iamacp.com – I Am A Computer Programmer
All about the daily work issues of a Java/J2EE Computer Programmer

I’ve decided to expand on my original article on the Pros and Cons Of Consulting vs Full Time Employment. Perhaps I seemed a little biased towards consulting in my original article this is my attempt to balance the pros and cons so they are a little more even.

More Full Time Employee Pros
Working in a few different companies over the past few years I have come to the conclusion that as a consultant you really never fully understand the capabilities of a companies system during the time you work on a given project. You really just learn the system well enough to do your job and not much more. As a full time employee you’re usually on a job a long enough time that you actually start to understand a company’s system better. This allow you to better understand projects which makes life easier for the coder in the long run.

Not to mention another great perk of full time employment is that you usually get regular vacation time which is something that you don’t normally get as a consultant.

There are several key skills a Java programmer must have. They include the below:

• The 1st but most important skill is a thorough understanding of the language including both Java/J2EE. This also includes a good understanding of any related frameworks need for your project such as Struts or Spring.
• Another skill is the ability to Never Ever Give Up even under the most stressful of situations.
• Remember Google is your friend and can solve most issues if you know how to use it and work it well.
• Last but not least I think that having at least a basic understanding of design patterns will really help benefit any Java programmer like myself.

As a coder it is very important just to be able to focus on solving a given issue and not the tedious details of how the application is glued together. The flow of an application is usually handled by means of a software framework which helps dictate the flow of an application. In Java there are a few popular frameworks which include Struts, and Spring. As long as you know how to use the frameworks all you really have to worry about is accomplishing your task and implementing a given functionality.