Can't Grok, Won't Grok

Recently, I have been giving my current employment model some serious thought.. The Problem Put simply, I feel like I need more out of my working life. I love what I do – but I am not satisfied with several aspects of my career. This is including (but obviously not limited to): Experience Growth Rate It’s all 9-5, same old technologies, same development practice etc. I have been learning massive amounts in my own time – but I need to be in an environment where I can truly apply what I have learned. Client Contact I love writing software for people . I enjoy talking to them about the problems they have and thinking of how we can work together to solve it in the most efficient way possible. In my current employer, I rarely get the opportunity to really sit down with the people that truly matter. Management Style As you may have noticed from my recent blog posts – I am always looking at ways to improve the way I work. My working process is very evolutionary. I think this...

This has been something that has been playing on my mind for quite some time, so I thought I should get my thoughts out onto the Interwebs and see what people thing. But first a little background.. A Little Précis on Rob I have been working with C# in the “pro” environment for about 2 years. Before that I had about 1.5 years “bedroom programming” experience. I am a relative newbie to the development world. In the past year, I really wanted to shake that feeling off. I spend nearly ALL of my time studying and [hopefully] improving my craft – ask my friends, they think I am a loser. Would I consider my “.NET Skills” my selling point? Probably not – the one thing I have always prided myself on is my attitude : I do not miss deadlines (unless things really hit the fan). I am not afraid of looking stupid, I am afraid of being stupid. I am 110% honest. No matter how bad I look. Always, always, customer first. I KISS – Keep people happy. Spare me red tape, s...

One of my main goals for this year was: I really need to ante-up my geek game. I know what you are thinking - “don’t we all Rob?” – for sure, but the truth is this I have been learning relatively little and I feel pretty “mediocre” . I’ve been making efforts to meet more people, making me realise that there are some really skilled people out there. I want to be known as a “skilled” developer, so it is up to me to step up to the plate and fill the void(s) in my skill set. Cutting code is one thing, but cutting good code is quite another. Sometimes you need to just keep repeating stuff to yourself until that little light bulb goes on, you leap out of your chair and think “I should do something about it!”. I came up with the code: 1: while (rob.notGotIt) 2: { 3: rob.HitSelf(); 4: rob.Think(); 5: } After several iterations, I came up with the following: I have been spending a lot of time studying fo...

I’ve been having some interesting discussions with some work colleagues of late. The general theme was “ are we happy with what we are doing? ”. Now, I do not want to speak badly of my employer, they pay me money which allows me to do things that I want to do. However, there is a general feeling of upset at this time as we have been through a rough project, and the current outlook it that it is not going to improve in a hurry. I personally just take it as a challenge, I am not the sort of person to let something bother me for too long before doing anything about it, so I don’t let things like this phase me (other than my initial rants!). I responded to the question with: I love what I do, I just don’t like the way I am/we are doing it. The thing is, while walking home from work, this really sparked some brain activity, because I was lying . Recently, I have NOT been loving it! I have been fed up going in to the office, and this was rubbing off on ME and my outlook . I g...