Posts in the “career” category

A friend of mine is currently unemployed, and as I've talked to her about ways to approach her situation, I'm reminded of how I started a consulting business named Mission Data.

This article is now part of my new eBook, which is only $2.99 on Amazon.com:

I hope you enjoy my book, and more than that, I hope it helps you have a very profitable and rewarding career.

Here are a couple of great quotes from two separate articles, one regarding Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods, the other about Kobe Bryant.

Jack Nicklaus

From Jack Nicklaus:

"I don't care if I'm playing against my wife, my competitive juices are flowing," Nicklaus said. "That's just me."

Here's another quote from this article:

This article is now part of my new eBook, which is only $2.99 on Amazon.com:

I hope you enjoy my book, and more than that, I hope it helps you have a very profitable and rewarding career.

As I've written several articles lately about Function Point Analysis (FPA), it occurred to me that, just as any other service, there's a big difference between being a Certified Function Point Specialist (CFPS), and a really valuable CFPS.

So, if you're interested in hiring a CFPS, or renting a CFPS consultant, I'd like to share a few thoughts here about what I think makes a good CFPS.

A good Function Point specialist

I don't sell my services as a CFPS any more, but when you're looking for a good CFPS, I think a good CFPS is like a good accountant:

They know the rules, and can also offer advice

Like a good accountant, a good CFPS not only knows the bean-counting rules, they also know a lot of general rules, and a couple of "magic formulas", and they're willing to share that information with you.

This article is now part of my new eBook, which is only $2.99 on Amazon.com:

I hope you enjoy my book, and more than that, I hope it helps you have a very profitable and rewarding career.

This article is now part of my new eBook, which is only $2.99 on Amazon.com:

I hope you enjoy my book, and more than that, I hope it helps you have a very profitable and rewarding career.

According to a report on the New York Times website, a new study conducted by Harris Interactive for CareerBuilder.com showed that "45 percent of employers questioned are using social networks to screen job candidates", and "35 percent of employers decided not to offer a job to a candidate based on the content uncovered on a social networking site".

For anyone making a New Year's resolution of finding a new developer/programming job, here is a collection of links to my "developer jobs" articles that I've written over the last few weeks.

The cage

When a friend found a cow in her front yard the other day it reminded me of a question by Gerald Weinberg. I think his question was like this: "How do you keep a buffalo from running away?" The answer is simple: give it just enough room so it doesn't realize it's in a cage.

I've found that when it comes to work a lot of people are just like the buffalo in this story: You're in a cage, but your cage has gotten large enough so that you're comfortable, and most of the time you forget about it.

When talking about work yesterday, a friend said something like "It's all about the money, right?" Thinking about that last night, it quickly leads into a question of "What's important in your life?"

In 1993 I moved to Louisville, Kentucky, and started working as a consultant for a company I now refer to as The Evil Empire. The company didn't seem evil when I first started; in fact they were 26 of the nicest people I knew. Right away they made promises of considering me as a partner, and after my first year I was named Employee of the Year.

This article is now part of my new eBook, which is only $2.99 on Amazon.com:

I hope you enjoy my book, and more than that, I hope it helps you have a very profitable and rewarding career.

For a little while yesterday I sat at a book store and flipped through several books on Ruby and Rails. I'm not the most passionate Ruby developer in the world, but I really do like the language, and prefer it at every opportunity.

This article is now part of my new eBook, which is only $2.99 on Amazon.com:

I hope you enjoy my book, and more than that, I hope it helps you have a very profitable and rewarding career.

I think Steve Wozniak nailed at least one thing in a recent interview when he was talking about Steve Jobs taking a leave of absence. Woz said that during an extended leave your mind has a chance to wander and think about things differently.

I wholeheartedly agree. In my life I've taken three major sabbaticals in my life since leaving college, and I highly recommend them.

This article is now part of my new eBook, which is only $2.99 on Amazon.com:

I hope you enjoy my book, and more than that, I hope it helps you have a very profitable and rewarding career.

This article is now part of my new eBook, which is only $2.99 on Amazon.com:

I hope you enjoy my book, and more than that, I hope it helps you have a very profitable and rewarding career.

I've been digging around in the computer programming job market lately, looking for programming job openings for all sorts of job skills. I started with PHP, LAMP, and CakePHP jobs, then dug into Java developer jobs. Today I took on a more difficult task: Trying to find "Scrum jobs", i.e., jobs related to the Scrum Methodology.