Recently, I was speaking with a former colleague who is now a career coach. He specifically works with people making the transition to a career in technology. Often, his clients have a wealth of business domain experience that make them extremely valuable in technical roles such as business analysts, software developers, QA analysts and DBAs.
For example, he recently worked with someone that is a successful CPA. After working on the business side of a number of software implementation projects, she discovered that she was much more interested in technology. Not only that, but she had a real knack for technology. So she decided to move into a career in software development as a programmer.
In our recent conversation, I asked him how he advised his clients transitioning from the non-technical arena into a career in technology. He shared with me some useful tips that have worked for his clients. I also transitioned from working as a network administrator to being a programmer. So over the years, I’ve compiled my own list of tips and tricks for gaining technical skills and getting a technical job.
Waiting until I had a complete list of ten seemed to go against the on-demand nature of information today, so I decided to publish them as blog posts. So here they are in no particular order.
Tip #1: Get Real Experience
There’s no substitute for actual, hands-on experience. You can learn a lot from books, articles, videos and reading about technology. But nothing beats actually writing code and getting it to run (or writing a functional spec or deploying web services or whatever it is you’ll be doing in your technical role).
Solving real-world problems is where learning happens. When we are faced with solving a problem, we are focused on the finding the best solution. So learning occurs without even having to think about it. That’s not to say that the experience is effortless – there will be an element of work to solving any problem. But the focus is on solving the problem and not on the learning of a particular skill.
Real experience creates a situation where you learn skills without even realizing it. This type of learning also “sticks” because it’s visceral. It’s not just theoretical.
To be a programmer, you must write code; to be a system administrator, you must deploy servers; to be an analyst, you must write specifications. In the words of one well-known company: Just Do It.
January 09, 2011
November 17, 2010
Just in Time for the Holidays: Best iPhone Apps
I read the previous edition of this book and found it to be high on the useful scale. So when I saw that the second edition was coming out in October, I knew it would make the perfect holiday gift for a number of folks on my list.
Just like the Hallmark commercial, in my mind, I envisioned the holiday perfection of ordering a few copies, wrapping them up and then seeing the expressions of surprised delight on the faces of my friends and family.
The Best iPhone Apps is a full-color book written by J. D. Biersdorfer and published by O’Reilly Media. Here’s why I like it:
If you’re going for the print version (which is way more for fun to open if it’s a gift), you can buy it on amazon for around $13. At that price, you might as well pick up an extra copy or two for that last-minute hostess gift or office gift exchange.
Just like the Hallmark commercial, in my mind, I envisioned the holiday perfection of ordering a few copies, wrapping them up and then seeing the expressions of surprised delight on the faces of my friends and family.
The Best iPhone Apps is a full-color book written by J. D. Biersdorfer and published by O’Reilly Media. Here’s why I like it:
- It has news you can use. Whether you’re a cooking buff or sports fan or looking for an app that can help you meditate better, you’ll find something in this book. In fact, you probably won’t make it too far through the book before you start searching around for your phone.
- It’s in color. This just makes it easier to read and makes the apps seem more exciting.
- Just like shopping in a good store, you’ll find apps that you never knew you needed. And you’ll wonder how you ever got along without them. Case in point: best app for finding a public restroom (along with ratings). And: best app for virtual sculpting.
If you’re going for the print version (which is way more for fun to open if it’s a gift), you can buy it on amazon for around $13. At that price, you might as well pick up an extra copy or two for that last-minute hostess gift or office gift exchange.
November 04, 2010
Comcast Remote Code for Sony Bravia=10000
This is totally unrelated to programming - at least computer programming. I recently got a Sony Bravia LCD TV. I have Comcast cable service and in order to be able to use the cable remote to control the TV *and* the set top box, you have to enter a five-digit code for the TV.
Needless to say, the code was not in the documentation for the remote that I found on the Comcast site. And the feature on the remote that will automatically search for the code didn't work. So while I was on hold with their customer service, I just did a quick search and found out that the code is: 10000. And it works!
So I'm posting this in case anyone else has a similar problem. :)
July 20, 2010
PDC 2010 is a Go
Microsoft’s PDC (Professional Developers Conference) is on for this year Oct 28 - 29. But from what I can tell it’s the same but different. How is it different?
• It’s only two days long.
• It takes place on the Microsoft Redmond campus.
• It’s being broadcast live (even the keynotes) for those that can’t attend.
These all seem like good changes to me and a pretty logical response to the ever-compressing nature of budgets and time these days.
• It’s only two days long.
• It takes place on the Microsoft Redmond campus.
• It’s being broadcast live (even the keynotes) for those that can’t attend.
These all seem like good changes to me and a pretty logical response to the ever-compressing nature of budgets and time these days.
July 17, 2010
OneNote 2010 Collaboration
Click here to check out my latest article about the collaboration features in OneNote 2010 just published by Que.
On the topic of collaboration, Office 2010 includes a plethora of collaboration and integration features. These features mean that the products within the Office suite work together even more seamlessly than before.
Not only that, but now you can integrate how you work with Office according to your current platform. For example, with Office Web Apps and Live Essentials you can work with your documents wherever you are – desktop, web, smart phone. Unless you find yourself working on an iPad (wink).
Working with Office 2010 also means that you’re no longer just in the Office products paradigm. Everything is connected now, so you can integrate the work that you do in Outlook with your social networks.
You can do things like store files on your Skydrive and access them from your smart phone or access your home PC from the web by using the remote desktop capability in Live Essentials or use Live Writer to publish a blog post from your phone. Powerful stuff for Office users!
On the topic of collaboration, Office 2010 includes a plethora of collaboration and integration features. These features mean that the products within the Office suite work together even more seamlessly than before.
Not only that, but now you can integrate how you work with Office according to your current platform. For example, with Office Web Apps and Live Essentials you can work with your documents wherever you are – desktop, web, smart phone. Unless you find yourself working on an iPad (wink).
Working with Office 2010 also means that you’re no longer just in the Office products paradigm. Everything is connected now, so you can integrate the work that you do in Outlook with your social networks.
You can do things like store files on your Skydrive and access them from your smart phone or access your home PC from the web by using the remote desktop capability in Live Essentials or use Live Writer to publish a blog post from your phone. Powerful stuff for Office users!
April 10, 2010
New VB 2010 Book By Wrox
I recently finished tech reviewing an excellent book on VB 2010: Professional Visual Basic 2010 and .NET 4 published by Wrox/Wiley. The book is written by a compendium of first-rate authors.
The book is full of code examples and covers a range of topics from the basics of the language and objects to WPF, Silverlight, ASP and Entity Framework. My favorite chapter was the one on Azure because it has some really good sample code that demystifies programming “in the cloud.”
If you write in VB, I would definitely recommend you pick up this book which you can do here.
February 06, 2010
VS 2010 IDE - Small Improvements Add Up
I don’t know a single developer that isn’t pressed for time and looking for ways to be more efficient. That’s why I really appreciated some of the changes to the IDE in Visual Studio (VS) 2010.
Right now, I’m in the process of tech editing a book for Wiley on my favorite language – which you may have guessed is VB. So I’ve had a chance to dig into the latest beta of VS 2010. Beta 2 is much more solid than the previous one and a bit faster, although performance still lags quite a bit. From what I hear, this is one of the primary reasons behind the change in ship date.
First off, Microsoft is using its own technologies and has built the VS editor on WPF. So it looks quite snappy and clean. But even better is the many small ways the new features can save you time. For instance, when you click on a variable, it highlights all instance of that variable (see graphic). Similarly, when you click on a Sub or Function declaration, it highlights the End Sub or End Function. The same is true for language constructs, so if you click on a beginning If, the End If is highlighted. No more scrolling and counting to find the end of a long nested If. 
Intellisense has been greatly improved, and now you can see the methods the signature and the help text when you start typing a method name.
These aren't earth-shattering changes, by any means. But hey, a few seconds here and there add up and time is one thing you can't get back!
Right now, I’m in the process of tech editing a book for Wiley on my favorite language – which you may have guessed is VB. So I’ve had a chance to dig into the latest beta of VS 2010. Beta 2 is much more solid than the previous one and a bit faster, although performance still lags quite a bit. From what I hear, this is one of the primary reasons behind the change in ship date.
First off, Microsoft is using its own technologies and has built the VS editor on WPF. So it looks quite snappy and clean. But even better is the many small ways the new features can save you time. For instance, when you click on a variable, it highlights all instance of that variable (see graphic). Similarly, when you click on a Sub or Function declaration, it highlights the End Sub or End Function. The same is true for language constructs, so if you click on a beginning If, the End If is highlighted. No more scrolling and counting to find the end of a long nested If.
Collapsed code is shown with ellipses and you can see the code when you hover over them.
Intellisense has been greatly improved, and now you can see the methods the signature and the help text when you start typing a method name.
These aren't earth-shattering changes, by any means. But hey, a few seconds here and there add up and time is one thing you can't get back!
October 22, 2009
VB 2010 Beta 2 Available
If you haven't heard this news you must be living in a sensory-deprivation chamber. Or you're really, really busy at work (which probably goes without saying).
That said, the VS 2010 and .NET 4.0 beta 2 is now available for public download from MSDN. I like the MSDN format, but there's also a fancy product page with all sorts of beta 2 resources.
Channel 9 has a good video about installing the beta which is worth watching, particularly if you're installing VS with TFS which requires SQL Server 2008. If you're just installing VS without TFS, you can save yourself the 20 minutes and just go for the install. You'll want that extra time because the installation of VS itself takes about 30 minutes.
If you run into any problems, there are a host of MSDN beta 2 forums.
That said, the VS 2010 and .NET 4.0 beta 2 is now available for public download from MSDN. I like the MSDN format, but there's also a fancy product page with all sorts of beta 2 resources.
Channel 9 has a good video about installing the beta which is worth watching, particularly if you're installing VS with TFS which requires SQL Server 2008. If you're just installing VS without TFS, you can save yourself the 20 minutes and just go for the install. You'll want that extra time because the installation of VS itself takes about 30 minutes.
If you run into any problems, there are a host of MSDN beta 2 forums.
August 06, 2009
Visualize Your Data!
You may or may not know that VS comes with a Data Visualizer (since version 2005). This handy utility lets you see data in datasets while you’re debugging – a common requirement when working on data-intensive apps. You simply hover over the dataset and click the magnifying glass to bring it up.
Like many stock components, it's useful, but in my experience is pretty unstable and often returns unhandled exceptions. It’s also somewhat limited because you can only view a single table at a time.
I have found a much better tool called Righthand Dataset Debugger Visualizer. Go here to see screenshots and download it.
This little utility rocks! On the left-hand side of the screen, you’ll see a tree view of the dataset objects: the dataset at the top level, then each table and for each table, its related tables, and so on. What I needed it for was to be able to see tables and related tables in a data set while debugging. In this tool, you can click on a data row, expand it, and then see all the related data rows.
In addition to all that, you can do things like sort and group data as well as add rows or edit data right from the tool UI. Another cool feature: you can filter the dataset data source to see only new rows, only modified rows, etc. This data visualizer is available for both VS 2005 and 2008 and is tops on my list of utilities that help me get my job done.
Like many stock components, it's useful, but in my experience is pretty unstable and often returns unhandled exceptions. It’s also somewhat limited because you can only view a single table at a time.
I have found a much better tool called Righthand Dataset Debugger Visualizer. Go here to see screenshots and download it.
This little utility rocks! On the left-hand side of the screen, you’ll see a tree view of the dataset objects: the dataset at the top level, then each table and for each table, its related tables, and so on. What I needed it for was to be able to see tables and related tables in a data set while debugging. In this tool, you can click on a data row, expand it, and then see all the related data rows.
In addition to all that, you can do things like sort and group data as well as add rows or edit data right from the tool UI. Another cool feature: you can filter the dataset data source to see only new rows, only modified rows, etc. This data visualizer is available for both VS 2005 and 2008 and is tops on my list of utilities that help me get my job done.
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