This Type of Experience Will JumpStart Your Career!

Not all experience is created equal. Some types of project experience count as being more relevant than others simply because employers place a higher value on them. Here is why:

Getting experience in areas that require innovation or cutting edge skills for example counts more because that is where a lot of money is being spent and where there is more exposure or risk!

Employers hire those with experience in the types of projects they are financially vested in, so they can increase their chances of success or mitigate risk, makes sense right?

Here is some common sense advice … “Go Where The Money Is“!

The Web & Software Development Industry employs / hires a lot of web oriented professionals because companies are constantly investing in their web / software development projects

Information Technology / Software Development projects are funded with the belief that they can reduce costs, increase efficiency, streamline operations or business processes and increase sales.

In the article titled: How To Get Extensive Hands-on Experience In Information Technology I discussed the make / break role that hands-on web / software project experience plays in your career regardless of whether you are a business analyst, project manager, software developer, software tester, technical writer, database developer or data analyst.

In part 2 of the article series, I will discuss the types of hands-on project experience that are likely to jump-start your career!

Get Leadership Experience

You may be aware of the need to get hands-on experience in technical skills (UML, Use Cases, Object Oriented Design, Manual Testing, etc.) but are you aware of the need to get leadership experience?

Even if you are technically qualified, without demonstrating or showing some leadership experience, you may still fail to impress hiring managers.

Here is an example of a question that you may get at a job interview about your leadership experience:

“When was the last time you demonstrated initiative and how did your actions significantly or positively affect the outcome of your project?”

Get Database Experience

Enterprise software development projects incorporate a significant amount of database functionality.

Regardless of whether you are a business analyst, project manager or software tester, database experience will stand you in good stead in your career.

For Example, As a project manager assigned to Information Technology (IT) projects, your role may be that of a Technical Project Manager (TPM), which means that you are expected to get your hands dirty, especially with databases.

As a TPM, hands-on database skills will help you supervise the completion of important software features, troubleshoot data migration issues or research ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) problems.

Database skills are now regarded as sine qua non, an essential ingredient of your job description, regardless of whether you are a business analyst, project manager, data analyst or software developer!

Get User Interface (UI) / Design Experience

The User Interface (UI) is key to the success of software development projects because customers typically care more about how their software or websites look than how it is constructed.

However, it takes a diverse set of skills to create the right user interface design / experience.

As a salesperson, you can help the web design / user interface team adhere to your organizations marketing goals while achieving their aesthetic goals.

As a business analyst, you can be intimately involved in the design of screens and page flows used on a website / software development project.

Web Business Analysis / User Interface (UI) Business Analysis is a real-world job / specialization for business analysts who cater to or specialize in front-end, user experience / user interface requirements.

As a project manager, user interface testing experience will look good on your resume and as a software developer, user interface design / development should be part of your core skills.

Get Software Testing Experience

Since the success of software projects sometimes depend on defects or bugs discovered by customers after a walk-through, your project will do well if all team members and not just software testers, take part in hands-on User Acceptance testing.

I am not saying that you must become a professional software tester. I am saying that some level of software testing experience will help you look like a well-rounded candidate regardless of whether you are a business analyst, project manager or computer programmer.

In closing, try to work on software / web development projects because there is typically a lot of work for professionals with experience in those sectors.

Regardless of your professional background (business analysis, project management, data analysis, computer programming, etc.), work on getting leadership, database, software testing and user interface (UI) hands-on experience so that your profile will be that of a well-rounded candidate who has taken the time to align his / her career with the current hiring needs / trends in the Information Technology industry.

Thanks & Best Wishes, IT Career Coach

This article is #2 of a 2 article series. The first installation of this article (part 1) may be viewed here …

You may review the references for this article series below.

References

1. Learn more: The Most Important Thing on Your Resume
2. Learn more: Which Courses or Certifications Guarantee A Job?
3. Learn more: Can Certifications Take The Place Of Experience?
4. Learn more: How To Get Computer Programming Experience
5. Learn more: Stuck in a College Mindset After Graduation
6. Learn more: Which Software Development Life Cycle Is Best?
7. Learn more: Can You Perform? Prove It!
8. Learn more: How To Get Extensive Hands-on Experience In Information Technology

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How To Gain Hands-on Experience in-Information Technology

When it comes to the Information Technology Industry, getting more hands-on experience is one of your most important professional development activities.

In this post, I will explain how information technology workers including business analysts, computer programmers, database developers, data analysts, project managers, software testers and infrastructure / networking professionals can gain extensive, high visibility, career defining hands-on experience!

More Opportunities To Get Hands-on Experience

By far, the number one place to find hands-on project experience in the information technology industry is in web or software development projects!

Now, does that mean that you need to become a software developer?

Absolutely Not!

An enterprise software development project employs a diverse set of software testers, project managers, business analysts, computer programmers, infrastructure specialists, database developers, technical writers, etc.

So, dis-abuse your mind of the notion that software development is primarily a coding or programming effort, because it is not!

Business Analysts / Project Managers

Before a single line of code is written, project managers and business analysts have to gather the specifications and then plan the amount of work that needs to be completed at each phase of the project before handing over the coding to software developers.

Infrastructure Specialists

The Computer Networking / Infrastructure team has to plan or architect the servers, computer networks and workstations that will be used by the entire project team.

They may have to install software testing, development or planning software and they will also have to monitor all the equipment used in building or hosting the software, so that they can guarantee that it is up and running!

Software Testers / Quality Assurance Analysts

After computer programmers finish with their coding, software testers, business analysts or quality assurance specialists have to test the code and assure the client or project sponsor that the software being delivered is reasonably bug free and designed according to specifications.

And while all this is happening, the project managers are busy monitoring the cost and resource usage versus estimates.

With all this mind, here is why software development work provides you with the best opportunities for hands-on experience regardless of your career, industry, domain or background.

Following The Money Trail Works

Better Pay / Compensation

Software development project experience is guaranteed to boost your career options because employers pay more for software development experience regardless of whether the project is outsourced, maintained in-house or developed from scratch.

Software development experience also provides you with better career stability. Since there is so much work available, employers are always looking for or hiring motivated, talented, experienced, skilled workers.

Software development projects are readily available because they cut across all domains and industries!

Highly Portable Experience

Regardless of the industry you work in: healthcare, pharmaceutical (pharma), telecommunications (telco), insurance, banking and finance, securities, utility, customer relationship management (CRM) or sales and marketing, you will find plenty of software development projects.

Software development experience is also highly portable because you can move your experience from one industry or domain to another.

For example, as a business analyst, computer programmer or project manager; you may transition from a web project in the CRM industry to another web development project in the Healthcare / Medical Management industry.

You can significantly improve your chance of getting your foot in through the door even when you don’t have the required domain experience by gaining web / software development experience because that is portable across industries, jobs, careers or domains!

For example, even when you transition from a software development career to a business analyst or project management career, your software development background will still be relevant or useful helpful to your new project or employer.

Why Is There So Much Work In The Software Development Industry?

The software development industry employs professionals from a wide, extensive and varied background.

There is a lot of software development project work available because:

1. Software development projects cut across the mobile, desktop, web, system development industry
2. A large number of software development projects fail which means that software development projects last longer than they are expected to
3. Websites are now integral to the marketing and sales functions of many organizations which means that funding website development is a top priority
4. Organizations are constantly retooling or upgrading their websites because of competitive forces, marketplace or technological changes

So, if you are looking for a well-paying, portable, cutting-edge career, start building your web / software development project experience now.

When it comes to the information technology industry, your hands-on experience trumps your certifications or post graduate college degrees.

One Good Reason, Why This Won’t Work For You!

Here is one good reason why you may fail to gain hands-on software development experience … looking for a hands-on position without first taking the time to gain the requisite knowledge or skills that will qualify you !

Hear me now, I do not recommend you walk up to an employer and ask for a position for the purpose of gaining hands-on software development experience … except if you are truly qualified to be on the team.

Look, regardless of the position you are interested in: business analysis, computer programming, project management, software testing, etc., you must first take the time to study for the position before you start working on getting hands-on experience.

Why? because without the prerequisite knowledge, you have little or nothing to offer the employer, who therefore, has no incentive to hire you.

Why Is Knowledge A Prerequisite For Hands-on Experience?

When it comes to gaining knowledge, what matters is whether you have the requisite knowledge and not how you did you gain the knowledge; college, coaching, training, self study, articles, professional textbooks, on the job, etc.

Here is why you must gain the requisite knowledge first before you start focusing on building hands-on experience:

• Can You Perform?: software project teams typical focus on delivering working software and not on mentoring or coaching team members.

  So, without the requisite knowledge, you will be a liability rather than an asset to the team since you won’t be able to keep up with the pace of work.

  Furthermore, you may even slow others down who stop and try to help you or wait upon you to deliver.

• Return On Investment (ROI): don’t assume that an employer will pay for your hands-on software development experience because most employers want a quick return on their investment (ROI).

  This is because of the costs associated with training information technology (IT) professionals which makes employers picky about who gets to work on their projects.

  You are going to be limited in your ability to gain software development experience, if you do not first take the time to learn your discipline: business analysis, computer programming, project management, etc. so that you are prepared to run when the right opportunity presents itself.

This article is #1 of a 2 article series. The second installation of this article (part 2) may be viewed here …

You may review the references for this article series below.

References

1. Learn more: The Most Important Thing on Your Resume
2. Learn more: Which Courses or Certifications Guarantee A Job?
3. Learn more: Can Certifications Take The Place Of Experience?
4. Learn more: How To Get Computer Programming Experience
5. Learn more: Stuck in a College Mindset After Graduation
6. Learn more: Which Software Development Life Cycle Is Best?
7. Learn more: Can You Perform? Prove It!
8. Learn more: This Type Of Hands-On Experience Can JumpStart Your Career!

What Is The Toughest Challenge Facing Your Career?

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• Data Analysts Boot Camp - Online, Web Based, Instructor Led, Hands On, Data Analyst Video Training


• Get Hired Fast - Online, Web Based, Resume + Job Search + Interview Video Training


• Become A Leader Coaching - Develop hands-on experience, gain domain expertise, solve industry problems, Stand Up and Be Noticed, market your career using PULL instead of PUSH techniques!

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Generalize Or Specialize, Which Is Better?

Have you considered the pros or cons of specializing in a narrow field compared to that of becoming a generalist in your industry? Here are some of them;

Business Analysts

Business analysts may specialize as domain business analysts or choose the more general information technology (IT) business analyst career path.

IT business analysts don’t specialize in specific domains because they analyze and specify computer software or hardware solutions for any domain including operations, healthcare, engineering, sales & marketing, finance, insurance etc.

Domain business analysts have general IT business analysis skills in addition to the specialized skills, experience, background or training required for specific domains like insurance, finance, healthcare, etc.

Computer Programmers

PHP, Java or Microsoft .NET Computer Programmers are not specialized computer programmers.

On the other hand, SharePoint developers are specialized Microsoft programmers with the same general programming skills as Microsoft .NET software developers and additional, specialized, SharePoint software development skills.

Similarly, WordPress developers are PHP & MySQL developers who specialize in the WordPress area of PHP development.

Read about becoming a specialized Microsoft SharePoint Developer here.

Database Developers

Database developers working on Online, Transaction Processing (OLTP) systems including Relational Database Management Systems (RDBMS) like Microsoft SQL Server have generalized database development skills.

On the hand, Data Warehouse developers have additional skills that include building de-normalized Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) databases.

A Data Warehousing career is a specialized database development career that requires general relational database skills as well as specialized data-warehousing database skills.

Read about becoming a data warehouse developer here.

Another example is becoming a specialized Database Administrator (DBA), like a GIS DBA.

A DBA is responsible for managing / administering any corporate database. A GIS DBA on the other hand, is a DBA who specializes in Geographic / Geospatial Information Systems.

Read more about becoming a GIS DBA here.

Before choosing a specialized or generalized career, consider this

1. Learning Curve: Consider the additional costs in terms of money and time, of studying for a specialized career versus that of a generalized career.
2. Job Prospects: Evaluate the number of jobs available to specialists to that of generalists in your industry.
3. Step By Step: Try working as a generalist first before specializing as that will help you gather the experience or domain knowledge require for specialization in some instances.

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How To Earn Significantly More Money, When Your Career Hits a Plateau!

Have you you reached a plateau in your career?

If you have, consider becoming a contractor.

As a contractor, you may earn significantly more money (20% to 50% more) and you will find more challenging work for your skill sets.

In this post, I will show how you to minimize the risks while maximizing the benefits of being a contractor so that you end up with significantly more money in your pocket!

Is A Contracting Lifestyle Right For You?

Contractors actually have a corner on the market because they have better, more up-to-date skills, better job exposure, more hands-on experience and better marketing skills which leads to more (and not less) job stability.

Contractors have a refined sense for making money because being a contractor is one step removed from being a business owner.

Contractors focus on learning marketable skills and on staying ahead of the technology curve because the best paid contractors have the sharpest, most marketable skills.

Being a contractor, involves striking a balance between the false sense of security that regular, full-time employees are sometimes lulled into and the fear that sometimes overwhelms business owners.

Contractors also have access to full medical, dental and 401K plans just like regular, full-time employees.

So, my question to you is: have you considered becoming a contractor?

Here are some of the signs that your career has hit a plateau:

• You are not being challenged at work: you have not worked on a project that challenges or stretches you for a long time
• Your skills have stagnated: your skills have stagnated because you no longer work on leading / cutting edge projects
• You have lost your sense of direction: you spend more time dealing with corporate politics and less time getting results
• You are not getting any recognition: you can’t seem to move up in your career or earn more money regardless of how hard you work
• You have a boring job: you dread going to work because you job is boring … boring … boring!

If have been affected by any of these situations, there is good news for you.

Becoming a contractor can lift the ceiling on your salary or provide you with more challenging work, without causing you to lose the best benefits of a full-time, permanent / regular job.

Here are some tips to help you create a successful contracting career

TIP #1: Build Your Contracting Career Around Marketable Skills

Analyze your local economy to find out the sectors that are hiring. Based on these sectors, you can figure out the type of contracting experience that is going to sell.

Note: One industry that hires professionals from all sorts of backgrounds is the “Web Development Industry”.

TIP #2: Manage The Longevity of Contracting Jobs

Contracting positions should be six months or longer. I would advice you to stay away from contracting jobs that are less than 6 months because they are just too short to get anything useful done.

When you hear that a contracting gig is less than six (6) months, you may need to walk away, because that kind of job may come with a lot of pressure to perform or a lot of stress.

Focus on long-term contracting jobs, except if you are starting from scratch or you are willing to work any job, just to succeed.

On the other hand, contracting jobs that last 1, 2 years or more are desirable because they offer just about as much security as regular, permanent, full-time jobs.

Contracting jobs have longevity. They may not last as long as full-time, permanent jobs but they last long enough to be meaningful!

TIP #3: Bill A Lot More!

How do contractors handle the shorter employment periods? They bill a lot more!

Assuming that as a business analyst contractor, you earn $65,000 (USD) or £41,675 (British Pounds).

When you become a contract business analyst, you may earn anywhere from 20 percent ($13,000 or £8,345) to 50 percent ($32,500 to £20,800) more .. without changing your career or going to college for a masters or post-graduate education!

Now, that extra money should not to be invested in your lifestyle, buying a bigger house or more cars. Instead, it should be put away in a savings, retirement or investment account because you will need it!

Contractors have to account for down-times. A down-time is the time between projects, contracts or jobs when a contractor is looking for the next gig, assignment or project.

Contractors may encounter down-times in between their assignments which last up to a month or longer.

A business-savvy contractor will use down-times to learn new skills or sharpen existing skills.

As a contractor, learning a new (marketable) skill or sharpening an existing skill, means that you will encounter less and less of a downtime and that you will be paid more money because you always bring the best skill-sets to your projects!

So, it is not uncommon to see contractors, earn 50% more than their full-time contemporaries because they have better, more marketable, sharper skills!

TIP #4: Contractors Don’t Have To Travel

Contrary to popular opinions, contractors are not really required to travel except when:

• They don’t have marketable skills and because of that, have to travel to different locations to get a good job
• They choose to travel because they like being on the road even though there are contracting jobs that do not involve traveling.

Keep in mind that the majority of employers will disclose any traveling requirements before you are hired.

I won’t advice that you to bring up the question of traveling except if it’s mentioned in the job posting or interview.

If traveling is mentioned, be frank and tell the employer during a face to face job interview, that you don’t want to travel because of personal or family commitments.

Contractors do not have to travel. So, if you find yourself traveling excessively, you either have the wrong skills or you are in the wrong job.

TIP #5: Contracting Does Not Negatively Affect Your Credit

As a contractor, you actually have a full-time job and your bank, financial institution or creditors can call your staffing company and verify your employment history or salary just as easily as if you were a regular, full-time employee.

If you are working for yourself, or you are billing the employer directly, you may have a tougher time getting credit because you are self-employed.

However, most contractors are employed with a staffing agency, so they really have a full-time, regular job just like everyone else.

Getting loans, credit or financing for a contractor is usually just as easy as getting credit for a full-time employee because contractors earn a lot more money and they probably have more savings, which means that their credit is just as good.

TIP #6: Manage Your Contracting Profile

Let’s say that you use the same staffing agency all the time, then your employment history / profile will look like that of a full-time, permanent employee even though you change clients often, because you are still employed with one staffing company.

However, if you change staffing agencies every time you change jobs, your work profile will look less stable and that may negatively affect your employment profile during a job interview or a credit check.

Fortunately, you have a good measure of control over which staffing agency you work for.

For starters, make sure that you work with a recruiter that you like and then stay in close communication with that recruiter throughout the life of your project.

Money Making TIP:Get your recruiter to start looking for new projects at least six (6) weeks before the exit date or the ending of your project and you will be able to transition from one job to another with zero or little down-time.

TIP #7: YES, Contractors Must Be Highly Skilled

Contractors are the most skilled, knowledgeable and experienced professionals on a project. That is why they are paid all those big bucks.

Being a contractor does not mean that you have spent a lot of years in the industry. It does not mean that you have more formal education or more certifications than your regular, full-time colleagues.

You do not need a post-graduate degree, an MBA or a computer science background to become a contractor because college education does not parallel the functional skills required for success in Information Technology jobs.

Being a contractor does means that you are performance minded or that you are obsessed about achieving results.

Read this post titled: “Can You Perform, Prove It!”

This post was written in answer to a question posted by a business analyst

This question was submitted to “ASK IT Career Coach” by a business analyst looking for advice on how to become a contractor.

If you have a challenging career situation, be sure to [Submit A Question] using our Free, Amazing, [Ask IT Career Coach] – Ask A Question Service.

For more information, read this post titled” Do You Want To Become A Consultant?”

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How To Choose A New Career

After witnessing the challenges in the lives of professionals dealing with under-performance, under-achievement, stress, anxiety, career stagnation, anger, depression or financial failure; I decided to write this article on how to make better career choices.

Choosing the right career is important because you spend the major part of your day (9 to 11 hours) at work. If you make the wrong career choice, you will put yourself in a painful, challenging situation.

So, choosing the right career ranks as one of the most important decisions you will ever make in your life.

Here is my review of the right and wrong ways of choosing a career.

Recommendations

You may choose a career based on the recommendation of family members, friends, colleagues, college counselors, coaches or other professionals.

Recommendations from friends or family are usually well-intentioned but they are sometimes based on the individual’s limited experience, fears, personal interests or hearsay.

Some common examples include recommending a career because a brother, sister, father, mother or family friend is in that same profession.

Apart from career coaches or counselors, most people making career recommendations do not actually assess the strengths or weaknesses of the individual who they are making the recommendations for. Rather, they are solely focuses on what they perceive to be the opportunities in the industry.

However, you need to determine that the individual making a recommendation is knowledgeable about a wide range of careers or that they are not biased in their recommendations.

Personality Tests

You may decided to choose a career based on your personality type.

For example, If your personality leans towards that of an introvert, you may decide to choose a career in computer programming instead of project management.

On the other hand, if you are an extrovert, you may choose a career in technical recruiting, account management or sales.

Choosing a career based on your personality is effective because it factors in your strengths and weaknesses.

For example, if you train for a career that your personality is ill-suited for, you will find it hard to get a job or succeed at the job if you are hired.

If your personality does not match the profile required for the job, you will find it hard to convince employers to hire you, even if you have strong educational qualifications!

You may read more about personality types in this post titled: “What Is Your Personality Type?”

Self Interest Or Hobbies

You may choose adopt a hobby or a recreational pastime as your career.

For example, you may start programming as a hobby before deciding take up a formal, full-time computer programming career.

Turning a hobby into a full-time job is effective because you are choosing to build your life around “what you love doing or your passion“, instead of some other shallow reason!

Education

You may decide to pursue a career that is aligned with your college major or educational background.

That can be is okay as long as you don’t limit yourself to what you learn or did not learn in college.

Choosing a career based on a college major is not always effective because, what you get from college in some cases is a good theoretical education but not necessarily the strong functional education, knowledge or skills required by employers.

You may not be making an informed decision if you base your career choice on your college coursework because the two may not be closely aligned.

I get a lot of questions along these lines, for example; from MBA graduates who assume that the MBA course work is the same as that of business analysts!

Fact is, your college major or degree does not help, hinder, limit or restrict your career options.

You may read more in this post titled: “Stuck In A College Mindset After Graduation”

Financial Reward

A lot of professionals choose their careers based on the perceived financial reward, salary or compensation.

Here is what they miss; regardless of the career you choose, if you are a top performer, your income will grow and exceed the average salary paid to professionals in your industry!

If you are really good or exceptional at what you do, you will be paid well regardless of your profession or career.

So, while you may choose a career because for financial reasons, a better path may be choosing to become a top performer in a career you really love!

So, if earning more money is important to you, identify the factors that lead to high performance in your career and then work on becoming a top performer as quickly as possible.

You may read more about top performers in this post titled: “Can You Perform? Prove IT!”

Prestige

Do you know someone who is in a particular profession like medicine or law because of the prestige attached to that profession?

The problem with choosing a career because of it’s prestige is that what seems prestigious right now may not feel prestigious in a few years or when the glamor of that profession wears off and you are back to the daily grind!

Remember that getting a prestigious job may not make you happy or successful in the long run because your happiness is governed not by the prestige others attach to your career (an extrinsic factor) but by how much you enjoy doing your job (an intrinsic factor).

Lifestyle

Your lifestyle may dictate your choice of careers. For example, if you are a stay-at-home parent, you may not want to commute daily to work.

Keep in mind that certain lifestyles are more available in some careers than others.

For example, a freelancing lifestyle is more accessible to a computer programmer than say … a project manager.

And a technical recruiter or sales rep is more likely to spend time driving from office to office, meeting clients than say … a business analyst.

You may also have noticed that professionals in sales are more likely to travel for their work than computer programmers.

So, if you really must have a certain lifestyle, you have to do due diligence and choose the type of career that supports that lifestyle.

Mobility

Do you know someone that choose a career simply because that is what was locally available and that person has no intention of ever leaving his or her city to get a job?

If you cannot afford to relocate to a different city because of the associated financial costs, the cost of leaving your social / family network or the challenge of starting out in a new city, you may be limiting your career options.

Just remember that you don’t have to feel constrained to jobs or careers that are locally available.

Moving to a different city may bring much needed fresh perspective, energy and opportunity into your life!

Learning Curve

You may choose a career because it has a shorter or longer learning curve.

If you choose careers with longer learning curves (e.g. C++ programming career versus C# programming) you will have to wait for a longer time to get a job.

On the other hand, choosing a career with a shorter learning curve means that you will be ready for work sooner or faster.

If you do not realize that each career path has a learning curve attached to it, you may make the wrong career choice or fail at your career transition.

You may read more about “learning curves” in this post titled: “Oracle Or Microsoft Access, Which Is Better?”

Handicaps

If you discuss your career options in terms of “what you cannot do, what you are afraid of doing or worried about”, then you are motivated by fear or handicapped when it comes to choosing a career!

Don’t choose a career because of fear, worry, anxiety, worry, outsourcing, layoffs, recession or bad news.

Instead, choose a career based on what you love doing, your hopes, dreams, visions, goals, good news and other more positive factors.

You may read more about “passion” in this post titled: “Why Successful People Are Passionate About Their Jobs”

SWOT Analysis

SWOT Analysis allows you to compare your strengths and weaknesses, the threats, disruptive changes and opportunities in the environment.

SWOT Analysis is one of the most effective ways to choose a career because it helps you make an unbiased, fact-based decision by balancing your strengths and weaknesses (internal factors) against threats and opportunities (external factors) in your environment.

Why this list is not exhaustive, my hope is that you will use to evaluate your decision making process when it comes to choosing careers. That way, you will have a better, more fulfilling and happier life.

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Success Principles: Discover Your Passion!

Do You Want To Live An Inspired Life?

First, discover your passion and work a job you really love.

Second, turn your passion into a set of excellent skills using practice tests or quizzes.

Third, bring your passion to the market using Push (emailing your branded resumes) or PULL Techniques (Social Media Marketing).

Here is a question for you; Do You Really Love Your Job?

In a study of how exceptional, world-class or, successful people are produced, Daniel Coyle in his book “The Talent Code” says that it takes a combination of concentrated, difficult, skill-building practice, motivation or inspiration and master coaching to achieve success.

Coyle’s point is that if a person is going to invest the amount of time and concentrated, difficult practice that produces a high-level of skill, that person will have to be deeply motivated or passionate about his or her work!

SUCCESS DOES NOT COME BY WORKING A JOB THAT PAYS MORE MONEY BUT BY FOCUSED, SKILL BUILDING PRACTICE.

Deep, Skill Building Practice

Deep practice is something most top athletes add to their training.

Deep practice is where they slow down their practice to unbelievably slow speeds just so that they can wrap their brains around the skill required of them and then practice with as much accuracy as possible.

Their goal is to practice perfect!

Think about it: top football teams study their plays over and over, slowly and in great detail on chalkboards in a classroom for hours on end before hitting the football fields.

And tennis camps in Russia do not allow young beginners to hit an actual tennis ball until they have developed a technically correct tennis swing at slower speeds.

Regardless of how much natural talent an athlete appears to have, most athletes will not reach the top unless they deep practice!

Deep practice is an obsessive, but focused, skill-building technique.

Read more on this post; “Deep Practice Journal”.

Passion, Motivation or Inspiration

In his book, Outliers, Gladwell interviewed Bill Gates, whose unique access to a computer at a time when they were not commonplace helped him succeed.

Gates passion for computing, drove him to access a high school computer in 1968 at the age of 13, and spend 10,000 hours programming on it before he was 23.

Without that access, Gladwell states that Gates would still be “a highly intelligent, driven, charming person and a successful professional”, but that he would not be worth US$50 billion.

The Beatles were so passionate about their craft that they performed live in Hamburg, Germany over 1,200 times from 1960 to 1964 and by the time they returned to England from Hamburg, Germany, ‘they sounded like no one else’.

The lesson to learn here is that:

It is only when you love what you do, that you will consciously try to improve your performance or work very hard at becoming very good.

If you do not love your work, you will not be able to make the type of exceptional, disciplined commitment required to be successful and if you are working just to pay your bills … you will never be exceptional!

The SECRET OF SUCCESSFUL people is that they choose the type of work they are deeply passionate about and they develop or perfect exceptional skills for their job using feedback, guidance or coaching.

For me, success means doing work that I love, developing my skills to the best of my abilities and helping or serving other people with my talent.

What does success mean for you? Here at ITCareerCoach, Success is a three part process that involves discovering your passion, developing your passion and bringing your passion to market.

1. Discover Your Passion: identify and focus more on the type of tasks that give you a sense of fulfillment, joy or happiness and that is also very valuable, useful or helpful to others, so you get paid.

   • Doing what you love maximizes the benefit you get from your working hours. Remember that we spend the majority of our waking hours at some type of work!

   • If you don’t do what you love, you will lack the motivation to perfect your skills.

     You will lack the energy you need to find out of the box solutions, you will not have the motivation you need to stay ahead of the technology or marketplace and you will lack the desire to become exceptional at your job.

     In other words, you will only produce “below average to average” results because you lack the passion for excellence.

   • Read more on this post: “Are You Inspired Enough?”

2. Develop Your Passion: sharpen your skills through continuous practice until you become highly skilled or exceptional at what you do.

   • Develop your skills so that they stand out with in the eyes of your clients, customers or employers.

   • Developing your skills through via deep-skill building practice maximizes your strengths and it allows you deliver valuable results or solutions to your customers or employer.

   • If you don’t develop your skill, someone else will become better than you and eventually take your market, job or business.

   • As an information technology (IT) professional, the primary method for developing or perfecting your skills is through the use of practice tests or quizzes.

   • Read more on this post: “Ace Job Interviews Using Practice Tests!”

3. Bring your Passion To Market: Become a leader by continuously sharing your passion with a community using a blog or a website.

   • Sharing your passion allows you to get real-world feedback on what is valuable to others and what is not.

     Even if when you are highly skilled or knowledgeable, you will lack the customer or real-world interaction that rounds off your knowledge.

   • It also helps you get paid for doing what you love. Sharing your knowledge, expertise, insight, skills or services with an online community allows others to get the maximum benefit from your work and it allows you to get the maximum pay or reward for your work.

   Read more on this post: “Become A Leader And Get The Job You Want!”

This is the internet age and you cannot hide behind mediocrity. If you are mediocre at your work, your boss will replace you with someone that is better skilled.

Or, if you are mediocre and you run a business, your customers will find a more passionate provider on the internet.

So the morale is; don’t be mediocre, be exceptional!

I will leave you with a few quotes from that summarizes this process from our participants.

“There is such a wealth of information out there that it can be overwhelming to someone trying to figure out what they need to know.

I mean, when you look in your local bookstore you will see a huge section of books to help, but what you won’t find is the insider information that will teach you exactly is the most profitable and what techniques you absolutely must know.

You also won’t find any resources that will give you the inside information about how to write a specific resume so you stand out from the crowd.

You also won’t find the inside information about what interview questions to expect and more importantly – how to answer them!

ITCareerCoach provides all this information, structured in such a way that it is easy to learn.

Each step builds on what you learned in the previous step so you never get overwhelmed.

What you will learn above everything else from ITCareerCoach is the sequencing … all life is made up of what, the same 6 proteins but it is the sequence that makes everything work and every animal different.

You will learn how to make your knowledge and skills work … that is the secret, the sequence: what to do, how to do it, when to do it, and for how long, so that it all make sense.

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• Data Analysts Boot Camp - Online, Web Based, Instructor Led, Hands On, Data Analyst Video Training


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How To Jumpstart A Stalled Career!

It has been said that to “keep doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results is the very definition of insanity.“

On the other hand, “if you want something you have never hard, you must do something you have never done!“

So, if your career is stagnating, step back and take an honest look at your work.

Is your work everything you had hoped for?

If the smell of fresh-brewed coffee is the biggest reward after you walk through the office door each day, it’s time to truly perk up your daily grind and reboot your career.

Broaden Your Horizons

One way to jump-start your career is to volunteer for assignments that are outside of your comfort zone or take on additional roles that are valuable to your organization.

For example, you may take on some project management responsibility if you are in a more technical role, so that you can become a better-rounded candidate.

And as a project manager or a business analyst nothing stops you from getting more technical skills, because this makes you more hands-on than your contemporaries.

Adding more skills, both technical or management, can only help you in the long run.

• Read this post “Do Business Analysts Need Computer Programmer Skills?“.

• Read this post “What Software Skills Do Business Analysts Need?“.

Upgrade your Skills

One of the areas that all professionals need to stay on top of is; “their skill-sets!“

Like it or not, information technology skills are susceptible to losing their value because technology is always changing or evolving.

Read this post … “The Most Important Thing on Your Resume“.

Do What You Love

One of the reasons why your career is stagnating may be that you’re not doing work that you are passionate about. So, you’re bored, and it shows.

But your managers probably don’t realize the problem; and so, instead of working with you to get to the right place, they keep you in the same job, afraid to give new assignments and responsibilities to someone who, quite frankly, doesn’t seem to want to be there.

So the question to you is, “are you doing what you really want to do with your life?” If you find that you’re not, you need to figure out what makes you happy and do it!

Perhaps what you love to do involves working with a new technology, or on another team / company, or taking on a new role / career.

It’s likely that, you’ll need to re-train to learn the required new skills, but you should never let something like that stand in your way.

It may take time and effort to change your career, but it is likely that you will continue to under-perform or be unhappy until you start doing something you love.

Are You In The Right Place?

Studies have shown that, usually, a person’s workplace is not the reason they are not moving up – quite frankly, it usually has more to do with them, rather than the place where they work.

But some organizations are better suited for certain career paths than others.

For example, if you’re a computer programmer, your greatest challenge comes from developing new software applications.

If the work given to you is mostly that of maintaining software systems, you may find yourself getting bore as you repeat the same maintenance tasks over and over again.

Does your company have a technology focus?

That isn’t to say that your company needs to be a technology giant or software development company; because we can’t all work for companies like Microsoft, Google or Apple.

Rather, what you should ask yourself is, “does your company recognize the value of technology or leverage it extensively for the day to day operations of their business?“

Do You Have A Career Path?

Everyone wants to have the opportunity to grow in some way in their work.

Even if you don’t want to move into management, you may want to move into a project management role?

Asking yourself what it is you want to do long-term, and then examining whether or not your company is going to be able to help you get there is something everyone needs to do at some point in their career.

In the end, only you can determine what it is that will jump-start your career.

It might take new skills, or new responsibilities, or even a new job altogether, but there’s not much point in delaying the inevitable.

Other challenges may be phrased with questions like “how can I promote myself”, “what should I do in life”, “what career I should choose” because professionals frequently rethink or regret their choices in these areas.

Here are some of the tips for overcoming regrets and getting more control over your career.

BOOST YOUR CONFIDENCE

If you have lost your confidence, you can take it back. Irrespective of your profession, you can regain your confidence any time.

Change your statements from “I can’t do it to I can do it or I can at least try“.

Change your statements from “I did wrong to I did better than before and I’ll do better again“

Change your statements from “Will this idea work? to No idea is bad“

You should replace your pessimistic thinking or talking with a more optimistic apprach or conversation.

Think of yourself as a professional in your department and your confidence will start growing.

THINK MORE ABOUT YOUR CAREER OPTIONS

Working at different jobs or roles will help you build a better understanding of your skills, experience or the opportunities out there.

Search for new opportunities and don’t restrict yourself to just one conventional or traditional career. Keep your options open and you’ll succeed at work.

Read this post … “Is Tunnel Vision Killing My Career?“.

Consider working as a volunteer to get different experiences as this will eventually help you decide the best career for yourself.

WORK ON YOURSELF CONSTANTLY

One of the best ways to boost your confidence is by updating your resume each time you complete a project.

The next thing is stay up-to-date with changes in your industry using the internet, journals, electronic papers, online classes etc.

If you are preparing for a job interview, first have an interview session with your self; answering questions like “why do I want this job“, or “why am I qualified to do this job“, etc.

Your answers should reflect a strong self confidence, positive mental attitude and personal competence.

Try to practice quick answers; lasting for not more than couple of minutes.

Talk with yourself in front of the mirror and give these answers.

This will surely help you in your interview and it will eventually increase your confidence as well.

PROMOTE YOURSELF

The only way to be successful in a competitive job market is to market yourself constantly.

People with strong marketing skills get the best jobs even when they are less qualified than others.

One way to market yourself is to make a personal, nice looking, business card which you can distribute.

Also, consider using a blog to showcase your skills and expertise.

Finally, join a local networking group that will help you meet people.

GET YOUR FAMILY TO SUPPORT

Many professionals faces obligations and responsibilities related with their family, culture, religion.

But they often find it difficult to spare more time for either their professional or family obligations.

If you are thinking of putting in the extra work that it takes to reboot your career, you should discuss it with your spouse or children in advance, to avoid creating a lot of stress.

Consider asking your spouse for support, because the extra work you may need to invest in your career, may place a burden on your family.

The sooner you can take an honest look at your career, make an objective assessment of your skills and prospects and make the necessary adjustments, the sooner you will begin to experience a more satisfying career.

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wearing multiple hats gets the job done!

If you react negatively after reading a job description that requires cross functional skills, you may be throwing away a valuable learning opportunity!

Though the thought of working on a challenge outside your immediate area of expertise makes you uncomfortable, it will actually increase your value as a resource.

Information technology (IT) professionals are frequently asked to perform jobs completely different in nature from what they are hired or trained to do.

For example:

• Business Analysts on web development projects may be asked to create cascading style sheets (CSS), design user interfaces (UI) or perform user acceptance tests.
• Software Developers may be asked gather requirements from stakeholders or customers, verify / validate requirements, write Use Cases or create UML documents.
• Project Managers may be asked to design databases, architect software programs, document business requirements or create user interfaces (UI) specifications.
• Database Analysts or Database Developers may be tasked with designing front-end applications or data entry forms used in gathering or collecting data.
• Technical Writers may be tasked with gathering or documenting business requirements even when they have little or no formal training.
• IT Managers may help web development teams debug code, test software products, facilitate meetings or gather requirements.

Don’t reject assignments because you have never done them before or because they have not been formally written into your job description.

A can-do attitude or the willingness to do whatever it takes to get the job done, is required for success in today’s competitive workplace.

Why Do Employers Blur Job Descriptions?

Employers want you to develop cross-functional skills because they are short staffed, they want to save money or they want you to be a valuable asset to their organization.

Managers typically do not have the budget that allows them to staff their projects with all the specialized skills the project needs.

So, a good way to win your manager’s favor is to volunteer for tasks beyond your immediate skills or comfort zone, especially in areas where your project is short staffed.

Let’s take a look at the typical web development project which in a perfect world, needs to be staffed with project managers, business analysts, user interface designers, web designers, user experience analysts, data analysts, database developers, database administrators, software developers, web analysts, technical writers, copywriters, network administrators, web writers, software testers and more.

If every web application project is perfectly staffed, web development costs will be prohibitive for most organizations.

Also, staffing each project with all the needed resources may be counter productive because there may not be enough work for each role beyond the life cycle of the current project.

For example, the User Interface (UI) designer’s skills are required at the beginning of a web development project to help with the visual design / layout of the web site / application.

However, once the coding for the project begins, their may not be any use for the User Interface (UI) Designer’s skills until a new web development project is launched.

So, the organization that hires a UI Designer will be forced to fire him / her half-way through the software development life cycle!

As you can see, this approach is not ideal for both User Interface (UI) Designers and Project / Software Development Managers.

Employers solve this type of staffing problem by hiring professionals with cross functional skills!

That is why you may see job descriptions for technical business analysts or job postings that require specialized technical skills (CSS, HTML, User Interface (UI) Design, etc.) even though they are listed for business analyst positions.

The willingness to wear multiple hats is required for success in today’s information technology (IT) industry.

Employers want you to be confident and willing to tackle any challenge thrown your way, even when the problem domain does not lie within your immediate area of expertise.

For example, a Microsoft .NET Software Developer may be asked to write some PHP code or a PHP Developer may be asked to write some Visual Basic/ CSharp (C#) code even when these programming languages are not part of the programmer’s skills.

How To Gain Cross-Functional Skills

Developing cross functional skills, starts by acquiring a lot of new information on a new domain.

Here is some information that can help you in the quest for cross functional skills:

• Start with a Road-map:
  

  Start with a comprehensive road-map or a curriculum that shows you all the lessons, concepts or topics you have to learn in a step-by-step manner.

• Learn More to Earn More:
  

  Identify all the reading resources that you will need to accomplish your learning goals including blogs, videos, textbooks, newsletters, magazines etc.

• Make Daily Progress:
  

  Plan to make consistent, daily progress instead of a strenuous, herculean effort.

  When it comes to learning, winning small daily battles is better than a mad, one-time dash that may end in discouraging failure!

• Get Some Feedback:
  

  Incorporate third-party review or feedback from peers, coaches, instructors, etc.

• Build Your Resume:
  

  Keep in mind that taking on challenges outside your immediate area of expertise, scores points in the eyes of current and future managers.

Keep in mind that wearing multiple hats is an opportunity in disguise.

Acquire a “can do” mindset and live outside the silos or boundaries set by your job descriptions!

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what software should you-learn to become a business analyst?

[Ask IT Career Coach] is a Career Advice Newsletter for Information Technology (IT) professionals including business analysts, computer programmers, data analysts, database developers, technical writers, project managers and software testers.

If you, have a challenging question about your career, submit it here and we will answer yours just as we are answering this question submitted by a technical writer titled: What Software Do I Learn to Become A Business Analyst? …

Question

How do I learn or get the software knowledge that would make me a business analyst?

What types of software programs will I have to use on the job; and how do I learn these programs in a visual manner without having to refer to textbooks?

Answer:

You do not understand what a business analyst does and because of that you are mixing software jobs (like that of a computer programmer’s) with the business analyst’s job.

This mix-up is quite common because software oriented jobs are more common and better understood than business analyst jobs.

When you think of a computer programmer’s job, the picture that comes to mind is that of a highly skilled technology savvy professional who spends a lot of time building software programs, creating data entry forms and screens, designing websites or even installing desktop applications.

Unfortunately, when you think of business analysts, you also imagine that their duties or tasks are similar to those of computer programmers!

Because of this, you are wrongly associating the business analyst’s career with more software / technology careers like software testing, technical writing or computer programming.

So, in TODAY'S POST, I will contrast the role of a software tester, computer programmer, technical writer and business analyst to bring the point home.

What Does A Business Analyst Really Do?

The primary skills that business analysts use on the job are communication skills
(both written and verbal) unlike computer programmers, whose primary skills are tied to expertise in specific technologies like C#, Visual Basic, Java, PHP.

Business Analysts are highly-skilled or expert at communicating technology requirements with stakeholders, customer, power users or even technical teams (think software developers, software testers, web designers).

The primary communication tools used by business analysts while facilitating the requirements engineering process are Office productivity tools including Microsoft Word (for documenting requirements), Microsoft PowerPoint (for making presentations) and Microsoft Excel.

However, unlike computer programmer jobs, business analyst jobs are not required to be software or technology centered.

Don’t get me wrong!

Some job postings for business analysts require knowledge of software development languages like C# or Java or a software development background.

The business analysts that apply for these job postings are more accurately classified as Technical Business Analysts.

There are several domains or specializations available to business analysts (mortgage, financial, telecommunications / telco, automotive, healthcare, insurance) and technical business analysis is just one of these domains.

Read more about domain business analysts here:

However, the requirements for domain business analysts are not the same as the requirement for becoming a business analyst.

You are a business analyst first before you become a technical / domain business analyst.

So, don’t apply the role, responsibilities and requirements for the technical business analysis domain to all business analyst domains.

Competence or mastery of Microsoft Office Productivity software (MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint) is a requirement for business analyst jobs even when it is not stated on the job posting.

A business analyst who uses Office Productivity software can document requirements with Microsoft Word, make PowerPoint presentations and run what-if analysis using Microsoft Excel.

Focusing on software skills beyond Microsoft Office software makes you more of a computer programmer than a business analyst.

For your information, here are some of the differences between computer programmer jobs and business analyst jobs.

Business Analysts Compared To Computer Programmers

• Business Analysts gather requirements while computer programmers build to specifications.

• Business Analysts document work flows and business processes while computer programmers model and build software programs that follow those workflows or business processes.

• Business analyst are hired for their written and verbal communication skills while computer programmers are hired for their expertise or skills in specific programming languages or technology platforms.

• A computer programmer's work is deeply invested in learning or using technology while a business analyst’s work is deeply invested in understanding, documenting and communicating business requirements.

• A business analyst’s primary software tool is Microsoft Word, Excel, or PowerPoint while a computer programmer’s primary software skill is knowledge of Java or C# or Visual Basic or PHP or other programming languages.

• Business Analysts document the requirements or features of software programs while computer programmers build software programs.

• Both the business analyst and software developer are involved with the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) for different reasons. While the business analyst owns the analysis and documentation of software requirements, the computer programmers owns the building of software programs.

• Read more about the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) here:

I am also going to contrast the role of business analysts with that of software testers and technical writers to bring this home.

Business Analysts Compared To Software Testers

• Software Testers are more hands-on with programming than business analysts.

  Software Testers are more skilled in programming because they sometimes have to write automated tests using scripting programming languages.

  A business analyst should not be required to write scripts or learn programming languages except in instances where they are applying for technical business analyst jobs.

  So, you cannot project the hands-on software skills requirements for software testers onto the hands-on skill requirements for business analysts.

• Software Testers write manual or automated tests that verify that software programs developed by computer programmers were written according to the specifications or requirements documented by business analysts.
• Software Testers have to test or inspect the procedures or functions written by computer programmers.

  For that reason, they may have to learn the basics of the programming language used in creating the software program.

  There is almost no value in business analysts inspecting a programmer’s code or even messing with it because Business Analysts do not have those competencies!

• Read more about Software Tester Careers here:

Business Analysts Compared To Technical Writers

• The skills exercised by technical writers are similar to that of business analysts in some respects.

  Both technical writers and business analysts exercise strong written communication skills.

  However, while a technical writer’s skill is useful for documenting the features of a software program after it is built, a business analyst’s skill is useful for documenting the features of a software program before it is built!

• A technical writer’s primary role is the documenting of existing software features, business processes, etc.

  Because of this, a technical writer may have to learn specific software programs (apart from MS Word or PowerPoint) to help them with create technical documentation like Help Files, Software Manuals, etc.

  The technical writing industry is such that job postings require knowledge of specific software documentation tools.

  However, this must not be confused with the software requirements for business analysts.

  Business Analysts are not technical writers and the business analyst’s job does not require knowledge of specific software programs apart from the ubiquitous (Microsoft Office, MS Word, MS Excel or MS PowerPoint).

• While the technical writing industry is componentized along the lines of software documentation tools (Adobe PageMaker, Adobe Frame Maker, Adobe Acrobat, Quark Xpress, Corel Ventura), the business analyst industry is segmented along the lines of domain specialization (financial, utilities, web / user interface (UI) business analysts, etc.).

• Read More about Technical Writer Careers:

What Does It Really Take To Become A Business Analyst?

The requirements for business analysts’ jobs are primarily documentation, requirements analysis and communication (both written and verbal).

While it is common for a business analyst to spend his / her time, preparing PowerPoint presentations, taking meeting notes using Microsoft Word or writing Use Cases in plain-old Microsoft Word, it is common for a computer programmer / software tester / technical writer to spend the same amount of time coding new program features / documenting bugs / documenting the features of a software program.

A business analyst must be 100% comfortable in his / her role as a communicator, presenter, leader, facilitator or analyzer without feeling the need to learn more software tools!

How To Get Hired For A Business Analyst Job – Case Study

Some time ago, I was hired to help an Information Technology (IT) director put together a software development team for a financial software project in Saint Louis, Missouri, USA.

In that role, we posted a senior business analyst job opening and then started interviewing qualified business analysts.

The business analyst I interviewed and recommended got the job because she did something different from the other business analysts who applied for the same job.

She walked into the interview with a bound, spiral document that showcased the comprehensiveness, thoroughness and versatility of several business documents she had created for one automotive client in the Greater Saint Louis region.

She did not get hired because of what she said at the business analyst job interview or because of the software experience listed on her resume.

She got the business analyst job, by showcasing her hands-on business analysis skills.

What differentiated her was a compilation of various types of business analysis documents she had worked on for an automotive client in the Greater Saint Louis area.

The financial client hired her as an Information Technology (IT) business analyst for a financial software project because they connected with the hands-on, visual depiction of her business analysis skills exemplified by her Microsoft Word based portfolio.

My final advice?

Don’t approach the business analyst industry based on how the software testing, technical writing or computer programmer industries work.

Remove false associations between the business analyst’s role (primarily written and verbal analysis or communication of requirements) and the hands-on skill requirements for software testers, technical writers or computer programmers.

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Why Handson-Experience Makes You Marketable

Perhaps you have been told that success depends on the choosing the right college major, getting into the best college or getting good grades?

Sounds right?
This advice actually has no value in the real-world and as a matter of fact, it just ain’t true!

I’m really not knocking down your college degree, the recognition you gain from a top-rated college or the value of getting a 4.0 GPA.

No, just pointing you in the right direction …

The moment you get out of college, your college major, degree or GPA becomes history because you are now running a different race!

The sad fact, is that some professionals are still stuck in that old college race even though they have graduated!

They are stuck with a college mindset because their thinking is that …

if they choose the correct college major or get a masters degree or enroll
for an MBA or another college degree … they can automatically qualify for business analysts / project
managers, computer programmers jobs, etc.

They have believed a lie.

Having one college degree (regardless of the major) is what matters because you will only get to use a fraction of your college education … out there in the real world.

If you are one of the lucky few, you will realize that the skills used on the job like: verbal or written communication skills, research and analysis skills, logical and problem solving skills can be gotten from just about any college major, degree or school.

So, How Relevant Is Your College Major?

The information technology industry has already moved to a more open, social learning system where functional, hands-on knowledge developed on the job is valued over rigorous, academic, theoretical qualifications.

Those who miss this are stuck with an irrelevant, traditional mindset.

The good news is that in-spite of your college major, you can qualify for a project management, software developer, technical writer or business analyst job.

Having a business degree does not qualify you for a business analyst job and neither does having a computer science degree qualify you for a computer programmer job.

You can get a computer programmer job with a business / finance / accounting background just as easily as you can get a business analyst job with an engineering or computer science degree.

Why Functional, Hands-On Experience Matters

Employers are hiring for real-world, problem solving skills, strong domain knowledge or industry background or experience and relevant, cutting-edge information as opposed to any type of paper qualification.

If you have these traits, you should have no problem getting hired regardless of your college major.

Write This Down:

Your functional knowledge or hands-on experience is the reason why you get hired for a project management, business analyst or computer programmer job.

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Put Your Blinders On Before You Read This!

Blinders are useful in potentially distracting situations because they increase one’s ability to focus.

For example, blinders are useful for removing potentially distracting or scary scenes from a horse’s vision.

By preventing the horse from seeing everything in it’s peripheral vision, the rider can better control the horse’s focus or keep it on target.

So, what does “blinders on horses have to do with job descriptions”?

As you go about reading job descriptions and applying to jobs, you may become distracted, discouraged or even depressed by the skills or experience requirements posted on these job descriptions.

The posted requirements posted may overwhelm you, cause you considerable agitation or cause you to lose hope and count yourself out before you even apply for the job!

The solution? Put your job description blinders on …

#1: Give Yourself A Gut Check:

After reading a job description, ask yourself this singular, most important question: “do I have the ability to do this job?“

If the answer to this simple gut check is a yes; go ahead and e-mail your resume, regardless of the skills you seem to be lacking based on the job description!

A lot of the confusion with job descriptions stems from the fact that they are not written by technical folks or their managers but by Human Resources (HR) professionals, recruiters and staffing agencies.

I have had to help out HR professionals and recruiters with the wordings on job descriptions because they couldn’t understand the jobs, tools or careers they were hiring for, which in turn, impaired the clarity of the job description.

Even when technical folks (business analysts, computer programmers, project managers, etc.) write job descriptions, HR folks still extract sections from these, rewrite them based on their understanding before posting the final job description!

Unfortunately, the result is pain, confusion or discouragement for the professionals reading the job description.

#2: Put Your Job Description Blinders On:

So, to read or interpret job descriptions accurately, you must learn how to put filters on sentences, phrases or even entire paragraphs that serve only to discourage or distract you!

Here are some examples of misleading or inaccurate job descriptions:

1. When a business analyst description specifies a Use Case Modeling tool as a required skill, put your job description blinders on!

   Why?

   Well, if you really understand Use Cases, you can create the document in any reasonable tool, even if you have to learn that Use Case modeling tool on the job.

   Information technology (IT) tools are generally designed to work for their users and not against them.

   So, if you really understand Use Cases, you can learn any new Use Case modeling tool in a reasonably short time and then write Use Case with that tool.

   If you are a qualified business analyst, apply for the job and confidently explain why your knowledge / skill in Use Cases is more important than the knowledge of one Use Case modeling tool versus another.

   What the employer really needs is your ability to write Use Cases and not the knowledge of a specific Use Case tool … that has little or no business value!

2. When a programming job description specifies Visual Studio 2005 / 2008 / 2010 as a required skill instead of a specific programming language skill (C# or VB.NET), put your programming job description blinders on!

   Why?

   For all practical purposes, if you have good C# or VB.NET programming skills, you also have Visual Studio skills.

   Don’t obsess over the lack of a Visual Studio version posted on the job description because it was probably written by a non-technical person for whom the Visual Studio version number is a big deal!

On a final note, whenever you see a potentially distracting job description, put your blinders on, write up your resume to match the job description and then go ahead email your resume!

Can you think of any distracting, misleading or inaccurate requirements you have come across while reading job descriptions?

If you have, I will be glad to hear more about it …

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The Secret To Success In A Nutshell

As a career coach, I receive lots of emails (from business analysts, computer programmers, project managers, software testers, etc.) about how to be successful.

Here is the answer in a nutshell: Knowledge + Skills + Experience = Career Success!

Applied Knowledge

The key to getting results is deep, skill building, career-focused learning.

For example, if you read about “how twitter can help you get a job“, go to Twitter.com right away, create an account and start posting tweets on your area of interest.

Practice right away … the second you finish reading a tip, blog post, article, book, review, listening to a podcast or watching a video.

The Goal of Learning Is Action

If you gain some new information … any information at all from any study, coaching, training or educational program, the value will be lost and your time wasted if you do not put it into action.

Some people think that they can skip this hands-on step. They read, nod, and think they’ve stored away the knowledge for instant retrieval when they need it.

They’ve learned something new, they think.
And it will all come magically back to mind the next time they need it on the job, they say to themselves.

Or worse, they want to get hired for the knowledge they have stored up in their brains.

Yeah, no.

The brain doesn’t work that way. Read to learn — and make sure it sticks by reading carefully, re-reading, and immediately applying what you read to some hands-on assignment, problem, task or project.

Heck no!

Employers are of the opinion that your past performance is the best predictor of your future performance.

So, if you are not performing or doing something with what you know now … you are just playing!

Read, practice, sharpen your skills

Not just today, but for tomorrow, for the rest of this month, and for as long as it takes to master that technique.

And then do it some more …

Stick with a technique until you master it.

If someone tried to become a commercial pilot by reading books on flying without logging extensive flying hours, would you consider him / her a pilot by any measure?

Absolutely no!

You take it for granted that every commercial pilot has flown the same aircraft several times in some testing / training facility before flying a commercial airliner, right?

That’s why, fortunately for the rest of us, the folks who fly commercial planes spend extensive time in flight school, learning how to fly … until they have it down pat.

So don’t skim around your learning resources.

It’s great that you’re eager to learn. But learning without practicing and without making an extensive effort to develop a real-world skill is not going to help you!

This isn’t a game folks — this is business.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking that you a resume writer can somehow rewrite or put something on your resume that gets you hired.

And don’t think that heading back to college for a graduate degree or MBA will impress employers into hiring you.

My advice for you is: don’t go near that crowd!

Be one of the fortunate few and take the most direct approach. It brings the best results because it gives employers what they want.

#1: Become The Most Knowledgeable Person You Can Be

Your first job should be to learn everything that you can about your chosen career.

To start with, employers want you to be knowledgeable about your job.

They don’t want a shiny resume and they don’t want decorative college degrees. They want functional knowledge.

As a professional, the way to get functional knowledge is by doing some or all of this (the more the better):

1. Read, follow, subscribe to blogs and leaders on your topics of interest.
2. Buy and read books on your chosen career. You can never invest too much on textbooks.
3. Take training or coaching to get ahead in your career. There are lots of dead-ends and you need to avoid them all!

Study using as many resources as you can afford.

This is a knowledge-based economy, so the best investment you can make is in yourself.

… it is really this simple

#2: Become Highly Skilled

Knowledge is different from skills. Skills are gained by taking lots of quizzes or practice tests.

Sharpening your skills by taking lots of practice tests achieves two (2) really powerful objectives:

1. It gets you ready for the question & answer format of job interviews.

   In a job interview, your interviewer wants you to be factual, detailed, comprehensive or prompt in answering questions.

   The interviewer also wants you to demonstrate that you are highly knowledgeable / skilled in your subject.

2. Practice Tests also sharpen your skills for the real-world and here is why:

   When you rehearse the answers to a question and then commit it to your memory, you arm yourself with the ability to recall the solutions easily when faced with real-world problems … and managers just love that.

And that my friend is how you bridge the gap to becoming a highly skilled, highly marketable, successful professional

The ability to recall solutions easily will make you stand out on your job and it will give you a lot of confidence

The increased self-confidence comes from taking the time to study, practice and prepare for real-world, on the job challenges.

That my friend … is how to become a superstar professional.

So many people cheat themselves and short circuit the process by focusing on certifications or educational degrees, etc!

They miss the point completely!

Today’s world is highly competitive and employers are hiring for razor sharp, finely tuned / honed skills and not general skills.

#3: Gain Hands-on Experience

The last but not least is hands-on experience.

Employers rate hands-on experience above certifications or advanced college degrees.

Why?

Because in the Information Technology Industry, the mindset of employers is: “Your Past Performance Is The Best Predictor Of Your Future Performance“.

What this means is that the more real-world experience you have, the more attractive you are to employers.

The point is not to fuss about how you gain the experience (through coaching / mentoring, volunteering, on the job, etc.) but just to get it.

That is it my friend … The Secret Recipe for Success In A Nutshell.

Resources

• Ace Job Interviews Using Practice Tests
• Can You Perform? Prove IT!
• 
  Which Courses or Certifications Guarantee A Job?
• 
  Self Study or College, Which Is Better?

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Your Guide To Software Development Methodologies (Agile, Scrum, Waterfall, SDLC, Extreme ...)

Models like Agile, Extreme Programming, Scrum or Waterfall are used by project managers, business analysts, software developers or quality assurance analysts to describe how a project is managed or a software product is built.

The software development life cycle determines how risks are managed, business requirements documented, resources estimated and allocated, stakeholder expectations or customer feedback is managed and when software / quality assurance testing is performed.

Each software development model recommends a set of guidelines or best practices for developing software.

It is then up to an adopting organization to follow these guidelines from the inception of their project.

Choosing the right Software Development Life Cycle is important because it helps your project team reduce or eliminate the risks of project failure which occur as frequently as 60% of the time.

Software Development Life Cycles are also important because they help deliver a better product or user experience.

In a nutshell, software development practices like Agile, Extreme Programming, Waterfall, Lean Software Development, Rational Unified Process (RUP), Scrum will help your project team meet or exceed customer or business requirements, deliver products on time or under budget.

Meeting Business Requirements

Software Development Life Cycles help with clarifying when or how software requirements will be gathered and analyzed in a software development project.

In software methodologies like the Waterfall model, business requirements are collected, analyzed or documented extensively at the beginning of the project.

In other software models like Agile or Scrum, requirements are gathered or analyzed multiple times during the life cycle of the project.

While opinions differ as to which software model helps you gather better software requirements, each model still offers the benefit of a formal plan for gathering, analyzing or documenting business requirements.

Engaging the Best Minds or Resources

Some Software Development Life Cycles like the Waterfall model are more traditional with their “top down” team structure or project management approach.

Other software models like the Agile or Scrum models are flatter in their team structure or more self organizing and independent.

The benefit of following a software development model is that it helps with organizing or structuring the project team’s roles, responsibilities or communication style.

Reducing or Eliminating Time or Budget Overruns

Statistics show that as much as 60% of Information Technology (IT) projects fail for various reasons including time or budget overruns.

This is where choosing the right software model can be helpful.

Each software development life cycle offers a set of best practices for estimating project resources, planning project deliverables or product features and monitoring timelines or milestones.

While some software models like the Waterfall emphasize time, budget or resource estimation at the beginning of the project, others like Agile or Scrum emphasize time, cost or resource estimation & planning throughout the life cycle of the project.

Managing the Software Development Process

Each Software Development model divides separates the development process into a set of activities which makes the project more manageable.

While some Software models are sequential, others are iterative.

Software development models separate your development cycle into phases which helps with project planning, resource utilization and progress monitoring or control.

Creating Better Software Products

Software development life cycles can help with meeting or exceeding customer expectations as well as creating better software products.

Your software development model will provided guidelines for creating test cases or mapping test cases to requirements or product features.

Software models provides guidance for quality assurance analysts or software testers, on when to execute tests, record bugs or defects and measure or report on the quality of the software product.

How To Adopt A New Software Development Life Cycle

An organization may be incapable of taking advantage of a software development model in-spite of the merits of the model.

Here is my advice on adopting a new software development model

1. Evaluate your Company Culture: consider the flexibility or willingness of your company to change or adapt.

   I have seen organizations with a top-down management culture fail at agile models because they were not ready to give up some control to an agile, self-organizing team.

2. Take Small Steps: don’t try to change too much, too soon, when adopting a new software development model.

   Over-committing at the early stages of your project raises a red flag because it means that your project team is being expected to run before it has learnt how to walk!

3. Get Executive / Organizational Commitment: get someone with senior management or executive authority to back the adoption of the model or it may not survive corporate politics.

Sometime ago, I functioned as the Information Technology Director of a re-manufacturing plant in the Ozarks.

One of the goals I set for my team and employer was to get them to adopt a formal software development model.

Before I started running with the implementation of that model, I spent time coaching the CEO, the quality assurance and product development directors, and other senior managers on the benefits as well as potential challenges of the new software development model.

Because I had strong organizational commitment and backing, the software model was finally adopted without any incidents.

Which Software Development Life Cycle Is Best for Your Project?

With all that has been said in mind, i have prepared a downloadable study guide that will help you with choosing a software development model for your project!

The study guide which you can download below covers answers questions like:

1. What is Agile, Scrum, Waterfall?, Lean Software Development, Extreme Programming …
2. What are the advantages, disadvantages, challenges or benefits of adopting a software development model …
3. How does Agile compare to Waterfall … And More ….

• Which Software Development Life Cycle Is Best?

  This study guide provides a comprehensive review of software development methodologies including scrum, agile, iterative development, lean software development etc.

  With the information contained in this study guide, you will be in a better position to recognize which software development ...

• Download The Study Guide: Which Software Development Life Cycle Is Best?

  Download This Study Guide

  

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What Courses Do You Study To Become A Business Analyst?

You may start a business analysts career by taking some of the courses discussed in this post.

Keep in mind that for business analysis careers, soft skills count as much or in some cases even more than hard skills.

So, don’t make the classical rookie mistake of focusing on the hard skill requirements to the detriment of your soft skills!

The list of formal, informal or college courses that you may study for a business analyst career include:

1. Study computer science & information technology courses in college because that will help you relate to the coding or testing that takes place on information technology / software development projects.

2. Study Systems Analysis courses as they may help you get a better idea of how different networking, hardware & software systems are integrated into one functional Information Technology (IT) department.

3. Take Technical Writing and Business Communication courses because a key part of the work that you perform as a business analyst is communicating business problems or solutions.

4. Study business management courses as they will help you understand understand strategic and tactical business goals and objectives or see things from a management, stakeholder or business perspective.

   Keep in mind that not only do business analysts work in Information Technology (IT) departments, they also work in specialized business domains like Accounting, Finance, Sales and Marketing, so taking business courses can be helpful.

5. Take conflict resolution, interpersonal, communication, verbal, presentation, negotiation, public speaking and leadership courses.

   While these sort of skills are not traditionally taught as part a formal college class, you can gain the required information from textbooks and audio material on bookstores like Barnes and Noble or Amazon.

The courses that you may take to become a business analyst may be divided into formal (business / technical) or informal (interpersonal, communication and leadership) skills.

So my friend, now you know what you may study to succeed as a business analyst … do do something with this information

Thanks and Best Wishes

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Self Study or College, Which Is Better?

Here is the question: can you study all the subjects that you are passionate about through self study (by using the internet and textbooks) and still learn more than someone who goes to college for the same purpose?

Consider both sides of the debate. Forking over $40,000 and 4 years of your life to college gives you something that you can hang on your wall, a certificate that both you and your employers can be sure off.

But what happens after you get your foot in through the door? Job descriptions change at such a rapid pace that what you learned after 4 years of college education may become obsolete in a heart beat!

What happens when your employer shifts your focus away from a task that you learned in college (like writing test cases) to a task for which you have no formal education like (analyzing and documenting business requirements)

Or what would you do when technology shifts emphasis from one platform like Mainframe Programming to another like Web Programming … would one go back to college and spend another 2 to 4 years and $20K to $40K on another college degree like a Masters or a Doctoral Degree?

However you look at it, there are not too many options for learning or studying new information after college … You may:

• Self study or learn from scratch using textbooks and the internet …

• You may enroll for another College Degree …

• Or enroll in a training program.

In this post, I will only compare the pros and cons of self study compared to more college education.

How to self study or learn anything by yourself

Studying by yourself may work if you enjoy reading or if you are the kind of person that is not afraid of a challenge.

Self study is far cheaper than paying your way through college but at the same time it may require some form of external support or coaching just like a college education requires the external support of a university and college professors.

The first thing that you have to do is to create, get or buy a study / learning curriculum.

How To Study Using a Curriculum

The curriculum you get should be comprehensive and it should cover all the topics that you need to study in the right sequence or order.

In other words your self study curriculum should differentiate between beginner, intermediate or advanced level topics.

You can only create a curriculum after you have created a list of topics that you need to study or concepts that you need to master.

How To Create Study Lists of Textbooks and Internet Articles

Next research the study textbooks and internet articles that complement the topics or lessons listed in the curriculum.

Most of the topics listed on your curriculum will be covered by multiple textbooks or internet articles.

You are going to be doing a lot of personal study and you must get used to the idea of spending a lot of evening me on bookstores like Barnes & Noble or Amazon.com

However, do not expect that any one textbook, website or article will supply all the information you need.

When I was building my skills as an Information Technology consultant, I would visit Borders Bookstore at least once a week and spend up to $200 at any one single visit which means that I could spend up to thousands of dollars per year on study textbook alone!

How To Learn By Doing

Arrange for additional handson activities, quizzes or assignments that you can participate in to verify all that you have been learning.

Self study needs the presence of an online community which is a community of users, studying similar topics.

Your community is a forum or group that you can bounce questions against, answer the questions that they ask, discuss ideas with solve or troubleshoot problems with, exchange study lists (list of textbooks and articles), job interview questions, etc.

You will also need the help of coaches, group moderators or group sponsors who can help you answer the bigger questions or keep motivated just like a top performing, world class athlete needs a personal coach or trainer or help them get the best out of their abilities.

How To Get A Formal Education?

Alternatively, you may enroll for more formal education in college. Keep in mind that a college education may set you back by tens of thousands of dollars.

Evaluate your background

You also need to evaluate if you qualify, because getting the right prerequisites or educational profile for an advanced college degree like a masters or a doctorate may set you back a few months depending on whether you have the right background.

Do you have the right background or prerequisites

How will you manage the schedule?

Time is also something that you have to factor in. Before you finish 2 to 4 years getting a Masters or a Doctoral Degree, your job or your company may not be there and you may be left with an expensive education but without a job to match.

Scheduling may also be a pain. Some colleges may require that you attend classes during official working hours meaning that you have to choose between your job and your education or even have both suffer.

Also keep in mind, that Some colleges may be inaccessible to you because of their location or you will have to relocate before you can actually finish or complete the enrollment / degree requirements.

The best thing about a college degree is that you will have a certificate that you can hangup on your wall and say, I went to Princeton, Yale, Harvard or whatever school that is and you can feel really proud of your accomplishment!

How Does Self Study Compare To A College Education?

Here are some answers to this question …

1. A college education is important because it allows the employer an objective assessment of your capabilities and skills. For that reason, you need to have at least a bachelor’s degree.

2. Your first college degree will help you get your foot in through the door, but when it comes to keeping up to the demands of a fast paced, constantly changing workplace, you must learn how to advance your skills through self study

If you need more coaching, help or guidance with choosing self study or a formal education, let me know by posting your comment or feedback on this post and I will be glad to help you!

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How To Become A Technical Writer

While reading through the instruction manual or documentation for a new software or hardware, have you every stopped to think of the professional who wrote it … a Technical Writer?

Technical writers have to document systems, processes or product / software features in such a way that anyone reading the material can understand it with little or no additional outside help.

Technical writers may write or describe a very technical system to a general, less-than-technical audience.

At other times, technical writers may even write for a highly specialized, skilled or technical audience.

Regardless of whether a technical writer is working on on-line help, user manuals, proposals, web pages, newsletters, white papers, design specs or system manuals, his/her goal is always to communicate clearly with the audience.

The rest of this post is devoted to giving you a lot of detailed information about the skills, career. job prospects and mindset of successful technical writers in addition to answering questions such as:

• What is a technical writer?
• What is the job of a technical writer in an Information Technology (IT) setting?
• What is the job outlook and compensation for technical writers?
• Who Hires Technical Writers?
• What Factors Drive The Demand For Technical Writers?
• What Does A Typical Day In The Life Of A Technical Writer Involve?
• What Are The Soft Skills, Personality, Hard Skills, Training And Education of Technical Writers?
• What Are The Toughest Challenges Facing Technical Writers?

What Does A Technical Writer Do?

A technical writer in the Information Technology industry communicates technical information clearly in written form to technical professionals like business analysts, project managers, software developers or less than technical end users or customers.

This typically means writing user manuals for software products, creating documentation for projects, documenting processes or system designs or even preparing technical specifications documents.

The duties of a technical writer involve more than just writing documents.

It usually starts with research and then goes on through several editing cycles before the technical writer’s documents are ready to be published or distributed to consumers or end users.

Research As A Technical Writing Skill

When the technical writer is assigned to a project, the first step is to thoroughly research the subject material.

Once enough research has been done, the technical writer will then create a document which communicates information in clear, useful terms. This document is usually tailored to a specific audience.

If it is an end user manual, it will be written in using simple, common terms terms, for instance, than a document written for a technical expert who actually enjoys reading or thrives on highly technical literature.

Editing a Technical Writer’s Work

After a document is written, most technical writers will submit it to editors for review and approval.

This review may be done by one’s peers, an editor who specializes in technical editing or even by a manager.

The editor will check for basic things like proper spelling, grammatical errors, citation and reference style etc.

The editor will also confirm that the document is detailed and clear enough for the audience that it is being created for.

Publishing a Technical Writer’s Work

Once a technical writer’s work is approved by the editor, it is ready to be published;

• As a user’s manual along with the software or hardware it describes
• As an online help site for a web-based or intranet audience or
• As part of a trade journal

What is the job outlook and compensation for technical writers?

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the job prospect for technical writers is on the increase even in the current economy.

One reason why the demand for technical writers has increased is that online services or publications are hiring more skilled or professional technical writers as the e-businesses and online communication section of the economy continues to accelerate and play a bigger part in our global economy.

Who Hires Technical Writers?

Software development firms hire technical writers to help with developing software / user manuals and online helps.

Web marketing companies and e-businesses hire technical writers to help with releasing their products.

What Factors Drive The Demand For Technical Writers?

The demand for technical writers is driven by the growth of online services and publications.

There is a demand for skilled technical writers who can convey highly technical or specialized concepts to end users who are not familiar or skilled in the technology, product, system or process that is being described.

A Typical Day In The Life Of A Technical Writer

The first thing in the morning, that a technical writer may have to do, is check their calendar to see what is scheduled for the day, such as meetings.

Next, they will prioritize each task to make sure that tasks with the highest priority are done first.

Meetings are usually top priority because of the information that may be gained by interacting with stakeholders, users, clients and other professionals like business analysts, subject matter experts, computer programmers or project managers.

The number one rule for a technical writer to be successful is to know their audience well. with that said, meetings are important to a technical writer’s career because they are useful for gaining new perspectives and additional knowledge.

If there are upcoming software or product releases, then technical writing tasks may even take high priority at the project level because the technical writers’ work (documentation) has to be ready or accompany the product that is being shipped or released to the market.

Research and Analysis Skills for Technical Writers

The first step in a technical writing project, often a research task, is characterized by reading lots of technical specifications or program literature

Research for technical writers may also involve using beta mode evaluation of software / product for a better hands-on, first-hand knowledge.

The next step is analysis. The technical writer must restructure all the new information as well as existing documentation after research is completed and before writing begins!

The writing starts with preparing a draft document that includes existing writing.

The document may highlight all the areas which have been changed or newly added so that the editor can quickly scan the document for changes and not have to review the entire document.

Technical Writers – Stay Ahead of the Technology Curve

In addition to daily writing or meeting tasks, technical writer have to stay up to date on technology by attending professional meetings and technical training that helps them understand their products, systems or processes function.

They may have to read a great deal and even participate in support calls from users of the product so that they understand better, the challenges facing the users of their products.

Technical writers have to attend additional classes, webinars, conferences or even watch educational television or other videos on the topics they are writing about.

Technical writers also have to be involved in gathering business / product requirements and in software or product testing as this helps further their knowledge of how the product or software works.

In addition to this, technical writers have to stay up to date on the skill / training requirements from their employer’s Human Resources (HR) or Information Technology (IT) department.

What Are The Soft Skills, Personality, Hard Skills, Training And Education of Technical Writers?

The skills needed to become a technical writer include strong written communication skills, a strong desire to instruct people and the ability to read or understand new technical literature in a short time.

A college degree in journalism, English or communication is a good place to start for the technical writer’s educational qualifications.

A technical writer needs to be patient while researching a topic and also show the ability to receive criticism because a writing piece may be revised, reviewed or edited multiple times before it is approved.

Finally, a technical writer must be a good teacher or be skilled at explaining information in a step by step manner.

Why Knowledge of Computer Programming Is Helpful to Technical Writers

While knowledge of programming languages is not required for technical writers, they may need the ability to read flowcharts or logic flows, the ability to review or document application program interfaces (API) or web service methods and the ability to read or code in HTML, XHTML or even CSS! because that is helpful for creating online or web-based documentation.

Technical Writers Are Detail Oriented

A technical writer needs to be detail oriented. Generalizations are good to sum things up in a hurry, but the purpose of a technical writer is to provide detailed instruction and information.

If a step is overlooked in the writing process, it can mean the difference between success or failure for the end user or reader of the document.

Depending on what the technical writer is writing about, this could prove to be disastrous on a number of levels. The least of which could be confusing the reader by leaving out an important step.

Technical Writers Need The Ability To Prioritize

A technical writer also needs to have the ability to prioritize.

Accomplishing the most timely tasks first is of utmost importance.

If a technical writer misses a meeting, for instance, he / she also may miss many important updates or new information that is vital for finishing the project.

So, meetings are usually high priority for technical writers. If a technical writer misses an important meeting, the end result may be an inability to understand or document “how to the system works in a critical place”.

Technical Writers Need Critical Thinking Skills

There are college courses and books that can be used to develop critical thinking as this is a wonderful skill for technical writers to have.

Critical thinking is used every day in the life of a technical writer.

Technical Writers must be skilled at asking questions about what readers or end users must know or learn from the documentation to achieve their goals.

Other questions that technical writers ask may include:

• Where should this information be included that’s best for the user?
• What will be most confusing about the process you are writing about for the end user?
• How can you make it less confusing?

What Are The Toughest Challenges Facing Technical Writers?

Technical writers may sometimes have to deal with feeling as though their time is being waster or that their work is futile or tedious

Sometimes a technical writer may have to erase their work and start from scratch based on feedback from editors or end users.

Sometimes changes may be requested at the last minute or for insufficient reasons as far as the technical writer is concerned.

So it’s important for a technical writer’s career that he / she stays patient or manage their personal feelings of frustration or discouragement during the editing process and not feel like the editing is a judgment on their entire life.

Final Thoughts on The Technical Writing Industry

Don’t be fooled, while a technical writer’s job may sound somewhat tedious or boring at first, it involves a great deal more just than sitting down to write technical documents.

The readability or ability to write in a way others can understand has a huge impact on the work flow of other Information Technology workers who use depend on the technical writer’s work. This includes business analysts, software developers or project managers.

To do a good job, a technical writer needs to be not only a great writer, but a great communicator in every regard.

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Is Business Analysis For Me?

[Ask IT Career Coach] is a Career Advice Column for Information Technology (IT) professionals looking for answers to their most challenging career situations.

In This post, I will answer questions on business analysis and software developer careers. Here is the first question:

Is Business Analysis A Good Fit For a Programmer With An ENFP Personality Type?

This question was submitted by Brenna (a computer programmer from South Africa), whose personality type on the Myers Briggs Personality Test is: ENFP (Extroverted, Intuitive, Feeling, Perceiving).

Brenna codes with Cobol, Java, SQL, JavaScript, HTML, Flash and is burnt out of coding!

Brenna, has not been able to keep up with programming and wants some direction on what she should do with her life.

I am recommending that Brenna considers becoming a business analyst for the following reasons:

1. She has good verbal and written communication skills. You can see dome evidence in how detailed, structured and clear her writing is

2. She is project oriented instead of detail and routine oriented as you will find with programmers. ENFPs also tend to be project oriented instead of detail oriented.

3. She has not been able to keep up with her computer programming career because she lacks a passion for the industry and also because she is not going about it the right away..

Click here to read Brenna’s post and my reply to the question: “What Is The Future Of ENFP Personality Type In Computer Programming”

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will database design improve sql queries performance?

Well, I get a number of questions on the relationship between learning and practicing better relational database design principles and writing better, faster or more efficient Sql queries.

In this post, I will answer all these questions or the variations of them that focus on the necessity of learning database design when all you want to do is to write sql queries!

Here are some of the variations of this question:

1. Do I need to master relational database design in other to write better Sql queries?

2. Is knowledge of normalization, relational integrity and other database development practices, relevant to writing sql queries?

3. Why do I need to master entity-relationship concepts or relational database design when all I want to do is write INNER JOINS, OUTER JOINS AND/OR SUBQUERIES?

Here is my answer to these questions asked by aspiring database designers, report writers or sql query writers:

• Efficient Sql Queries Depends On Database Index Design

  One of the best practices adopted by experienced sql query writers is adding the right types of indexes to their table columns especially those used in JOINS or in WHERE Clauses or other Sql Functions (Group BY, etc.).

  Guess what? Those indexes are added as part of the database design, database normalization or sql query performance tuning process.

  In other words, learning database design will lead to writing or designing better table indexes which will lead to better sql query performance.

• Database Normalization Reduces Data Redundancy & Inconsistency

  A lot of time can be wasted trying to get accurate, consistent, reliable reports by writing long, really cumbersome sql queries when there is redundant, inconsistent data in the underlying database.

  The real problem is that whenever you have poor normalization or database design, the resulting data redundancy or data inconsistency will make it difficult for a sql query writer to get accurate, consistent, explainable or understandable results!

  The reason is that whenever your data is stored in multiple tables because of poor normalization, your sql reports will return inconsistent results because each table contains a different set of data.

  This means that your manager or customer will not be able to get an accurate picture of the data because there is no way to verify which of the tables is right or which is wrong!

  So, if you want accurate, consistent, reliable sql reports, make sure that you are following the best normalization practices …

• Writing Overly Complex Sql Queries Because of Poor Normalization

  A heatlhcare services organization hired our company for a database consulting project because their database analysts were getting over-whelmed with providing, accurate, fast, reliable Sql-based reports to medical doctors in their organization!

  After our investigation, we found a poorly normalized database with indexes on text columns, manually generated primary keys, multi-valued domains and other bad database design practices.

  This healthcare services provider, wasted so much man-hours trying to get consistent, accurate, reliable report for their medical doctors because the results varied depending on who wrote the report or which table was joined to get the information!

  This poor database design was also causing their database analysts to write overly complicated, time consuming, error prone or complex sql queries for common, every day tasks!

  Since these database analysts were joining patient information tables on text columns, their sql queries were guaranteed to under-perform.

  Since the columns where multi-valued, sub-queries had to be used to parse the values of table columns and since the tables did not accurately model the entities used in the business or their relationships, the sql queries where awkward and non-intuitive at best!

  The solution was not to spend more time re-writing their sql queries but to normalize and redesign their database, recreate the indexes and then redesign the sql queries from scratch!

If you ever find yourself in a situation where you are bending over backwards in your work, trying to make your sql queries return the results that you want, make sure that your database design models your business process and that it follows best practices!

The job of a Sql Query Writer does not start with just writing efficient sql queries but with learning and practicing database design or normalization best practices.

Only after you ensure that your database design follows generally accepted best practices, are you empowered to write intuitive, high-performing, reliable, consistent or efficient Sql queries or reports.

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Project Sponsors, Servant Leaders?

Having good or effective project sponsors is one of the ways you can prevent project failure which is a real problem considering that nearly two – thirds of projects fail!

The project sponsor is not the business analyst even though the project sponsor helps the business analyst in gathering requirements and the project sponsor is not the project manager even though the project sponsor helps the project manager deliver a successful project.

It is the project sponsor’s job to ensure that the project team (project manager, business analysts, and team lead) have the technical or operational resources they need and that the project is aligned with the strategic needs of the organization.

For your project to succeed, it needs the backing of preferably one project sponsor, who is also a senior-level or management executive.

In this post, I will review the project sponsor’s role in helping your team deliver it’s project successfully.

1. The Job of the Project Sponsor in Securing Financial Capital

   The project sponsor helps secure the project’s funding at inception and at at different points in the project life cycle based on significant scope changes, milestones, deliverables or some other criteria.

2. The Job of the Project Sponsor in Hiring Team Members

   The project sponsor approves the addition of new team members, facilitates their hiring or transfer from other departments and their full-time or part-time allocation to your project.

   The project sponsor has the authority, which the project manager may lack, to negotiate with other department managers, C-level executives or upper management for the additional talent, infrastructure or resources needed to complete the project on time and under budget.

3. The Project Sponsor’s Job As a Cheerleader

   Internal Champion: The project sponsor has to be one of the biggest cheer-leaders for the project or team. In that role, the project sponsor encourages, motivates and inspires the team members, so that they can overcome the obstacles facing them.

   External Champion: At the same time, the project sponsor takes responsibility for both the success and failure of the team and defends, champions or acts as an advocate for the team in senior management meetings.

The primary motivation of an effective project sponsor, is the desire to serve the organization and the team or see the project to success as long as it’s aligned with the company’s strategic goals.

In the time tested tradition of servant leaders, project sponsors must be eager or willing to let the team members take credit for their work and not be the type of leader who succeeds by throwing others under the bus!

Is Your Project Sponsor A Servant Leader?

• The project sponsor does not schedule or manager the team’s resources on a day by day basis or on a task by task basis.

  The project sponsor just secures the team members / resources and then makes them available to the project manager or team lead.

• The project sponsor does not throw the team members under the bus because he/she is the primary champion of the project and the team.

  The project sponsor has to be a real-leader, someone who knows how to create trust by rewarding the team based on merit and not based on favoritism or internal politics.

• The project sponsor’s goal is not to be seen as a hero or to use the project or team members to advance his/her own political goals.

For your project to succeed, you need a management level executive who is a servant leader … someone who inspires, leads, motivates by serving others.

Servant leaders lead by developing their team members first before they advance their own careers.

The career of a servant leader is built on helping others succeed and not on succeeding at the expense of team members!

Discussion Questions

Based on this post, answer the questions below:

• Does your project have a project sponsor?
• Is your project sponsor a servant leader?
• What is your experience working with servant leaders vs. working with leaders who put their personal interests and agendas first?

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Java, C# or C++, Which Is Better?

Sometimes, you have to look to the past to see the future. To see the future of our more popular programming languages including Java, C#, Visual Basic, C/C++, let’s first review their histories.

Is C/C++ the Best Programming Language?

The C programming language was standardized in the early 70s for the UNIX operating system (and not Windows) by Dennis Ritchie.

In the early 80s Bjarne Stroustrup at Bell Labs invented the C++ programming language as classes that extend the C language.

The C/C++ programming language is primarily used in writing operating systems, video games, device drivers, embedded systems and commercial, shrink-wrapped windows based software programs.

In the MS-DOS or Windows 3.1 era, C/C++ was probably the most capable compiler for developing windows based programs

Is Visual Basic the Best Programming Language?

The folks at Microsoft who were the sharpest minds in the software development business at that time realized that they were not catering enough to hobby or beginner programmers … keeping in mind that Bill Gates started his career as a hobby programmer without any formal computer science college education.

The issue was that working with C/C++ or most of the programming languages in existence at that time, required a strong computer science background or a formal computer science college education and lots of tedious, coding hours.

At that time, programmers had to repetitively code for mundane windows features or behaviors like detecting or responding to keyboard clicks or mouse movements.

So, in keeping with their founder’s (Bill Gates) history, Microsoft decided to do away with a lot of the repetitious, boring coding by developing Visual Basic (VB) 1.0 as a Drag and Drop, User Interface Driven, Rapid Application Development Environment.

VB 1.0 was introduced in 1991 to make computer programming accessible to everyone including hobby programmers, inexperienced software developers, beginners or anyone without a strong, formal, computer science background.

Visual Basic succeeded at making programming fun, less tedious or less expensive by giving programmers an easier, more productive coding environment.

A Paradigm Shift in Computing

Because of Visual Basic, millions of professionals without a formal computer science college education or background could learn how to program or get fun jobs without experiencing the drudgery or pain traditionally associated with programming languages.

Because of this paradigm shift, business owners could bring their windows software projects more quickly to market because the amount of time that programmers spend writing code had been dramatically reduced.

This paradigm shift also separated systems programming for which C/C++ was still the best from windows-based business software development for which Visual Basic was better suited.

What differentiated Visual Basic was its graphical, windows development environment which allowed inexperienced programmers to write less code by dragging or dropping pre-built windows features from a toolbox!

This meant that programmers no longer had to write thousands of lines of code before their software would receive user input in data entry forms, interact with back-end databases or detect and respond to mouse or keyboard actions from users.

Is Java the Best Programming Language?

While Microsoft was busy at work, the Internet appeared as if from nowhere and pulled the rug from other programming languages like Visual Basic and C/C++ which were not designed with the Web in mind.

The question no longer was “can you program in visual basic” but rather “can you program for the web or build a website?“

Sun Microsystems answered that question by releasing Java in 1995 with the intention that unlike Microsoft software, Java programs will run easily on web browsers and is portable to most hardware or software environments.

Java became very popular for many reasons. It was a superior object oriented programming language to Visual Basic which at that time was not object oriented.

Java was easier to code with than C/C++ and Sun designed Java programs so you could port or run them on all sorts of hardware systems unlike Visual Basic or C/C++.

Though Java became popular in the late 90s with experienced programmers, it still lacked Rapid Application Development features just like its cousin C/C++.

Today, Java still does not appeal to inexperienced software developers, beginner programmers or web developers without a strong, formal computer science education.

Java is also not the language of choice for writing web applications or designing websites! Web application development skills are currently more in demand than windows, systems, hardware programming skills.

Is C# the Best Programming Language?

Then Microsoft had another brainwave and released C# in February 13th 2002 which changed the web and windows programming industry again.

Here was a programming language that incorporated the object oriented programming capabilities of Java or C/C+ and the Rapid Application Development environment of classic Visual Basic and at the same time, provided a first-class web programming environment!

With all the facts in this article in mind, here are my recommendations for choosing a programming language.

• Lower Learning Curves Is Good For You

  C/C++ has the highest learning curve (level of difficulty) followed by Java.

  C# is the easiest of the three (3) programming languages to learn because of its Visual or Graphical Programming features and language intellisense, which explains the meaning of programming commands as you type!

  C# also offers a large set of pre-built classes that save you from writing thousands of repetitious lines of code before you read, write or update databases or accept user input.

• Acing Programming Interviews or Finding A Job

  Acing a programming interview or finding a job depends on your mastery of the programming language in question.

  Keep in mind find that mastering C# is easier than learning Java which in turn is easier than learning C/C++.

  Also, C# is preferred to either C/C++ or Java for building web applications.

  This means that if you want a web development career, you will do better to choose C# over Java or C/C++!

• Bringing It To Market Matters Most

  The speed or ease with which you write code determines the time, money or effort required to complete a software development project.

  That is why it takes longer to build websites in C/C++ compared to Java. That is also why C# is easier or most productive for building web or windows applications compared to C/C++ or Java.

  Finally, software development managers are typically more concerned about the ease or speed with which you code than how fast your code runs, keep in mind that C/C++ is the the fastest or how portable your program is: Java is designed with portability in mind.

• Code Potability or Processor Speed Is Irrelevant

  The amount of processing power available to Computer power has been dramatically boosted since the 90s.

  Software programs now run in 4GB to 8GB of memory instead of 256MB.

  Furthermore, computer processing power has grown from 16MHZ to QUAD CORE 2GHZ CPUs.

  So, the speed of your compiled software code is no longer a determining or driving business factor for most software development projects.

  The web / internet removes the need to address the question of code portability because HTML, XHTML and CSS is the native programming language for the web.

  Your Web Software is 100% portable if it emits pure or valid HTML, XHTML or CSS, so saying that Java is portable gets you nowhere!

Please answer the questions below. But before you answer the questions posted below, take a moment to read this article titled: “Is Learning C/C++ Programming Language Good For You?”

Discussion Questions

1. Today, we live in a digital, information rich, mobile, internet era and my first question is: “how relevant is C/C++, Java, C# to the Web / Internet Age?“

2. What is the difference between Operating Systems / Hardware programming and Business Software Application programming?

3. No one programming language is best suited for every project. With this in mind, “what sort of software development project is each of these programming languages best suited for: Java, C#, C/C++?“

This post answers a question posted by Josh on the quickest way to get into a computer programmer career..

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