Being able to build a set of skills that could be one day used by a team of craftsmen is crucial when walking into any profession. Although it’s a little hard for anyone to go into a job that requires one to know a set of skills. It should be clear-cut on the application. But I do agree on attempting to get assimilated on those skills whenever possible because in some cases, these employers want to be able to rely on the fact that you won’t be a liability to the workflow. This goes for a lot of jobs once again. I used to work a construction job when I was 17-18 years old, it was when I wasn’t so sure if I wanted to pursue a career in software craftmanship and I already had a lot of knowledge in the construction trade, four years of knowledge to be exact. The man who acts as a “master” figure to me told me that competence is everything in the professional world, and having little competence is better than having no competence.
It’s also important to expand the competence because it could expand one’s reputation of being a good craftsman for other employers to look at. I would also like to add that being able to work on the skills that one might lack is also important to expand one’s value to the team. Interviewers or hiring managers want to be able to understand your worth in a company, being able to list off certain tasks that can be done to an issue is invaluable, and being able to apply the knowledge that one has is more important. From experience, it also helps to have an experience that proves that you have the concrete skill, no days it’s not enough for employers to see that you know a certificate or course that you might have taken.
It’s more important for the employer to recognize that you have applied the skill set to other, similar jobs or projects. This pattern is a very general one that will be brought up countless times in apprentice’s come-up but, non the less it’s a very important pattern that can be applied to more than just software craftsmanship.
Sources:
Hoover, Dave H., and Adewale Oshineye. Apprenticeship Patterns: Guidance for the Aspiring Software Craftsman. O’Reilly, 2010.
From the blog CS@Worcester – FindKelvin by Kelvin Nina and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.