Career and Profession

"Ms. Dean's article does women a disservice because it buys into this classist image of "programming" and will track them, as it has in the past, into applications in which they are neither able to manage the complexity of programming, nor able to grasp the application in full."

All this puts me squarely in the programming mainstream, but there's no getting around the fact that people persist in seeing my world as less worthy of respect. I've learned to live with it, even embrace it, though early on in my programming career I was somewhat insecure about it.

However, Taylorism has never disappeared from the management playbook as a sort of ideal, and it appears in data processing in Death March projects wherein any effort by programmers to create "tools" is regarded as high-class loafing even if it can be shown that the tool saves time.

Edward Yourdon has asked us to comment on Death March projects today. Here is my (somewhat revised) reply sent to him by email because the commenting feature on his blog is not working.

Author Ed Yourdon is working on a third edition to his well known book about agonizingly bad software projects, Death March. Mr. Yourdon has also recently wikified one of his classic books, Modern Structured Analysis.

A written offer letter, in the absence of words in the letter "disclaiming" a contract, constitutes in American, and mostly G-8, business law an enforceable contract: even verbal promises do so under many circumstances.

Hiring managers want to hire people with hard skills, like .NET experience, surely. But they also want to hire people who have professional identity.

I work in an organization where the promotion, as most of us know it, does not exist. The trouble with this system is that employees have to put their pride on the line to apply for a position, wondering if management has someone in mind and if they are simply wasting their time by filling out the tedious paperwork.

Here's a topic that can be embraced with vigor. It's almost as easy as enumerating "favorite things" in that song from The Sound of Music but without the schnitzel with noodles. The only question is where to begin. Who hasn't had an IT manager get on their last nerve?

What do Marilyn Monroe, eleven U.S presidents, Charles Lindbergh, the Prince of Wales, and a humble DeveloperDotStar blogger have in common? They were all guests at the famous Hotel Del Coronado, built in 1888, located near San Diego. However, only the latter can claim to have visited during a CIO 100 Symposium.

This is an open comments and discussion thread for the developer.* article "Career Paths for Programmers," by John Bennett, Jr. Your comments are welcome.

A friend (and former boss) has put together a list of books and links that he finds useful. There is some good stuff, thought I'd share it here.

http://cazano7.spaces.live.com/

Sated from too much cruise-ship food and an obscene amount of postcard-style scenery, I interrupted my husband with a "Shhhh...can't you tell I'm trying to eavesdrop? The lady on the back row just said she works for Microsoft..."

Getting insinuated into the process of a new workplace is always interesting. Sometimes it's easy. Sometimes it takes a while. Sometimes it just doesn't happen, and you remain a little island in your cube throughout your tenure. Nice one, Milton. Here's your stapler back.

"Why? Why? Why?" The CIO gestured expressively like a conductor urging his orchestra to step up the tempo. Accelerando! Allegro! "You should always ask 'Why'!" "But," he added (descrescendo), "learn when to stop asking."