Progress: New team

Written by Jonathan Hamilton on February 15, 2012 Categories: Uncategorized

When I started my job, one of my goals was to be transferred to the team that handles cases escalated for technical reasons. I made this clear in all of my reviews, including two annual reviews with the vice president.

I’ve finally been transferred to the team, which is great news. Three things made the difference, I think. Like I mentioned above, I made it clear in my reviews. In addition to that, I embraced technical cases and made myself a technical resource to the teams I’d been assigned to previously. Obviously, doing that kind of work is the most important part.

There wasn’t much I could have done for the third thing: opportunity. One of the members of my target team took another job, so they lost a big resource. I jumped on that and made a strong case for myself.

No Comments

Related Posts

Questions from the CEO

Written by Jonathan Hamilton on January 9, 2012 Categories: News

At my company’s year-end meeting, our CEO asked us to send him an e-mail with our overall impression of the company and one piece of feedback, positive or negative.

I wrote that my overall impression was positive, but one complaint I had was that there’s no clear path for transitioning from my department to a development position.

Yesterday, the CEO responded to my message asking why I wanted to be involved in development. I answered that in my time supporting our product, I’ve realized that much of the work I do could have been avoided with some forethought during the design stage. I told him that I felt I could contribute more significantly in a programming position rather than a support position.

I basically treated the exchange like part of an interview. Hopefully, this will get me recognized.

2 Comments

Related Posts

Tell your employer what you want

Written by Jonathan Hamilton on January 3, 2012 Categories: Advice

I want to be a programmer. If you’re in my target audience, you do, too. Does your employer know that?

I’ve had two yearly reviews at my current job. In each, I’ve made it very clear that my long-term goal is to program. If you haven’t told your direct supervisors what you want to do, how are they supposed to know?

You can’t stop there. You have to look for opportunities to do the sort of work that demonstrates programming skills. In my case, I have lots of opportunities. The software system I support relies on scripted reports, stored procedures, and other kinds of almost-but-not-quite programming.

If you’re not as lucky, there are still ways you can demonstrate the right skills. I think—and maybe I’m wrong, we’ll see—that the best thing you can do is ask lots of questions whenever someone asks for your input on something. Ask about requirements and consequences, ask about how to check for errors and exceptions. I’m not just talking about computer stuff. You have to convey that you know how to feel out the shape of an issue and that your way of approaching it will result in a better outcome.

That’s my idea, anyway. Today, I got recognized for it by two unrelated superiors. We’ll see how it works out.

2 Comments

Related Posts

Hello, world!

Written by Jonathan Hamilton on January 2, 2012 Categories: News

The title of this post is the title of the first post added when you install WordPress. It’s also the conventional first program written by computer science students. It’s an appropriate introduction for this blog.

I have a technical job, but I’m interested in moving from support to development. I lack formal education and work experience with computer programming, but it was always a part of my home life, and I’ve always been interested in it. My mother taught me that technical expertise alone doesn’t make a good programmer. Good programmers think in a way that makes them good general problem solvers, and that’s a skill I think I have.

This blog will chronicle my effort at personal and professional development. I plan to write about things I am learning, personal programming projects, and the challenges I run into. I hope that you find something here that helps you with your own development as a programmer.

 

No Comments

Related Posts