The best piece of advice I can give you is that you control your own career.   It’s up to you to learn, to grow, and expand your skills. Never should you ever feel like you have to stay at any one employer. Your employer does not and should not attempt to dictate the direction of your career. Your employer does not look out for your best interests but those of the employer.

Remember this!  A person who takes charge of his or her own career will be far happier then those feeling like there employer controls there career. It is a strong and confident person who knows this.

I’d like to first talk about the issues on my team that I and others have discussed. In my area of specialty at my company very often we are given vague incredibly  requirements of what needs to be done. My team members are always left scratching there heads and trying to discuss with the business what they really want. They also sometimes get tick crazy and create multiple tickets for the same issue.

If the business just made there requirement clear and told us what they want we’d be able to get more done instead of wasting time on trivial tasks.  One time I was modifying a report and it took several months to decide that I just needs to include a certain criteria (like a 1 line fix). I have been told by other development as well as qa that we need better requirements. I truly believe it.

Having Bad Requirements Creates The Following Problems

• Wastes Countless Development Hours - This is ridiculous that I have to spend a dozen hours to a accomplish a fix which should have taken me 4 hours for example. I have seen this many times. I’d rather get more done than have to go back to the same ticket because the business needs something else added at the last minute.

• Complicates Business Problems - I have seen business problems compounded by the lack of bad requirements.  I have seen data that should have never been sent  rejected after being sent to our clients. I have also seen data that is good shows as having a problem.

When requirements suck there really isn’t much you can do then suck it up and work with the information provided to you.

Warning Signs Of A Desi Consulting Company

• The recruiter has a American Name but speaks with a Indian accent
• The job description has a suspicious sound name like epro or wipro
• The job descriptions are written in such a way that it just doesn’t sound like a native speaker would have written them that way.
• The job descriptions appear to be geared towards non citizens.
• They job description only mentions CORP to CORP and not W-2 pay rates
• The job  description mentions low salaries in high cost of living areas
• The company lists a address a India address in the email

These are just some of the ways to recognize a desi consulting company. Not anyone of these alone makes a company a desi consulting company but most desi consulting companies have several of these characteristics. If you do business with a desi consulting company you are helping to support the economy. You are also encouraging the loss of American jobs. This goes for the developers as well as the recruiters.

My approach to this issue is what I call the  divide and conquer approach. I’ve you just focus on getting things done and don’t worry about the amount things you have to do things will get done. If you need to get done 10 things and you finish 2-3 things you’re making progress. I have used this approach and get done more work following this approach.

This is how I use the divide and conquer approach.

The new system at first was a failure and only now is starting to actually be functional. There several reasons why this project did not work out as intended. I can think of the following reasons below:

• Too Aggressive Deadlines -  The expectations were way to optimistic on this project. Nobody anticipated just how to accommodate for all the possible issues with this. Even after the problems the deadlines and things promised to my companies clients were unrealistic.

• Bad Requirements - I can never understand why when requirements are given with so few details. I have experiences  many a time that requirements are so few and so abstract you cannot get anything done. When requirements are poor you have no choice but to ask a ton of questions. Business analysts sometimes assume that you have the same knowledge they do. Developers usually just have a good knowledge of things there working on unless they have had prior exposure to something similar.

• Not Enough People In Design - I don’t know why anything would expect a single person to design a system. It does not make any sense. The person who designed this system while a excellent a competent developer is only human. Designing a system alone with the help of others are limited to the flaws and imperfections of one person.l If multiple people designed it the system would have been far more robust and stable.

It’s only now after almost 4 months of tweaking and countless fixes that the system is finally stabilizing and working better. It will still be several more months before things will be semi stable. Please keep in mind the lessons that I’ve learned of a broken system.

There are now things I no longer worry about. I’m at the point where I’m so confident in my job hunting abilities I no longer worry about unemployment. I focus on things like career growth, networking, and developing my skills. This has allowed me to remain employed with minimal gaps between jobs.

This blog can and does help me find a place to discuss and share my experiences with the world. In the future I can and will continue to do the same as I’ve always done.

Top Reasons Developers Are Taken Advantage Of

• They Get Higher Salaries:  Developers get paid higher than most professions. Companies see this as a reason to take advantage of there employees. Developers are often expected to do the following things: Work uncompensated over time, do several times the amount of work in a day (compared to a normal week) and expect everything to be perfect and  fix things at the last minute with practically no notice.

• There Geeks:  Developers are antisocial geeks and should have no life but there jobs. This is  something that really drives me crazy. Unlike my coworkers my job to me will always just be my job. If something is absolutely crucial I have no problem working later to finish it but don’t expect me to work late every day.  Companies sometimes do not respect a person’s personal life.

• Workaholics In The Company: Everybody wants to get work done and some people take this to a extreme. There are people who will work 10-12 hours a day and expect to remain productive. They may not understand the philosophy of others that do not work the same amount of hours they do. They believe just because they are working more they are being more productive. It has been my experience the more hours you work above 40 hours the less productive you become.

These are the top reasons why developers are taken advantage of.

• 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.