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

I’m proud to say I just hit the one year mark at the company I work for a few weeks ago. It really has been crazy at times.   Insanity is the life of a developer. There really is never a middle ground. It’s usually busy to the point of going crazy or not too busy. I’m also happy to say that I was pleasantly surprised with a good performance evaluation.

Persistence prevails and a good attitude guarantees your success. My philosophy has proven true time again and again.

I’ve always wondered why some people are so against checking out the competition.  A person has absolutely nothing to loose even if they are happy with there current employer. I think the advantages of networking for outweigh the disadvantages of not networking while you have a job.

•  Learn The Market: Networking while you have a job gives you a chance to discover what the current market is like for  your skill set. Knowing what the market is like give you a chance to know just where you stand if you loose your job. Wouldn’t it be great to know lots of companies that hire for your skill set if you lost your job? Just knowing that would be half the battle if you lost your job? Your research would be almost complete if you lost your job.

• Make Contacts In Your Industry: This is by far one of the best advantages of  looking while employed. Since you are already employed you are see as a more desirable candidate. Making contacts in your industry is far easier to do when you are employed. You can make a few contacts every now and then. By the time your next job contact comes you have lots of contacts to contact about opportunities.

• Have A Backup Plan In Case Of Job Loss:  Having a backup plan in case of a job loss is very important. Do you really want to struggle finding contacts to help you find work if you lost your job? Having a large network network you can start looking for work almost immediately if you’ve made good connections in your industry.

• See If There Are Better Opportunities:  The grass is not always greener with another opportunity. What I can tell you is that how do you know what you are truly worth? Would you change your job even if you knew you’d get better treatment? It never hurts to just see what’s out there. Nobody will ever force you to take another job that you truly don’t want.

These are just some of the advantages of networking while you have a job.

I’ve encountered a few issues lately with people that just don’t want me to succeed. I have ran into people in my current position from another company who I think have little faith in me do to my time there.  Past performance is really no indicator of future performance. Doing my best and proving myself has been challenging at I’m not the smartest developer nor am I the stupidest.  What I am is motivated and always have a good attitude.

I encountered this issue the other day when a person who I worked with  that’s still at that company sent me a very rude text message.  It was almost a carbon copy of one he sent to me on LinkedIn a few months back that I didn’t respond to. This person I have the utmost respect for. He’s a super senior developer that has been probably programming almost (or longer) than I’ve been alive.

This person is nearing the end of his long and successful career. I think the problem is that he resents that I can find a job because of my much younger age. Despite being middle age he has to deal with getting paid alot less than what he’s worth while a majority of his coworkers are H1′s who will work for low wages.

There will always be people who want you to fail but you must do your best to not let this people get in the way of your happiness.