One day you will find yourself at an interview with a software company for a programming position. You need to show the employer that you won’t be a wast of their time and that you can be useful on day one. In order to do this you must have a set of Concrete Skills to do basic tasks that the team needs to get done. You must sharpen and hone your concrete skills and prove to them that you can be helpful on day one.  Oshineye and Hoover say, “examples of concrete skills include writing build files in various popular languages, knowledge of various popular open source frameworks like Hibernate and Struts, basic web design, JavaScript, and the standard libraries in your language of choice.” They also go on to tell you that having a deep understanding of your first language will help you accomplish these concrete skills. Once you have your concrete skills, you can work on learning your way to a journeyman.

How do you grow your concrete skills? The authors suggest looking over the CVs of the people you look up to or the people who know the skills you want to learn. Jot down their skillset and work towards learning them. This way, you are learning relevant information and working towards helping the company. The authors also stress going through your own CV regularly and updating it.

I really liked this pattern because it is directly related to my situation. I feel as though an employer will have to take “a leap of faith” (as the authors say) and hire me relying on my concrete skills to at least help a little bit on the first day. I need to sharpen and hone my concrete skills so that I have something to show my future employer. I will especially be practicing making toy programs that I can bring to an interview to show off my skillset.

What skills do you need? Looking at the CVs of employees that are already working at the company would be a good start to generate ideas.

One thing to think about is that each company is a little bit different, they didn’t mention this in the pattern, but I think it would be useful. Having these concrete skills especially helps in small startups that need the workforce actually working all the time. On the other hand, most BIG companies take your skill set and begin to work on it with professional training. If you feel as though you need to build up a resume, training through a big employer will certainly help more than being confused on a startup team that doesn’t have time to train you.

From the blog CS@Worcester – Rookey Mistake by Shane Rookey and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

This week, I will be writing a reflection on the “Stay in the Trenches” pattern.  This pattern addresses developers who have been offered a promotion to a non-programming position.  I chose to reflect on this pattern because it is a scenario that I have actually seen other people face in the real world and that I believe I may face some day.  At this point in my career as an apprentice software developer, I am still very passionate about coding but I wonder if I will ever consider taking a position that pulls me away from it.

The advice provided by Oshineye and Hoover is helpful and aligns perfectly with my views toward my field.  They refer to 2 of their other patterns in saying that a promotion of this kind will test whether a person is willing to walk The Long Road and/or has Sustainable Motivations – the passion that I feel about programming, now, leads me to believe that I am a person that is willing to walk The Long Road and does have Sustainable Motivations.  They warn that taking a promotion is not necessarily a step down the right path, and that mastery fades when skills are not practiced.  Because I am an apprentice still on my way to becoming a journeyman, I need to practice programming as much as I can and not consider any other course of action.  Oshineye and Hoover’s advice to those who experience this problem is to negotiate with employers to find other ways of being rewarded.

By staying “in the trenches” and having the desire to continue working on implementation is a direct way to “Nurture Your Passion”, which is another pattern I have written a reflective blog post about and feel aligns very well with my way of thinking.  After reading about this pattern, I think I am somebody who does wish to stay in the trenches and nurture my passion, rather than take a promotion just for increased compensation.  I found this pattern pertinent and useful and I will carry it with me as I move forward as a developer.

From the blog CS@Worcester – by Ryan Marcelonis and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.