iamacp.com – I Am A Computer Programmer
All about the daily work issues of a Java/J2EE Computer Programmer

Being successful is something that comes only with hard work and persistence. Throughout my career I have encountered many struggles. My Top 3 Struggles As A Programmer  can be best described as the below:

• People That Know More Than You -  Yes, believe it or not you will encounter many people that know more than you. Does it really matter? I have found that as long as you show value and dedication to the job it really does not matter. Programmers of all levels and experiences have value and can contribute to a company. It may be the dedication to complete a project or just the insight on a issue.

• People That Try To Tell You How To Control Your Career – Listen up, only you should control your career and make the decisions regarding it. Make your own decisions. If something goes wrong or right you take responsability for your own actions.  Those that try to give advice that have no career are the ones that give the worst advice whether it is wanted or not. They are jealous of your success. Those are the same people who will attempt to take advantage of you when they can.

• How To Do The Job – I have worked at around a half a dozen companies in the past few years mostly doing consulting work . I never know what to expect. At first it was coding and understanding the business. Now the major difficulty is understanding the requirements. A programmer will always struggle to get the job done that’s the way it goes. It gets easier the longer you have worked with a companies seemingly complex system.

The  ways above are My Top 3 Struggles As A Programmer.

The most important thing a computer programmer can do is sizing up the competition. Sizing up the competition allows a computer programmer to evaluate his worth and value in the marketplace. Doing this is one of the most important things a computer programmer can do to investigate the market. Here are The Benefits Of Sizing Up The Competition.

• Seeing What The Market Is Like For Your Skills – I have  tested the market time and time again while employed just to see what the market is like for my background. Call it curiosity but I am always looking for better and more promising opportunities. I don’t really ever thing I would be happy at least knowing if I could not make more money, work in a better location or have better fringe benefits.
• Decide Whether To Stay Or Move On - I have worked in several companies where I just was totally unhappy or not satisfied where I was in my career. By knowing where you stand you can see if it’s a good decision to stay with your current company or look elsewhere. There is no point staying where you are if you know you can do better elsewhere.
• Testing Your Resume – You really do not have to respond to any new opportunity but you get a chance to see how effective your resume is. If you don’t like the results you can try rewriting it and see if the rewrite helps.  Keeping your resume current is a great way to help size up the competition.

These are The Benefits Of Sizing Up The Competition. Every so often when I am curious about the current market I size up the competition by testing my resume to see where I stand.  Usually it’s a huge confidence booster for me and feel much  better after. You can follow this or not but keeping aware of the market can only help you.

I have done some pretty funny and sometimes stupid things throughout my career. I would like to share a funny story on something accidentally I did today. I normally work from home and use a separate VMware (operating system self contained in a app)  image to do my work  and thus my personal stuff is usually private. I was not paying attention since work wasn’t too busy. Normally I try to keep access to both my personal im app and work im app. Well like an idiot I was kidding around with my friend but accidentally sent the message to a coworker. The context the message was used must have made me look kind of crazy but hopefully he realized after my apology that it was just a mistake.

Remember pay attention or you may have a embarassing situation like me.