bobbyratliff

Creating structures that automate things people do every day.

Posts Tagged ‘career’

Quotable quotes 2

This post got me thinking: the structures that help people learn coding will also help experienced programmers be more productive.

Working in the head doesn’t scale. The head is a hardware platform that hasn’t been updated in millions of years. To enable the programmer to achieve increasingly complex feats of creativity, the environment must get the programmer out of her head, by providing an external imagination where the programmer can always be reacting to a work-in-progress.

Source: “Learnable Programming,” Bret Victor.

Office Politics 101 for Recovering Idealists. The article title says it all. I found this eye opening.

In the meantime, there’s a pretty easy rule of thumb to follow. When in doubt, keep it to yourself. Listen more than you speak and certainly more than you vent, collect as much information as possible, and ponder how it can be used to make yourself seem more of an asset to your boss than your competitors.

Source: “Office Politics 101 for Recovering Idealists”, Erik Dietrich.

I was encouraged to know that a pattern of thinking I sometimes slip into has a name. It also challenges me to overcome this distorted thinking so that I am no longer controlled by fear.

Catastrophizing essentially involves imagining and dwelling on the worst possible outcome of something. It’s basically overreacting and letting your thoughts run away to dire and highly unlikely scenarios. It’s the kind of thing that happens when you’re lying awake at three in the morning worried sick about the future and what’s going to happen to you.

Source: “Building Your Resiliency: Part VI – Quit Catastrophizing,” Brett & Kate McKay.

Patrick McKenzie with one take on a software career track. This article influenced me a lot:

Engineers are hired to create business value, not to program things:  Businesses … converge on doing things which increase revenue or reduce costs.  Status in well-run businesses generally is awarded to people who successfully take credit for doing one of these things.  (That can, but does not necessarily, entail actually doing them.)

Source: “Don’t Call Yourself A Programmer, And Other Career Advice,” Patrick McKenzie.

Careers for computer science students

I have often described to people the difference between computer science and information services (IS) majors. Both are offered at St. Cloud State University (SCSU), but they have much different purposes.

Computer science is a technical major, focused on data structures and algorithms. Computer science students take several math classes, as well as some science electives. IS is a business major, and it focuses on computer programming’s usefulness to business. IS majors do not have many math courses to take.

These different majors present different career options.

Computer scientist

First, there is a computer scientist. These workers “are the designers, creators, and inventors of new technology,” in other words, they do research. Most of them have a Ph.D. (In computer science, of course.)

Majoring in computer science at SCSU, I get a taste of some different topics that computer scientists study. For our undergraduate degree, we are required to take 5 upper-level electives. This semester, I am studying evolutionary computing and computer graphics. These classes present material that is fascinating to me, and we only scratch the surface of what a computer scientist would study. (For an example, see a description of evolutionary computing.)

Computer systems analysts

This summer I had an internship at a financial company. The work I did there would fall under the career of computer systems analysts. I would say a computer systems analyst could be anyone with problem solving skills, including both computer science and IS majors.

“Computer systems analysts use IT tools to help enterprises of all sizes achieve their goals. They may design and develop new computer systems by choosing and configuring hardware and software, or they may devise ways to apply existing systems’ resources to additional tasks.”

An example of a project a computer systems analyst would work on is to determine a good tool for doing version control on application software that the company maintains. The programming of the application itself falls to the computer programmers, but the configuration of the version control, as well as the build environment falls to the computer systems analysts.

Computer programmers

Then there are computer programmers. Programmers apply problem solving skills to the creation and improvement of software. Their work can be further divided into systems programming and applications programming. To be a computer programmer, you need sufficient programming experience, and a good way to get this experience is in the computer science or IS major.

Computer programmers can work in many different industries. Some industries are more technical than others. An obvious way to tell the difference is by the interview requirements. One of my fellow interns from the summer wrote this article about his interview experiences.

The financial company I worked for this summer has a very business-focused interview. Jon describes it well: “They want to know that you think logically enough to work things out so they can train you to do things their way.”

Other firms, like developer firms, have more technical interviews. These focus on coding ability. For example, they will have an interactive editing session with you and say, “write a stack.” This allows them to screen applicants who do not have sufficiently deep knowledge of programming.

Do what you enjoy

The CEO of Securian Financial Group told me, “If you’re not having fun, you’re not doing it right.” The CIO told me, “Do what you enjoy.” I’ve been spending the past few weeks thinking about what I will do after completing my undergraduate degree here at St. Cloud State University. I’ve found that many different sources of career advice focus on doing what you enjoy.

Scott Belsky has an article entitled “Finding Your Work Sweet Spot.” He describes this sweet spot as an intersection of three different factors: interests, skills, and opportunities. Interests is defined by what you love to do. “A genuine interest is not about what promises the most economic gain. On the contrary, it is a topic that trumps economic concerns because you love it so much.”

I am learning to use my interests and skills to navigate some of the many opportunities that confront me. A quote from Dan Pink on Matt Perman’s blog says that choices should be based on your values, not based on utilitarian reasons.

You can do something for instrumental reasons — because you think it’s going to lead to something else, regardless of whether you enjoy it or it’s worthwhile.

Or you can do something for fundamental reasons — because you think it’s inherently valuable, regardless of what it may or may not lead to.

If I am focusing on doing what I enjoy, I can make every decision based on fundamental reasons. I won’t always know where I am going, but I am enjoying the steps on the way. Belsky agrees, writing: “Define ‘opportunity’ as an action or experience that brings you a step closer to your genuine interest. Opportunity is less about leaps forward and more about the slow advance.”

I don’t know where I’m going, but I know where I am. There is no master plan, other than pursuing what I enjoy. A quote from Peter Drucker supports this:

Successful careers are not planned.

They develop when people are prepared for opportunities because they know their strengths, their method of work, and their values. Knowing where one belongs can transform an ordinary person — hardworking and competent but otherwise mediocre — into an outstanding performer.

(The quote is from a PDF entitled Managing Oneself.)

I think to be prepared for opportunities entails

  • finding opportunities around you (networking)
  • choosing to engage those opportunities or not
  • engaging opportunities for fundamental reasons