Most of the time I blog about gaming with the occasional current event or gadget thrown in. As someone who has been in the software development industry for about 10 years now, I thought perhaps I should start finding some career related topics to blog about. I’m not some high profile industry pundit nor do I work for any major computer or software giants, however I do feel like I offer a unique perspective on the industry.
If you know me personally, or have read the About page, you already know that I was a dual major at Purdue. I not only got my bachelors in software development, but I also earned a bachelors in organizational leadership (which is essentially a degree in HR). I feel like my degrees are an interesting dichotomy, a left brain degree and a right brain degree, but I feel that having both of them has served me very well so far in my career.
The days of stowing programmers in dark closets are ending. The introduction, and growing implementation, of agile development has many programmers having to be more interactive with other departments within a company. Communication is paramount now more than ever which is why I feel like my organizational education has not only helped me integrate into collaborative groups but has also helped others (the tech savvy and the non-tech savvy).
I think having the two degrees has also given me the unique ability to view an organization not only from the technical perspective but also from a non-technical perspective. I know many programmers, and other tech savvy people, may not like to admit it, but we can be a little obtuse sometimes. Management’s decisions to do, or not do, something may seem infuriatingly illogical on the surface, but there is always other factors that managers/directors/presidents also have to consider. There might be additional costs, additional resources, budgetary constraints, or even political reasons behind the decision.
I’ve already had a few times in my career where I felt strongly against a decision but I understood the reason for the decision. So, instead of protesting, I tried to help the others understand the reasons and help them find a way to cooperate. I know it’s tough to be a peon, especially in larger organizations, but learning to cooperate and collaborate will go a lot farther than refusing to adapt and change.
So that’s my spiel. I think if I keep going I’m just going to sound like I’m repeating myself. I hope that I have provided sufficient evidence that I’m competent enough to discuss industry topics. I do welcome and appreciate your feedback and topic suggestions either in the comments of this post or on Google+ and Facebook where I’m sure I have posted the link here. Thanks.
Cheers!
I have been playing PC games for quite a while, and before that I was big into console games. I have beaten just about every Mario game that exists. I have stayed up all night playing Half Life. I have gotten my butt kicked playing Quake at LAN parties. I know a lot of people that are really good at playing video games. I often hear these people say, “dude, it would be awesome to make video games. I am going to learn how to do that!”