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• Is 4-5 years the “Midlife Crisis” for a programming career?

  - by Jeff

  I’ve been programming C# professionally for a bit over 4 years now. For the past 4 years I’ve worked for a few small/medium companies ranging from “web/ads agencies”, small industry specific software shops to a small startup. I've been mainly doing "business apps" that involves using high-level programming languages (garbage collected) and my overall experience was that all of the works I’ve done could have been more professional. A lot of the things were done incorrectly (in a rush) mainly due to cost factor that people always wanted something “now” and with the smallest amount of spendable money. I kept on thinking maybe if I could work for a bigger companies or a company that’s better suited for programmers, or somewhere that's got the money and time to really build something longer term and more maintainable I may have enjoyed more in my career. I’ve never had a “mentor” that guided me through my 4 years career. I am pretty much blog / google / self taught programmer other than my bachelor IT degree. I’ve also observed another issue that most so called “senior” programmer in “my working environment” are really not that senior skill wise. They are “senior” only because they’ve been a long time programmer, but the code they write or the decisions they make are absolutely rubbish! They don't want to learn, they don't want to be better they just want to get paid and do what they've told to do which make sense and most of us are like that. Maybe that’s why they are where they are now. But I don’t want to become like them I want to be better. I’ve run into a mental state that I no longer intend to be a programmer for my future career. I started to think maybe there are better things out there to work on. The more blogs I read, the more “best practices” I’ve tried the more I feel I am drifting away from “my reality”. But I am not a great programmer otherwise I don't think I am where I am now. I think 4-5 years is a stage that can be a step forward career wise or a step out of where you are. I just wanted to hear what other have to say about what I’ve mentioned above and whether you’ve experienced similar situation in your past programming career and how you dealt with it. Thanks.

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• Software consultancy or in-house development?

  - by JefClaes

  What are the benefits and drawbacks of working as an in-house developer versus working as a consultant and vice versa? I am pretty sure both breeds can be found on these forums and I hope you are willing to share your experience. Edit: Let me clarify the question. I wonder what the experience is like being a developer. For example: being an in-house developer, you are able to learn from your mistakes. Being a consultant is often more challenging, because there is more variety in the problems you have to solve. PS: Although I realise that this is a subjective question, I don't necessarily see it as one of those bad-subjective questions.

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• What are good places to get programming online certifications?

  - by Oscar Mederos

  I was reading Am I unhireable? and one of the suggestions @JohnFx gave was getting a few certifications. What is a good place to get online developer certifications? Please, provide info about the site if you used it. I already have some certs in ExpertRating site. Note: It could be certifications about programming in general (methodologies -XP, Scrum, etc-, Modeling, Design Patterns, Architecture, Refactoring, etc.)

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• How to capitalize maximally on location-independence … my personal #1-incentive for working as a developer

  - by SomeGuy

  To me the ultimate beauty in working as a developer is the fact that given a nice CV, your are going to find a new job, everywhere at any time. So I would like to ask if somebody here as experience in working while travelling for example. Or job-hopping from metropolis to metropolis every, say, six months. For example I have been investigating for how to get to Brazil. But it seems like that working as an employee in Brazil would be no option, b/c it takes a lot of time/money/effort to get the proper visas and permissions. So the only practical solution would be to freelance and the just travel, while getting your job done wherever you are. I bet my ass that there are loads of IT-guys out there and on here who know exactly what I am talking about. I'm looking forward to interesting ideas and stories.

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• Unable to decide weather to continue or quit and start a new carrier

  - by latif mohammad khan

  I am working in a small company. I have joined here for java developer ,but they told as i am fresher so work as Android developer . Then i asked one of my lecturer about Android developement.then he replied why going for mobile developement which is not standard(as nokia's symbain lost , mobile os changes quickly ) its better to get job as Java Developer. By listening his words i was bit not satisfied with my job and thought of leaving Job and search as java developer. But i dont have much confidence to search a job at that time(because i got job after 1 and half years after i passed out), i have decided to work as android developer(as learning new technology and practice java at home). On the first day they introduced me to team leads and they assigned under him. After few days i came to know that my team lead is having only 1 year experience. He(my team lead) joined here as a fresher and done r&d now is my Team lead. If i ask any doubt to him , he just search in internet and reply's my question (some times he explains wrongly) i correct it by myself by searching in net.In my company they don't use latest technologies,they dont follow any design patterns because they dont know them. They provide me very less pay and more work, i dont bother about pay because i am fresher but i bother about work which is not use(I feel like that because they dont use latest technologies,no design patterns,no proper team lead) What i thought was to learn from the company, Team leads how the project done. But there I feel like, i am wasting my time.If i go for another interview in future they ask latest technologies. Now i dont know what to do weather to quit the job and learn another language which have good demand like sap abap or to continue here. please provide me advice Thanks.

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• Working as Test Engineer and looking to move into Identity Management Technology. Possible?

  - by Aditi Bhatnagar

  I have been working as Test Engineer for past 2.5 year. The project is related to Identity Management and I am in love with the technology. I want to move into the same field. I don't aim to be a hard core coder but rather an analyst or an IDM architect. Is it realistically possible to do so? I see some possible issues, since the field is fairly new in India and for the time being I don't have coding/deployment experience at all. If it is nonetheless possible to switch into this new technology, what kind of effort I have to put in? What are the possible steps that you can suggest to try this switch?

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• Stagnating in programming

  - by Coder

  Time after time this question came up in my mind, but up until today I wasn't thinking about it much. I have been programming for maybe around 8 years now, and for the last two years it seems I'm not as keen to pick up new technologies anymore. Maybe that's a burnout or something, but I'd say it's experience and what I like, that's stopping me from running after the latest and greatest. I'm C++ developer, by this I mean, I love close to metal programming. I have no problems tracing problems through assembly, using tools like WinDbg or HexView. When I use constructs, I think about how they are realized underneath, how the bits are set and unset under the hood. I love battling with complex threading problems and doing everything hardcore way, even by hand if the regular solutions seem half baked. But I also love the C++0x stuff, and use it a lot. And all C++ code as long as it's not cumbersome compared to C counterparts, sometimes I also fall back to sort of "Super C" if the C++ way is ugly. And then there are all other developers who seem to be way more forward looking, .Net 4.0 MVC, WPF, all those Microsoft X#s, LINQ languages, XML and XSLT, mobile devices and so on. I have done a considerable amount of .NET, SQL, ASPX programming, but the further I go, the less I want to try those technologies. Is that bad? Almost every day I hear people saying that managed code is the only way forward, WPF is the way to go. I hear that C++ is godawful, and you can't code anything in it that's somewhat stable. But I don't buy it. With the experience I have, and the knowledge of how native code is compiled and executes, I can say I find it extremely rare that C++ code is unstable, or leaks, or causes crashes that takes more than 30 seconds to identify and fix. And to tell the truth, I've seen enough problems with other "cool" languages that I'd say C++ is even more stable and production proof than the safe languages, at least for me. The only thing that scares me in C++ is new frameworks, I don't trust them, and I use them extra sparingly. STL - yes, ATL - very sparingly, everything else... Well, not very keen on it. Most huge problems I've ran into, all were related to frameworks, not the language itself. Some overrided operator here, bad hierarchy there, poor class design here, mystical castings there. Other than that, C/C++ (yes, I use them together) still seems a very controlled and stable way to develop applications. Am I stagnating? Should I switch a profession, or force myself in all that marketing hype? Are there more developers who feel the same way?

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• Does the type of prior employers matter when applying for a new job?

  - by Peter Smith

  Is there a bias in industry regarding the kind of previous employers an applicant has had (Government contractors, researchers, small business, large corporations)? I'm currently working for a University as a generalist programmer and I like my job here. But I'm worried that if I had to switch jobs down the road and apply for a corporate job that my resume would be dismissed based on the fact that I'm working in academia.

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• from Java to SAS

  - by Giovanni Rossi

  I am a seasoned python,java,...other programmer having a (fairly advanced) mathematical education (so I do understand statistics and data mining, for example) . For various reasons I am thinking to switch to SAS/BI area (I am naming SAS because it might be, for me, a possible way to enter in BI). My question, for whoever might have an experience of both: is it, in BI current state, worth it? I mean, the days of big ideas in BI for business seem to be over (there are the APIs, managers think that they know what you can do with them), and my mathematical background might turn out to be superflous. Also, the big companies now have their data organized, have their BI procedures well established, and trying to analyze it from a different standpoint might not be what they want. Another difference is: while in Java etc. development one codes and codes and codes, I don't know if this is the case for BI; in fact, from what I read on the net, a BI (or OLAP, ...etc) developer, in a big organization, is usually in a state of standby, and does in fact little coding. Any opinions, and in particular strong opinions, will be appreciated.

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• Are there opportunities working as full-time paid programmer for Non-profit organizations

  - by Rick

  Some recent events in my life have made me want to contribute more to causes I believe in rather than just working for a profit-driven company. I have been thinking that if I could find a non-profit organization that I like and believe in then I might feel more fulfilled working for them. I have a decent amount of web development experience and currently work as a Java / Spring web developer. I realize the compensation wouldn't have the same "ceiling" potential as for-profit but am wondering if its possible to get at least something close to a market rate for work as I am planning to start a family sometime soon and still need a legitimate income. If anyone has any knowledge or experience about this sort of thing would be happy to hear from you. EDIT: Without getting in to too much personal detail, I have a relative who recently passed away who suffered from a mental illness so while it doesn't have to be an organization specifically dedicated to this, I am hoping to work for something along these lines at least where there is more of a social cause rather than just working on an open-source project whose only cause is the advancement of technology.

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• Can a programmer get too smart for their own good?

  - by P.Brian.Mackey

  The more I learn about programming, the more things I see that could be improved by a great deal. Often, a companies process management is total SWAG or they have Frames based websites written recently, .NET 1.1 based code, no separation of concerns, poor quality control...I could go on and on and on... Projects can succeed, but there tends to be so much waste I am amazed at how much time and money a company can throw away. I've seen it happen at several companies. So is it that ignorance truly is bliss? UPDATE Question "How is it that top developers (I don't mean like Jon Skeet level, I mean guys who are dedicated enough to hit a forum and try for self-improvement) even want to code anymore after they see the often insurmountable sociological and technical problems they are told to fix, but then scolded for doing so? "

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• A question every programmer has. Maybe.

  - by zengr

  I have been using Java from the last 2yrs (academics). Now, when I am graduating, I received a job offer from a .com. The job is awesome and it's a backend Java work. I wanted to get involved with Ruby on Rails, looked for alot of jobs, gave few interviews, but didn't make it. So, what should I do now? Should I go ahead with Java and learn/do more with Java, a complete 360degree of the java world - Full stack of Java from backend to frontend? OR Java at workplace and try to improve my Ruby on Rails. I understand, this is a very subjective question and depends on the individual, but what would you have done? Have you ever faced a similar problem? I feel I have wasted some time with Rails, where I could not "conquer" Rails, where as I could have used that time to go more into Java.

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• Is "as long as it works" the norm?

  - by q303

  Hi, My last shop did not have a process. Agile essentially meant they did not have a plan at all about how to develop or manage their projects. It meant "hey, here's a ton of work. Go do it in two weeks. We're fast paced and agile." They released stuff that they knew had problems. They didn't care how things were written. There were no code reviews--despite there being several developers. They released software they knew to be buggy. At my previous job, people had the attitude as long as it works, it's fine. When I asked for a rewrite of some code I had written while we were essentially exploring the spec, they denied it. I wanted to rewrite the code because code was repeated in multiple places, there was no encapsulation and it took people a long time to make changes to it. So essentially, my impression is this: programming boils down to the following: Reading some book about the latest tool/technology Throwing code together based on this, avoiding writing any individual code because the company doesn't want to "maintain custom code" Showing it and moving on to the next thing, "as long as it works." I've always told myself that next job I'm going to get a better shop. It never happens. If this is it, then I feel stuck. The technologies always change; if the only professional development here is reading the latest MS Press technology book, then what have you built in 10 years but a superficial knowledge of various technologies? I'm concerned about: Best way to have professional standards How to develop meaningful knowledge and experience in this situation

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• How long should one wait before going for a MS?

  - by Jungle Hunter

  Removed duplicate aspects of the question Hi! I'm an undergraduate Master's student. I've what seems to be a good offer in hand in Singapore (if location plays a role). Is an undergraduate Master's good enough for a Master's or one should go for MS? How much time should one wait (in their job) before going for a MS if that's the decision? Does one lose the progress which one makes while at the job before the Master's? Note: Undergraduate Master's is when my degree is called Master's but it is my first degree. This one is a four year one.

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• What to do when you're the interviewer and you don't like your job?

  - by emcb

  I'm in a sorta strange predicament, and I could use some advice. When I was interviewing for my current job, the job description I was given seemed pretty darn nice to me. Without going into the details, the job hasn't quite turned out the way it was advertised. The company is great and takes care of its employees, but for someone who cares about the code they write and the work they do, it's a bad environment - effectively, we operate between 0.5 and 1.0 on the Joel test, and due to political issues we're not going to move beyond that any time soon. Bitter? Maybe. OK...so I'm in the market for a new job. But that's not where my dilemma is. The problem that I see coming is that I will be participating in interviewing some candidates for a position on my team, and I'm not sure what to do. I've heard through the grapevine that we have some really solid, promising, fresh-out-of-college prospects coming in to interview, and I honestly dread the thought of somebody having their first experience of engineering in this department. So I'm wondering: what should I do if/when the interviewee asks me "Do you like your job?" (no) "What kind of projects would I be working on?" (mostly static HTML/CSS changes) Anything else that would elicit a negative answer if told truthfully Do I tell the truth, to give the candidate a real picture of the job? What if this scares them away, and what if it gets blamed on me? Do I fib or lie, saying we work on exciting projects with lots of flexibility, like the pitch my boss will give when the reality is quite different? Should I feel any kind of moral responsibility to let a promising young developer know that this isn't the job for them, or should I shut up and be loyal 100% to the company? Any approaches or advice is appreciated. I hope I don't come across as overly dramatic - I honestly struggle with this question.

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• Working Abroad Advice Needed

  - by RBA

  Hi, First of all, Happy New Year everybody! I wish you for 2011 all the best! For several years I was thinking about to work abroad, and I want to make this step(to work in a/several foreign countries, for several years). I am a Software Developer with a Bachelor of Engineering in Computer Science, with a +4 years of experience in Delphi(and small working experience in other programming languages). Until now I've applied at aprox. 100 positions over the world, and I've been contacted by 4-5 hiring managers. Our technical discussions went good, but then we reached at working visa 'problem'. I don't have legal/health problems, but I don't poses a working permit in other countries except Romania. I've been reading several forums concerning the working visas (here I take out working visa for US or other 'hard to get visa' countries), and there are several steps which companies must do (so I can take out the bureaucracy problem) to make the papers. Concerning the cost of a visa, this goes up to one medium salary from that country(in most of the cases). I've been working for the last years with different clients, from a wide variety of countries, and I don't believe I will have problems with integration in a foreign country So, the problem is that the market don't need Delphi Developers (there is a small amount of open positions on the recruiting sites), and I should start learning other programming language(all the time is better to know other programming languages - but to master it, requires some time) with a higher market 'rank' (Java/C#/etc), OR the problem is only concerning the working visa, and maybe the reticence of the employer to foreign possible candidates? I'm asking this especially for those users who made this step in their life or they want to make it in the future. Best regards,

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• Functional Programming - Does Knowing It Help Job Prospects?

  - by Jetti

  The main language that I use at the moment is C# and I am the most comfortable with it. However, I have started dabbling in F# and Haskell and really enjoy those langauges. I would love to improve my skills in either of those languages over time since it truly is fun for me to use them (as opposed to Ruby, which is hyped as "fun", I just don't get where the fun is, but I digress...). My question is directed at those who have hired/interviewed for programming positions (junior/mid-level): if you see a functional programming language on a resume, does it affect your opinion (whether positive or negatively) of that candidate? My rationale for knowledge of functional programming affecting the view of a candidate is because it can show that the candidate can adapt to different methodologies and take a mulit-dimensional approach to problems rather than the "same old OO approach". (This may be off-base, please let me know if this assumption is as well!)

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• Being a good mentee - a protégé.

  - by marked

  The complement of the Being a good mentor question. I work with many very senior people that have vast amounts of knowledge and wisdom in Software, Engineering and our business domain. What are some tips for gaining as much knowledge from them? I don't want to take up too much of their time, but also want to take full advantage of this since it really could help develop my skills. What are some good questions to get the conversation rolling in a sit down mentor/mentee session? Some of the people providing mentorship have little experience in this area, so it would help to be able to lead some of these discussions.

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• How to avoid mediocre CV.

  - by QriousCat

  Though in every project we (testers) face different set challenges, when it comes to CV, more or less we have same responsibilities. For example responsibilities like understanding requirements, preparing and executing test cases, creating defects, liaising with dev, BA teams will be repeated for every project we involve. If we keep writing same responsibilities for every role, CV becomes mediocre and a yarn. In fact most of the testing resumes I have come across are like that. How do I avoid repetition of responsibilities in my resume and make it more interesting? If this is not the correct forum for this question let me know. Thanks in advance for your suggestions.

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• What technology or skillset should I learn today in order to be able to charge $250+ / hr in 2-3 years? [closed]

  - by Ryan Waggoner

  I've been doing PHP freelance development for the last 4-5 years and I'm starting to max out my hourly rate. So in 2010 I decided to transition to a new language. I played with Python and Ruby, but ended up settling on iOS, for three reasons: I'm enjoying the challenge of working on a completely different type of development, instead of another flavor of web development The demand seems higher right now than for Ruby or Python I see iOS developers charging $150 - 250 / hr Whether these reasons are right or wrong, I've been learning iOS for the last year and I'm starting to get more work in that field. I feel confident that in six months (barring any major shifts in the ecosystem), I can be billing iOS work at $150 / hr or more. However, I'm feeling that I should have done this earlier, that I've missed the boat, and that iOS development is going to dry up or get much more commoditized. Whether this is true or not isn't really my question (though feel free to comment). What I want to know is: what should I start learning right now so that I can be ahead of the curve in a couple years when the demand is far outstripping supply? What technologies or skillsets are going to be so heavily in demand in 2-3 years that you'll be able to charge $250 / hr or more and stay busy? These don't have to be new technologies either...the answer could be iOS or COBOL or whatever.

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• What is the difference between these senior software engineer titles?

  - by stackoverflowuser2010

  I'm currently a senior research software engineer at a large company and am being offered a "senior staff engineer" position somewhere else. I am not sure if the new position's title conveys a sideways move or an advancement. So, all other things being roughly equal (salary, domain of expertise, etc.), what is the external difference between these software engineer titles (in general and regardless of any particular company, if possible): senior engineer senior research engineer senior staff engineer member of technical staff principal engineer Edit: Let me elaborate on "member of technical staff" since it's kind of uncommon. I think it's a high title, commonly associated with research. I know that Oracle, VMWare, and the old Bell Labs have these titles. See: Member of Technical Staff . I know what it means, but I don't know how it stacks up against the other titles, which is why I asked.

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• Finding a mentor online [closed]

  - by Athena Santos

  Possible Duplicate: How to find programming mentor? I'm a programming intern, but I want to "transition" into a product manager role after graduation. I just know that I will never be a super A++ Rockstar programmer, but from my internship I know that I can be a great program manager..one of those presumably rare people who can code well (enough)/speak programmer-ese and management-ese. Being a girl, I am looking for both male and female mentors. Female, because they know what its like to be a minority, and male, because..well, you guys are tough, and I believe to succeed in tech, a girl's gotta know how to act like a man (when appropriate). I've found some really amazing people I'd like to ask to be my mentor (in blogs, magazines, etc), but sadly, I live far, far away from them. Will be awkward/rude if I shoot them an email about being a mentor? What is the best way to establish a relationship with people like these that I admire? Any volunteers? :) Thank you in advance, and I hope you all have a great day/night.

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• How similar are programming and architecture?

  - by blueberryfields

  A friend of mine has completed an undergraduate program in architecture. Disillusioned with the industry and available work options, she is now looking to change careers, and become a professional software developer. What can she expect will be similar to her existing education, and will therefore be easy for her to pick up? What will be difficult? Does any of her experience so far transfer? Any other advice or information that she should know, before making the jump?

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• Should I stay in my degree or take an opportunity for management experience?

  - by Adam

  I've read a couple other post along these lines and they've been helpful but I'm wondering if my case is any different. I've been working towards my CS degree while working part time in a programming job. I'm now about two years away from getting my degree and was just offered a management position at my job. This would mean that I have to work full-time at my job and I can't really work towards my degree anymore in person. My school doesn't really offer CS classes after hours nor online. It seems that getting a degree is very important from the other post that I read. Does having management experience trump that? I'm currently leaning towards taking the job and finding some sort of online degree. Also my school only offers a business degree online, could I just get this in place. Does the type of degree really matter? For some jobs it's not the type of degree just that you have one, is there any merit for this in the programming industry? Thanks :)

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• How do I get others to see past my prior inexperience?

  - by Kevin

  My core question is how do I proceed from the following predicament. I will be honest with you, I wasted my College Experience. I slacked off and didn't take any of my comp sci classes that seriously, somehow i still got out with a 3.25 GPA. But truth be told I learned nothing. I befriended most of my professors who went pretty lenient on me in terms of grading. However, I basically came out of College knowing how to program a simple calculator in VB.Net. I was (to my great surprise) hired by a very large respected company in Denver as a Junior developer. Well the long and the short of it is that I knew so little about programming that I quickly became the office pariah and was almost fired due to my incompetence. It has been 8 months now and I feel I have learned some basic things and I am not as picked on as I used to be by the other developers. However, everyone hates me and the first few months have given the other developers a horrible perception of me. I am no longer afraid of code or learning, but I have put my self in the precarious position of being the scapegoat of our department. I hate going to work every day because no one there is my friend and pretty much everyone is hostile to me. What should I do? Any advice?

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