• Developer Conventions & User Groups: Keeping up date with the latest programming trends are great but there are offline ways to to keep updated. Attending technology groups and going to developer conventions are other great ways to learn about the latest programming trends. Meetup.com  is one site that you can find groups related to interests of your choosing.  Another advantage to attending these is that you can’t a chance to network with like minded professionals.

• Read: I highly recommend reading anything and everything you can about the latest programming trends This includes even if you never use the technology. Reading by far is the best ways to learn about technologies.  Reading multiple types of web sites including forums, blogs, and niche site are great ways to keep updated with technology. Reading books are good too if your interest in learning a technology. If you read industry magazines that’s another good thing to do. (although I prefer anything online since it’s usually more up to date).

• Watch Videos: Watching videos is another great way to learn about the latest programming trends.  There are many sites that contain videos about technology of all kinds. You can find videos discussing everything from new technologies to actual tutorials teaching you the technology.

Time is valuable and it takes time and effort to keep up.  Any time you spend keeping updated with the latest programming trends is well worth it.  Even if you just watch a short video or visit a blog regularly it helps  substantially. You become more knowledgeable about the industry than those that never do anything more than go to work and go home. There’s are just some of the ways that you can keep updated with the latest programming tends.

If you think companies truly care about protecting there own employees interests your wrong. It all comes down to protecting the needs and interests of the company. You can easily be let go at any time and without cause.  When coming up with a backup plan you should ask yourself these questions:

• What would happen if you lost your job today?
• Would you be able to pay your bills?
• Would you have enough contacts to start looking for a new job immediately?

These are just some of the questions you should ask yourself when coming up with a backup plan.

• 2 Java Programmers Have 5 Years Experience: One of the developers is mid level developer working for a financial firm. The 2nd end developer is a senior developer working for a gaming company. They both have 5 years experience so they both should be at the same level right? This is not  quite true. Let’s say  the 2nd developer attended a better college or just had a better understanding of key skills used in his company.  Many factors besides years experience go into what makes someones experience.

• A C++ Programmer With 20+ Years experience Gets A PHP Job and has a coworker with 7 years Of PHP Experience: Does this make the C++ developer any less smart then the PHP developer with more PHP experience? Probably not. I’m guessing that C++ developer would be performing like a mid level PHP developer within a short amount of time and be a senior within a few years at the most.

As you can see from the 2 examples above there are many things that go into a persons experience than just the # of years experience that they have. Factors such as education, if they have had professional experience in the same field or just the industry they worked in.  Never assume that there is something wrong with another developer just because they have had different experiences than you have.

How To Remove Negative Influences

1.  Whenever you hear a negative thought or comment simply don’t give much thought to it.
2. Think of a positive thought when you hear something negative. Positivity always beats negativity and one positive thought will cancel out lots of negative energy.
3. If you deal with negative people remove as much contact with them as possible if you can’t remove them completely from your life.
4. Removing negative places is just as important as removing negative people. If you go to businesses that give your bad service every now and then or treat you bad avoid them. Negative places/people should be avoided as much as possible.

Just remember this. You are what you think. If you’re a positive happy person you will attract positive people and experiences. People also tend to be negative because they have problems or had experiences that made them negative. If you remove as many of these negative influences as possible you will succeed and prosper more.

I truly believe though nobody should be forced to live in a bad location. The best tip I can give everyone out there is to try to network with others in your field in your preferred locations to live. You may not be able to get your desired city but you should be able to get a network in your desired region which is almost good enough to satisfy your location preference.

•  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 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.

Why would I ever deal with any of these recruiters? There are more than enough decent recruiters in the USA that will give a fair rate. Doing business with a USA based company you are supporting USA based companies and/or the economy of the USA.

Before you do business with a offshore company think about it for a moment. Are you really getting a job that a USA company can’t get for you?

• Disturb Him When He’s In The Zone: If I’m in a deep state of concentration please don’t bother me.  If you’re focusing deep and hard on a problem and making progress don’t make me loose focus. There is really nothing more aggravating than having to waste time to get back to that focus on the problem I was working on.

• Ask Him If He’s Done Yet:  This is probably one of the most annoying things you can ask a programmer despite being necessary sometimes. If I’m working on a task and making progress don’t ask me if I’m done every hour. Excessive asking for updates is counter productive and will only serve to delay actual completion of the task at hand.

• Expect Him To Change Things At The Last Minute: Please whatever you do don’t expect me to change things right at the last minute and expect them to work. Certain code changes to the code may require me to run all my unit tests from scratch. If you change the requirements at least give me more time to complete the task. I’m a developer not a miracle worker. Expecting big changes at the last minute and expecting them to work is asking for the impossible.

• Assume My Experiences Are The Same As Yours:  I’ve come to the conclusions that no 2 programmers experiences are the same. Some programmers have a ton of front experience while others have a ton of middle tier experience. Many other developers know far less about SQL optimization but can write and understand queries.  There are many others that are have strong communication skills which make up for there lack of technical knowledge. Just please don’t assume I know the same things that you know. I’m not stupid just because I don’t have your knowledge. I’m human and can always learn new things.

• Create A Negative Work Environment:  I’m a firm believer in positivity. This is the way I live my life. There is nothing worse than a work environment where people complain and gossip. People that put down there coworkers have nothing better to do.

These reasons above are my top 5 ways to annoy a programmer.