I was watching a few developers present recently and they made extensive use of tools to make their coding go very quickly. At one point in the presentation, after having shown a very efficient coding session, one of the developers stopped to answer a question. The question was about how the presenter managed to write code so quickly with so few keystrokes. The answer was with Resharper, but I was surprised when the developer went on to say he had purchased the tool himself a few times at different jobs because it was so valuable in hits work.

He noted that even if an employer wouldn't pay for them, there are some tools that are really worth buying. They make your job easier, and so much less stressful, they're worth the investment. He pointed out that mechanics often buy their own tools, chefs buy their own knives, why shouldn't we buy a few tools ourselves?

I know early in my career I never would have purchased any tools if my employer wouldn't. However I've matured, and I realize that there are benefits from tools that go beyond what my employer receives. I think that if I were to move to a design role, I'd have to use a tool like ErWin, or at least Visio, to do the job. Even if I had to purchase it. If I were doing T-SQL development, I'd get a copy of SQL Prompt and SQL Compare to make my life easier. If I were tuning code, I'd be sure Plan Explorer was on my machine, and I'd be really grateful to SQL Sentry that it was free.

I know that many companies don't like to add extra tools to their systems, but I know I'd find a way to argue that these tools are really essential for an efficient IT worker. At least on developers' and administrators' workstations. Without them, not only are we working inefficiently, but we're also working under more stress and frustration than we should.