Sunday, February 25, 2007
What kind of developer do you want to be?
Over the course of my career change here at the beginning of 2007 I had to face a lot of questions. Where do you see yourself in 5 years? What type of developer would you say you are? What kind of developer do you want to be? Its was difficult to answer because I really wasn't that sure.
For the past few years I've been a web software developer. I programmed systems in a variety of languages specifically for websites and web business. When I got back into the job market everyone was looking for .NET developers. So I started learning everything I could and practicing developing using Visual Studio 2005. For a while I've thought that I wanted to be a .NET developer specifically. That looks like the future so that's what I'd answer. I want to be a .NET developer.
However over the course of the last few weeks of my search things started to change. I started to realize that total experience is necessary in the sort of development that interests me. Many companies post that they require people with particular skills in terms of development environments. They're only working in that one thing. They're a Microsoft shop or a Java shop specifically. Larger companies don't have the luxury of implementing technology from one vendor. They have to use dozens of different tools and make them all work together. I find this interesting and congruent with my previous experience.
So even though I've come from a small company for the past few years I've really been working in a way similar to that of corporate entities. I had to work constantly with new and old systems. A dozen different languages and dozens of tools. Whatever the job called for.
So what sort of developer do I want to be?
"Software Developer"
I'll program anything, any language, any environment at any time. I find new and old stuff interesting. I like solving problems. No more attempt to focus specifically on one set of tools. I'll be learning to learn in whatever tool is presented to me at the time. ¶ 9:57 PM
For the past few years I've been a web software developer. I programmed systems in a variety of languages specifically for websites and web business. When I got back into the job market everyone was looking for .NET developers. So I started learning everything I could and practicing developing using Visual Studio 2005. For a while I've thought that I wanted to be a .NET developer specifically. That looks like the future so that's what I'd answer. I want to be a .NET developer.
However over the course of the last few weeks of my search things started to change. I started to realize that total experience is necessary in the sort of development that interests me. Many companies post that they require people with particular skills in terms of development environments. They're only working in that one thing. They're a Microsoft shop or a Java shop specifically. Larger companies don't have the luxury of implementing technology from one vendor. They have to use dozens of different tools and make them all work together. I find this interesting and congruent with my previous experience.
So even though I've come from a small company for the past few years I've really been working in a way similar to that of corporate entities. I had to work constantly with new and old systems. A dozen different languages and dozens of tools. Whatever the job called for.
So what sort of developer do I want to be?
"Software Developer"
I'll program anything, any language, any environment at any time. I find new and old stuff interesting. I like solving problems. No more attempt to focus specifically on one set of tools. I'll be learning to learn in whatever tool is presented to me at the time. ¶ 9:57 PM
