LinkedIn had an interesting article Friday whose title I snagged for this blog post. The 7 items are: We don’t care about pay scales Forget policies. We talk. We think about our pay a lot. We will sometimes let you take advantage. When we have to negotiate … we both lose. No matter how much we earn, …
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Tag:career
what to automate
I have been in the world of automation for quite a while. Specifically in the realms of server, datacenter, and cloud automation – but I’ve been interested and/or involved in other tasks that tend towards automation (even for a short period of time) for far longer than just my post-college time in the world of …
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the seven stages of expertise
I recently found The Seven Stages of Expertise in Software Engineering. Stage 1: Innocent barely knowledgeable if at all Stage 2: Exposed seeking knowledge Stage 3: Apprentice has read case studies and tries to apply those techniques Stage 4: Practitioner can actually apply concepts learned in one context to a not-identical context Stage 5: Journeyman …
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unsales
I am a huge believer in unsales. And not in the pharmaceutical industry sense. Because “shipping is a feature“, and because I intensely dislike the “do it for me, then hand me the keys” mentality, I routinely follow the unsales methodology. What is unsales? It is [almost] only selling what a customer can use today. I …
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the value of face-to-face
I have been working from home for nearly 5.5 years. The benefits are myriad – not least of which is the minuscule commute and savings on fuel, eating out, etc. Sometimes I travel for work. This accomplishes many good things – a chance to put faces to names and voices, get a chance to read …
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new documentation should always augment the status quo
In my line of work, I often need to create documentation for clients. Documentation in general is a Good Thing™. But good documentation’s goal should always be to augment and improve upon what already exists – not to supplant, downgrade, or muddle what already exists. A prime example of this has come up with a …
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always use verbose output when troubleshooting
In my eBook, Debugging and Supporting Software Systems, I wrote about several aspects of submitting good bug reports and support ticket, how to communicate, and more. If you’re ever troubleshooting a problem, it is universally helpful to enable the most verbose output possible in logging (stdout, stderr, and log files). You may not want it …
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pmp project management professional certification exam preparation course in a book for passing the pmp project management professional exam by william manning
New record for longest blog title I’ve ever had. I think. First, the pros: it’s concise, finishing at a mere 91 numbered pages, including sample questions and the index. Second, the cons: it’s 63 pages of bullet points with little-to-no explanation of terms, examples, etc. {{William Manning}} appears to have done an admirable job of …
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what is the “new” python?
9 years ago, {{Paul Graham}} made a controversial statement: [W]hen you choose a language, you’re also choosing a community. The programmers you’ll be able to hire to work on a {{Java}} project won’t be as smart as the ones you could get to work on a project written in {{Python}}. And the quality of your …
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publicizing compensation – why not?
Many (if not all) companies have provisos when you become a salaried employee that you not discuss your salary/compensation package with other employees. Most people have been raised in a mindset, largely because their parents have worked for companies like this (and maybe their grandparents, too – it is 2013, after all, and this is …
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annapolis
At the beginning of 2008 I interviewed with a little outfit* in Annapolis to become their head of support. (This was just a month after interviewing with FogCreek.) Oddly enough that day, one of my former colleagues at Opsware who had moved-on was my tech screener. Needless to say, that aspect of the interview I …
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mastery by robert greene
In {{Mastery}}, {{Robert Greene}} continues in the style of his excellent work, {{The 48 Laws of Power}} (which I previously reviewed and have been posting excerpts from). Sadly, it is not quite to the level of The 48 Laws – though it still a good book. Unbeknownst to me, I’ve already been practicing most of what …
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finding your niche
“What do you want to be when you grow up?” You’ve probably been asked that questions hundreds of times in your life – parents, friends, teachers, yourself, movies. It’s a common theme. For most of us, the decision gets made sometime in our late teens or during college: doctor, mom, lawyer, electrician, plumber, teacher, policeman, …
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