Coding Horror posted by:
Vuyiswamb | Posted on: 1/4/2012 | Category:
Pattern and Practices | Views: 3319 | Level:
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I believe that Managers are groomed and there are some who
naturally or by default become managers. I wrote an Article a while ago, maybe some of
you might have seen it, with a title
"How to become an
Expert in your field"
When I wrote the article, I had certain knowledge and the article
brought a lot of people in my life. I was young and I was willing to learn new
things and I learned those things faster and I was good at it. But in Life as a
Developer, there comes a time when you get bored at what you are doing. Most of
the people think that when that time comes, it means you need to change the
company, well that was what I thought too, but that is not correct. This means
that it is time to do something new.
The something new does not only mean start developing in a
new technology, because you might also get bored and find out that the growth
or the change you hoped for was not what you changed to.
There are several things you can test or try if you are in
this situation.
·
Try a Management Position
·
Try to change the Career
·
Or try to change to a new type of Technology
All these options are the ones that come into my mind, there
might be other options, but for now let us look at these.
Try a Management
Position
Not everyone will be a manager, but most of the people that
avoided this position will be forced to be one. An Experienced developer who is
good at what he does, will one day be forced by the business or get bored one
day from what he does and become a manager.
Most ex-Developers I know become good managers or Project Managers,
because they know what they are doing and they give realistic expectations to
the business. Imagine a Manager who never wrote software before. The Business
will propose on a Solution and the manager will set unrealistic goals due to
the lack of knowledge in Software Development and challenges that developer's
face every day. But if an ex-developer is part of Business Managers that make
those decisions, things can be different.
If you are a Developer and you are now bored at what you are
doing you might do well in Management because there is a room for you. The only
thing that you need to do is a just a basic Project Management course or some
Business Leadership course and you will be fine.
Try to change the
Career
It is a Fact that most of the People who are doing what they
do today to earn a living, are not doing what they wished to do before they
left high school. I have realised that some of the things that we loved to do, don't
pay bills well. That is why we are doing what we are doing. I never dreamed to
be into computers or doing programming. I wanted to be a Doctor; I was so
interested in science and medicine. But my kind of wish could pay bills, though
I can't change now, because in my country you can't do Medicine part-time.
A change is great, but it is an effort and not an easy one,
but once you are there, I tell you no one will touch you. I admire people who
have Qualifications that are different. It shows that this people don't get
scared by change. These are the people who have an ability to adapt to any
change. I have seen people who get scared of Technology change, most of those
people don't want to learn new things, they sometimes become too protective of
their position and if their companies play along, they might find themselves
with human furniture or legacy applications that cannot serve their client
anymore.
I do like the idea of changing a career; I have not yet
found something special yet. But if I find something, you will hear Sheo announcing
that I am changing a Career J
Try to change to a
new type of Technology
This does not work all the time. But it can work if really a
technology has a better future. I have used Asp.net since .Net 1.1 and I was getting
bored and I took this option and I looked for something that can replace
asp.net and I came across Silverlight and I am still enjoying it and I am doing
wonders with it. It just makes a life of a Developer and the user so easy. I am happy with that Technology though it
might intimidate you when you are learning it, but when you get used to it, you
will love it.
Sometimes it is good to change technology to get rid of the
problem of getting bored, you can still keep your Job, while trying a new
technology and if you feel is that you want then move.
In Countries like South Africa, Australia, USA, UK you will
make a good living if you are a CRM developer in Silverlight. One might want to
change to that direction just to keep him going.
Well that is enough from me, Talk to you next time
Thank you for posting at Dotnetfunda
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