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 0 comments

  Work Week 1 Just finished week one of my first corporate job. It's far different from the smaller company experience in alot of ways but overall it's pretty nice. I'm looking forward to week two.

For me the big change was environment. I'm coming from a culture where we worked at the office, at a coffee shop or at your house depending on how you feel about it. Here we work in a huge office all together cubicle style so you're always hearing whats going on around you. It'll be interesting to see how it goes once I get rolling on a project.  ¶ 8:01 AM 0 comments

  Learning about BizTalk 2006 I spent the day reading a book on essential BizTalk 2006. The tool is very cool and serves as a way to exchange information between very different services. It's got to be considered the duct tape of Enterprise Business for the time being. I only say "for the time being" that because it'll allow people to pull services together and then move them all under one modern system in a few years. If it ain't broke don't fix it will be a thing of the past. Our new saying will be if it ain't modern, upgrade it using BizTalk.

The graphical development tools offered through use of Visual Studio 2005 are just scary in what they can do. 5 years from now things are going to be down right science fiction in their efficiency. They provide adapters allowing you to connect and communicate data with every major type of system used in Enterprise. Visual orchestras, pipelines and xml mapping that allow you to easily communicate between systems. It's a great thing.  ¶ 9:51 PM 0 comments

  officially employed I'm very happy to say that my job search is officially over! Today Blue Cross / Blue Shield of Louisiana offered me a position with their IT department. I'm very happy with this position as I'll get to work with the newest enterprise technologies and a large organized team of professionals.

I've worked really hard to attain this position. I've researched heavily on what the best career path is and I believe I've landed in the right situation. Everyone wish me luck.  ¶ 7:18 PM 0 comments

  Working with SQL Server 2005 So I've been writing an application using SQL Server 2005 for interaction with a C# based Windows application. I must say that databasing with this tool is very interesting. There are alot of great ways to do the same thing and using stored procedures has been alot easier than writing long PHP or Perl versions of the same.

System.Data makes creating connections to and interacting with databases a dream. The Server Explorer makes administrating to the database ridiculously easy in comparison to....say...command line or phpmyadmin. Ultra programmer friendly in my opinion.

The best thing is any questions I can't answer myself I can easily run down in Google, my books, help or a messageboard.  ¶ 4:21 PM 0 comments

  lol....interviews and the website I'm glad to say that all the developers I'm interviewing with do research using the Internet on their possible candidates. Possible employers and their staff get to read all about me before they even get to meet me.

That Rocks!

I love that because having to explain my personal interests is far more involved than explaining my work experience. It's pretty fun seeing the smile on everyone's faces knowing that they already know a little about Jerry and his mad little world.  ¶ 9:54 PM 0 comments