remain with the organization. Ultimately the choice will be theirs.
This was also my reminder to keep from getting comfortable. The only comfort we should have is to be comfortable being uncomfortable. Anything else and we’re not on our toes making little changes to survive the big one. It’s happening all around us and one day it will happen to you. The real question is, what are you doing about it?
Technorati Tags: Change,Transformation
