Recently in Work life Category

These links are collected from The Working Geek's Twitter feed. If you have suggestions for news bits, please mail me at andy@theworkinggeek.com.

• Resume advice from Savage Chickens: (savagechickens.com)
• You are hereby recruited into the ongoing battle against fear (punkrockhr.com)
• Why you should ask at the interview about the fate of your predecessor (askamanager.blogspot.com)
• The Ten Commandments of being the junior programmer (chadpluspl.us)
• Why you are always unfailingly polite to everyone on an interview (youtube.com)
• What makes a tech book a classic? (pragprog.com)

I've been writing a column for PragPub, the free monthly magazine of the Pragmatic Programmers, for the past few months. The latest column is part two of a discussion of how to give informative talks, such as to your local user group.

PragPub is on its ninth issue, and is available in four different formats. You can download the entire magazine as a single document in PDF, ePub and .mobi, just like every Pragmatic book, and it's also newly available as HTML. The archives of all nine issues are available as HTML as well.

Here's a list of my columns in past issues:

• How to Give a Tech Presentation, Part Two
• How to Give a Tech Presentation, Part One
• Resolutions For 2010
• Keeping the Job You Don't Like
• The Layoffs Are Coming!

Every issue has something of interest to me, and I think you'll find something for you as well.

These links are collected from The Working Geek's Twitter feed. If you have suggestions for news bits, please mail me at andy@theworkinggeek.com.

• A great question to ask in your job interview (askamanager.blogspot.com)
• Webcast of @berkun's talk Confessions of a Public Speaker available (oreillynet.com)
• Yet another tale of how being a jerk works against you in the working world (askamanager.blogspot.com)
• Laurie Ruettimann digs up the issue of the privacy of your salary history. Again. Read and decide yourself. (punkrockhr.com)
• What everyone with a job can learn from Groucho Marx (sethgodin.typepad.com)

These links are collected from The Working Geek's Twitter feed. If you have suggestions for news bits, please mail me at andy@theworkinggeek.com.

• The BBC shows why you want to bypass HR when going after a job: (publius-ovidius.livejournal.com)
• Great review of "Land The Tech Job You Love" from @mstine (java.dzone.com)
• Fans of "Land The Tech Job You Love" can upvote the DZone review here: (dzone.com)
• New issue of PragPub is out, with article from me on keeping your crappy job (pragprog.com)
• A prime example of why objectives are worthless: (hiringhorror.com)

These links are collected from The Working Geek's Twitter feed. If you have suggestions for news bits, please mail me at andy@theworkinggeek.com.

• The four-day workweek is winning fans (time.com)
• Look for the job no one else wants (usnews.com)
• Keeping a job you hate (karenburnsworkinggirl.com)
• Don't optimize for yourself in communities (perlbuzz.com)
• Dismal failure at furthering one's love life via LinkedIn (jasonseiden.com)
• How Employers Choose From Among Many Great Candidates (usnews.com)
• Building your career in open source (itworld.com)
• My interview with Sridhar Jammalamadaka of Interview Mantra (interviewmantra.net)
• Five reasons to turn down a job offer (#1 is "your gut") (usnews.com)
• Six things you can learn about a company at the job interview (usnews.com)

By Michelle Findlay, a recruiter from the UK.

As I enter the cavernous hall, a familiar smell fills the air. Fear fills my heart as I scan the room. Most of the people here are much taller, physically stronger and more barbaric than me. I am the only one of my species here. I am well and truly on some-one else's turf.

I can even hear them babbling away in another language. Without so much as a flinch, I calmly compose myself and prepare to stand alone and defiantly fight my corner. As I go in deeper the strange creatures surround me and stare, unashamedly. I look around for any vestiges of my own species here. There are some, but quickly I realize that they are prisoners held against their will.

No, I have not landed on an alien planet. I am a female telecoms business owner at a giant telecoms exhibition. The creatures around me are men. Wall to wall. The smell filling the air is testosterone. The only other women here are dolly girls, silent honey pots to draw men to stands by wearing outfits their Dad wouldn't approve of.

As I prepare for battle I know in my heart the cut of my power suit will never hide my curves, my blond hair makes me a walking target, my girly facial features are a burden to carry. For the first time ever, I am a man trapped in a woman's body!

I cringe inside as I observe the male creatures firmly shaking one another's hands. They slap each other's backs, in congratulation. Their deep voices bellow as they celebrate the fact that for two days only, they are actually allowed to be geeky, and be adored by fellow geeks. Strangely, they compete in virtual crazy golf tournaments. Bizarrely, they adopt alpha male poses as they plan the night's drunken exploits.

This is what it feels like to stand alone as a woman in a totally male dominated industry.

So, why is telecoms still mostly men? It seems such a dichotomy, one of the most forward-thinking industries on the planet has such an atypical, antiquated imbalance of the sexes?

Is it the culture, is telecoms backwards, or prejudicial? In my opinion, no. Basically, telecoms is highly technical and engineering and this is generally the realm of men. Programmers, engineers and designers are mostly men. Some bright spark will tell you it’s because we are wired differently or blabber on about frontal lobes etc. The truth is men seem to love it, while women get so bored we would rather stick needles in our eyes.

And, telecoms men can at times be a bunch of bitchy little girls. I can't tell you the amount of times I have had placements blow out at the golden handshake stage because "I don't like him" or "I couldn't work with him" Unreal!

So am I disadvantaged at a telecoms show by being one of very few women? Not at all. These men are outrageously technical. I nod pleasantly as they bamboozle me with a bewildering array of acronyms. I smile sweetly as they speak to me in ancient Swahili. I echo their visual cues as they evangelise this technical underworld that is to me, duller than the History Channel.

Of course, men will speak to me simply because I am female. I never resort to flaunting my feminine wiles, my eyelids never flutter in duplicity. Inevitable attempts to pick me up are brushed off with a distant, professional stare and polite change of subject. To me it's all about the confidence. If I compete with the assumptive arrogance of a man, I stand a chance. If I charismatically give out the impression that I deserve respect even though I don't have the... ahem... anatomy, I might just succeed in their playground.

I could never say that being female was part of the business plan, or if it works out better or worse for me. All I know is that I always skip out of a telecoms show with a sneaky smile having won double the leads of my male counterparts. In this battleground I always fight fairly, but secretly, winning the battle of the sexes always tastes so sweet. Some call it exploitation, I call it sound business sense.

Michelle is owner of Synergyze Telecoms Group. They offer B2B services to Telecoms startups. She also does web design and is an active member and fan of the Joomla project.

(Editor's note: I'm interested in your comments on Michelle's article. I think it's an interesting restatement of what we've been talking about in the open source communities this summer. There's been much talk about treated equally, but Michelle makes no bones about using the differences to her advantage. Is this good, bad or just part of life?)

These links are collected from The Working Geek's Twitter feed. If you have suggestions for news bits, please mail me at andy@theworkinggeek.com.

• OSCON slides for Effective Job Interviewing up on slideshare (theworkinggeek.com)
• RT @lruettimann I've been giving out free career advice at #blogher. Stop bringing all your emotional baggage 2 your career.
• "Am I a back-up candidate?" I suggest the answer is irrelevant: (askamanager.blogspot.com)
• Job interviewing PDF is now downloadable from OSCON site (en.oreilly.com)
• Don't leave Track Changes on when editing your Word resume: (askamanager.blogspot.com)
• How to work with headhunters (theworkinggeek.com)
• Why do some people get hired and not others? (punkrockhr.com)
• If you're not proud of where you work, go work somewhere else. (sethgodin.typepad.com)
• RT @angelaharris72: Seeking a web developer to assist with JobCamp Chicago website. This is a high profile volunteer opportunity!
• Why don't geeks hunt for their jobs like they hunt for their toys? (theworkinggeek.com)
• A dozen sites for helping job hunters, from @punkrockhr (punkrockhr.com)

These links are collected from The Working Geek's Twitter feed. If you have suggestions for news bits, please mail me at andy@theworkinggeek.com.

• First issue of PragPub, the Pragmatic magazine, now out. Includes article from me, "The Layoffs are Coming" (pragprog.com)
• I've Got A Job--Why Should I Attend JobCamp? (talentline411.com)
• No-nos for new jobs (karenburnsworkinggirl.com)
• Here's a concept you should never entertain: "Getting someone fired". Rarely happens, and a childish approach to life.
• This Punk Rock HR thread is fantastic: Your best advice for job seekers (punkrockhr.com)
• Pat Eyler (@gnupate) interview w/me and Chad Fowler on finding & keeping your tech job (on-ruby.blogspot.com)
• Top five non-technical mistakes made by programmers (makinggoodsoftware.com)
• Ask The Headhunter on the radio tomorrow (corcodilos.com)
• Radical Career Success in a Down Economy webcast now available online (oreillynet.com)
• Just got home from Milwaukee Jobcamp and had a great time. Feels like I talked non-stop for all 8 hours. So many resumes reviewed!
• Can I be fired for this? (askamanager.blogspot.com)
• One of my heroes, Tom Peters, is now on Twitter: @tom_peters
• Twenty ways to annoy your job interviewer (usnews.com)
• Ten ways to not be hated at your job interview (punkrockhr.com)

A reader who wishes to remain anonymous wrote to ask:

I'm a programmer from the Philippines. I'm kind of a latebloomer since I didn't take up Computer Science or a similar course in college, but I learned programming on my own. I tried to save money so I can buy a couple of books (although I would love to read more), so I can continuously learn software design and development. For almost two years now, I've been landing jobs in companies that really don't have good processes for developing quality software. I have recently started a job. I'm not an expert, but I know when legacy applications have been built by engineers that also aim to produce quality software. The applications uses an object-oriented programming language, but all of them looks procedural. I still want to continuously learn and be a good software craftsman someday. Should I leave and apply for another job in which I think there is more potential to learn great software development processes?

Thanks for writing. Let me preface my suggestions with the caveat that they're from the perspective of a programmer in the United States. I don't know how applicable they are to business life in the Philippines. You'll have to look at them through the lens of your own culture and understanding.

First, that you are wanting to improve yourself, to improve your skills, to improve your job prospects, means that you have the drive that will make you a better employee and programmer. Being able to write good software is only half of what it takes. The other half is having the drive to apply those skills day in and day out. (The third half is being able to be part of a team.)

It's good you have that drive, because it sounds like you're going to have to do much of the learning you want on your own. I would not rely on an employer to teach those skills to you. If your only reason to leave your current job for another is to learn better software development techniques, think twice. Chances are, the company you go to will have the same problems, perhaps with a different flavor, as your current company.

Instead, keep reading constantly. Read books like The Pragmatic Programmer by Hunt and Thomas, and Code Complete, 2nd ed. by McConnell. Read websites like StackOverflow for comments and ideas on how to be a better programmer. There will be much to sift through, but that's how it goes.

Apply those skills by working on projects outside of work, preferably open source projects. Working on open source lets you work with other programmers around the world who have the same drive you do. You'll learn and practice, while creating code that you can bring to your next interview to show as an example of your programming skills.

You may also want to try to bring some of these ideas to work with you. As you learn how to write great documentation, apply it to your daily life at work, even if nobody else in the company does. When you learn about test-first development, use it as your software methodology, even when you're the only one who does. You'll have better code, better projects, and people will notice. You'll be leading by example.

Finally, don't let the bad code get you down. The world is filled with it, especially at work, and it's just part of life as a programmer. Consider it a test bed for your refactoring skills.

If other TWG readers have suggestions, I'd love to hear them in the comments below. Good luck!