For your next software project, what do you consider the most valuable to advance your skills and career?

Question

As a software developer, there are many aspects of our work that we find interesting. For your next project, what would you consider the most valuable to the advancement of your skills and career?

A) using a new programming language

B) using a new framework

C) working in a different, exciting industry

D) working in a well-known, well-perceived company

E) working with people from whom you can learn a lot

F) while still programming, doing something altogether different - for example, going from web development to writing software for mobile devices

G) something else....?

It's difficult to control the environment in which we work. For example, you might want to use a new programming language, but can't use it at work for whatever reason. You can't necessarily choose the people on your team. And so on, for all points above. Thus, my question is, if you actually could have full control over your work environment, which of the points above would be most valuable to you?

Thanks in advance for your responses.

Answer 1

E) working with people from whom you can learn a lot

Answer 2

Having satisfied customers.

Answer 3

E+ -- working with excellent people with whom I am comfortable asking questions

No matter what the endeavour, we learn from good people who are slighter better than we are (and aren't prima donnas).

Answer 4

I think there are a few answers to this question that you should consider as a balance is necessary to insure your focus isn't too narrow:

• Learn a new programming language each year, mitigating any career changes that are unexpectedly encountered.
• Work with people from whom you can learn a lot.
• Participate in User Groups and online communities to learn new skills and paradigms with respect to your development interests.

Answer 5

I am moving from a dev to lead at my firm, so I value these skills to prove my ability to lead:

• On time
• Under budget
• Unit test coverage

Answer 6

1. Having a good team
2. Having an error handling class ready for one line use (including proper Source registration files)
3. Satisfy the client

Answer 7

Most valuable in terms of getting future work? In that case B. Recruiters only know TLA's.

Answer 8

The question is impossible to answer generally for everyone. What are your goals? Do you want to change the industry you are focusing on, or not focus at all? Are you wanting to do mobile or web or desktop development?

The only guideline you can really use is, how can you use a new project to help you grow? In a way it does not matter exactly what aspect of your career you choose to grow, the main thing is to keep the habit of learning alive, and to constantly show to others that you are a dependable and valuable worker. Your co-workers will notice all of that, and they are the people later who may well be helping you find other jobs.

Answer 9

-Dedicated team members who are willing to contribute
-A good Project Manager !

Answer 10

The question is how do you want to advance your skills and your career?

If you just want to make a lot of bucks, I suggest you team up a brownnoser and learn all his secrets.

Keep in mind that whatever you do, you want to put it on your resume and what you put on yopur resume determines what kind of job you get.

You want a more engineering oriented job with a company where there are lots of good people who manage to get along, work on a project that is engineering oriented and requires collaboration.

Answer 11

G - Using a new process that combines the best of various practices out there with the type of projects I can expect being a Web developer in the IT arm of a technology company. This process would be known to everyone and everyone is committed to doing a great job. This would also be a project where we learn how the business uses the data it has and thus can make our applications better than if we just tried to get something with good performance.

There are various software development process models like Agile or Waterfall, and what I'm going for here is a style that suits my personality a little in that there has to be a clear level of work, along with a time limit as people could ask for this little feature or that little HTML change that can take weeks to get perfect. I see this for what would be the biggest bang for something to me.

I should note thatthe web development I do is generally ASP.Net in C# though I have dabbled a bit in VB.Net and used to do classic ASP along with a little C/C++ COM.

Answer 12

G: Learning more about the business domain.