Creating Your Dream Project

  • Comments posted to this topic are about the content posted at http://www.sqlservercentral.com/columnists/cduncan/creatingyourdreamproject.asp

    Chistopher Duncan
    Author of (Apress) The Career Programmer
    Unite the Tribes (Apress)

  • Just a few random thoughts:

    As long as you finish the project!

    This is the way people get around the proper ways of creating a new project in a corperation.

    Many experts are left out of the project creation at the ground level.

    That new cool tool may not be the best choice for the job, since you don't know jack about the tool, and didn't get any help in starting the project, you can make life hell for others in the group that now have to follow your example.

    So much for being a team player!

  • quote:


    Comments posted to this topic are about the content posted at http://www.sqlservercentral.com/columnists/cduncan/creatingyourdreamproject.asp


    😉 Taken in context this is dead on! I like the humorous yet pointed style. Good job!

    Barney has a valid point, but then again most true geeks won't understand Christopher's point. (That is meant as a compliment.)

    Richard L. Dawson

    Database Admin/Developer

    ICQ# 867490

    Richard L. Dawson
    Microsoft Sql Server DBA/Data Architect

    I can like a person. People are arrogant, ignorant, idiotic, irritating and mostly just plain annoying.

  • Slap it out under management's noses, take the credit and move on up the ladder, leaving some other poor sap to pick up the support pieces. Love it Chris, I'm going to cancel my MCDBA course and follow this proven course to success instead. How could I have been so blind as to where I was going wrong all these years... 😉

    Jon Reade


    Jon

  • Because I have been recently talking with a lot of the Microsoft Student Ambassadors and discovering that they barely take any non-programming classes - besides all of the great info in this article - one thing really stuck out for me!

    It is a possibility of what might be separating this guy in the office with the dream job stands from the rest of the crowd. I'd put money on the fact that when he was in college he took some non-programming classes. Lit, art history, etc. These are the things that get you to be able to think out of the box, broaden your horizons. It's not all about having drinks with the marketing guys. It's also about being able to communicate with them on a lot of different levels. Just my 2 cents from a 18-year career geek (who guess what - was a history major with an art studio minor)!

    However, the real meat of the article which is to stand up for yourself, but really be prepared, is important. Even if you don't succeed the first time around - if you take the right approach, you will be remembered (positively we hope!)

    Edited by - jlerman on 11/16/2002 06:40:10 AM

  • My 2 cents. This is pretty good, though be sure you can deliver what you promise. If you don't you sully your reputation rather than enhance it (for that job).

    However, one thing I have learned, If you don't ask, you don't get. Salary, new monitors, projects, etc. Ask. You'll get some nos, but also some yes's.

    Steve Jones

    sjones@sqlservercentral.com

    http://www.sqlservercentral.com/columnists/sjones

  • Hi, Guys.

    Sorry for the delayed response. You all make excellent points, particularly when you have the luxury of doing things "the right way". However, both this column and The Career Programmer are really geared towards those programmers who live in a less than perfect world. My experience during the past decade & a half, along with the vast majority of the reader response I get from around the world, indicates that most programmers make a living in shops that more closely resemble Dilbert than the picture perfect world of professional software development imagined in college.

    Arbitary deadlines, illogical management decisions, sweatshops, ever changing requirements, lack of professional testing resources and (my personal favorite) the frailties of human nature as expressed in petty office politics all conspire against the organized and professional developer. If you work in a disciplined and well ordered shop, you're not just among the fortunate. You're among the minority. These tactics are for the rest of us.

    Of course, there's always the young guys who wax philosophical about the religious issues of "dedication", "sacrificing for the good of the company", "being a team player", "doing whatever it takes", etc. We older guys have a nickname for them: cannon fodder. These are the guys that management takes advantage of because they know that they're too inexperienced to realize how it will come out in the end. Furthermore, they're counting on that willingness to work 80 hour weeks, month after month (on salary, of course), all the while bragging to their higher ups about how they're getting their developers for half price.

    As long as the actions you're taking truly bring value to your company or client (and that's a critical part of this particular theme), there is absolutely no dishonor in looking after your career in the process. No one is going to do it for you.

    Chistopher Duncan

    Author - The Career Programmer: Guerilla Tactics for an Imperfect World (Apress)

    Edited by - Show Programming on 11/15/2002 3:10:29 PM

    Chistopher Duncan
    Author of (Apress) The Career Programmer
    Unite the Tribes (Apress)

  • I found it very informative and humorous at the same time. Being a contractor from the Engineering side of the fence, I know all the well what it means to be on top of the hottest technologies. Good job.

    Thanks,

    Bill

  • Read Dale Carnegie's "How to win friends and influence people". It may be 70 years old but he said virtually all this back in the 1930's.

  • quote:


    Read Dale Carnegie's "How to win friends and influence people". It may be 70 years old but he said virtually all this back in the 1930's.


    Glad to see I'm in good company. Whether you're dealing with business or human nature, the essential principals never change. It's simply a matter of applying them to the environment at hand.

    Chistopher Duncan

    Author - The Career Programmer: Guerilla Tactics for an Imperfect World (Apress)

    http://www.showprogramming.com/TheCareerProgrammer.asp

    Chistopher Duncan
    Author of (Apress) The Career Programmer
    Unite the Tribes (Apress)

Viewing 10 posts - 1 through 9 (of 9 total)

You must be logged in to reply to this topic. Login to reply