• 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.

• 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.

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

• Write Code – The more code you see and write the better you get. This can be compared to a chef doesn’t start out as excellent cook. The chef must practice and refining his art before he becomes great.  A developer like any other art requires constant refining and practice to become great.

• Accept Criticism – Criticism is a great way to learn what you’re not doing right. Accepting one’s technical weakness’s will allow you to learn what areas that you need to improve on. You should accept criticism but not let it control your life.  Likewise you should not let overly negative criticism affect you performance. Use the negativity as a driving force to allow you to be the best programmer you can be.

• Learn The Business – Learning the business is a great way to improve your worth and value to the company. When a programmer understands the business he or she can more effectively code the business requirements of  a project. A good example of this was when I was working for a travel agency for 1 and a half. I knew enough of the business where I could code vague requirements with minimal clarification for the most part.

• Know When To Move On – Knowing when to move on in a job is key. There is only so much you can grow and learn in a job before it’s b est for you to move on. You must learn to be aware of what’s going on around you. Are you happy where your are? How do your coworkers and supervisors act around you? Knowing when to move on is a key factor to being the best programmer you can be.

• Learn Everything You Can - It doesn’t matter what technologies or skills you learn. The more you learn about a skill the smart you become and the more knowledgable programmer you become.  It doesn’t matter if  you get  your knowledge from a book, the internet or another person. Knowledge is truly power when it comes to becoming a better programmer.

• Express Yourself Technically – Being able to convay your point and express yourself technically is sometimes very difficult thing to do. If you work on how you communicate technically you will be far more confident and will be taken far more seriously.

That’s all for my update to last years article on how to  be the best programmer you can be.

Pros Of Remote Access

• No Commute – There is nothing better than not having to drag yourself to work in the morning.  If the weather is bad or you just can’t stand wasting time  driving that you don’t get paid for.  No commute is a amazing advantage. After all what’s the point of having to come in if you only interact with supervisors by instant message / email and by phone?

• No Dress Code – There is nothing better than not having to worry about how you dress. No stupid dress codes which don’t make sense. If you want to work in shorts and a t-shirt you can because there’s nobody to tell you you can’t.

• Saving Money – With no commute or commuting less days you will spend less money. You will spend less money in gas and probably be less tempted to buy lunch. Since you could easily run to the kitchen and make lunch than run back and continue to work.

• Time Savings – This is by far one of the best advantages of working at home. I’m the type of person that once I get busy I like to work straight through. Having to get lunch, go to the restroom, get up and move around commute takes time. Working from home I can do all of the above without the hassles of having to go to the office.

Cons Of Remote Access

• You May Be Taken Advantage Of -  One of  the greatest cons of remote access is that some companies may try to act like they own you. They may expect you to code from sunrise to sunset with no time for yourself. Since you have no commute they will assume your job is your life. Though it does depend on the company working from home good be the worst thing or best thing that ever happend to you.

• You’re Always At Work -  Did I mention that being able to work at home means you’re always at work even when you’re not working. It just means that  some people can’t separate private time from personal time. If you’re stressed about a issue you may not know when to give it a rest and stop.You always have access to your work so you may not know when to call it quits for a day.

• It Requires Discipline – To be able to work at home you need to have the discipline to get the job done and actually work. I find without all the distractions of work I am actually a more productive worker working from home.

As you can see the advantages of remote access far exceed the disadvantages. Anybody who works for a company that offers remote access should take advantage of the remarkable opportunity.

I’ve come along way in my career from a struggling programmer. I used to put so much effort into just surviving  a job. Now I am a confident enough of a developer to know  there are more important things to just surviving a job. If you’re not happy at a job there is no point to trying to put more effort into keeping it. Changing the focus of your dream should be directed towards finding a new job where you are happy.

I was not happy at my last job. I finally gave up in August on trying to keep it. It’s really funny how things worked out though. Here I am 6 months later and living in Tampa, Florida. Living in Florida used to be one of my dreams. Now I’m living my dreams of a good job (contract but very stable as contracts go) and am really happy where I live for the 1st time in my life.

Never give up, work hard at you dreams and you will see the fruits of your labor.

• Listen To Music - Listening to my favorite music on my iPod at works really helps me calm my mind during work. The more I listen to my music the happier I am at work. Listening is also a great way to block out any distracting external sounds that disturb you or your thought process.

• Balance Your Work And Professional Life – Do you really want to think about work all day? Being a computer programmer sometimes it’s hard to get the job out of your head. Leaving work at work is probably one of the most important skills a computer programmer can master.

• Don’t Give A Damn – Computer programmers have to put up with lots of crap. I have put up with countless lies, rude coworkers, unrealistic deadlines and just plain crap. Once I learned to stop worrying about stupid crap I was happier and I performed better at my job.

• Avoid Negativity – Never ever let anyway tell you’re not a good programmer. Any computer programmer with a positive attitude and strong motivation is capable of being great. Ignore negative people and negative energy and you will be relaxed.

• Move On – There comes a time when every programmer doesn’t know when he should move on. Recognizing the time when to move is a key factor in becoming a more relaxed programmer. A programmer’s environment can be a key source of stress or relaxation.

This is one great tip I learned from my friend several months back.

I truly believe that one of the benefits of being a consultant is that you get paid for what you work. Normally as a consultant I have always been told you can’t work for more than 40 hours. If in the case they needed me to work more than 40 I would assume I would be compensated.