Product Description

You've already lost your job. You may still be drawing a paycheck, but the job you were hired to do no longer exists. Your company has changed, the technology has changed, the economy has changed, and the ways you can add value have changed. Have you adapted to these changes? Or are you at risk?

Architect your career

Economic downturn. Job cuts. Outsourcing. The ever-changing tech landscape. The threats abound. Chad Fowler is here to offer 52 ways to keep your job, despite the vagaries of the market.

• It's all about making the right choices. Choosing which technologies to focus on and which business domains to master have at least as much impact on your success as your technical knowledge--don't let those choices be accidental. Chad shows you all aspects of the decision-making process so you can ensure that you're investing your time and energy in the right areas.
• It's all about skills. You'll develop a structured plan for keeping your skills up-to-date so that you can compete with both the growing stable of developers in so-called low-cost countries as well as your higher-priced local peers. You'll learn how to shift your skillset up the value chain, from an offshore-ready commodity to one in high demand.
• It's all about marketing. As with any product or service, if nobody knows what you're selling, nobody will buy. Chad shows you how to create a plan for marketing yourself both inside your company and to the industry in general.

Like it or not, the IT career landscape has changed. This handbook will teach you what you need to do to avoid being left behind.

About the author Chad Fowler has been a software developer and manager for some of the world's largest corporations. He recently lived and worked in India, setting up and leading an offshore software development center for a large multinational company.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #418544 in Books
• Published on: 2005-09-19
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 232 pages

About the Author
Chad Fowler is co-director of Ruby Central, Inc., and remains an active, driving force in the Ruby community.

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Customer Reviews

A valuable read
Forget about the spectre of "offshoring" for a second: this book is about what you need to do to be a better software professional. On the flip side, this book can also be used as a guide on how to _hire_ good programmers. Each chapter is about 2 to 3 pages long and presents anecdotal information about how to make yourself a better programmer _and_ business person.

I would say that most of his advice really falls into one of these categories: constantly improve yourself, constantly seek to improve others, and be knowledgeable of your business and customers.

There are valuable tidbits in here that are common sense to some, but I am amazed with how many people I know that don't follow them. Even if they are all common sense this book helps these ideas crystallize in your psyche. Here are some of my favorites:

#7 Don't base your career on one technology: for example Java, Lotus Notes, etc.

#8 Be the worst. Surrounding yourself with really good people is a lot better way to learn than being the best. I agree with this.

#9 Love it or leave it. The people I like to work with the most are the people with passion for what they do. They are the ones that are constantly seeking to do things the right way. They are the ones who are innovating.

The reason I give this book 4 stars instead of 5 is that towards the end I thought the last several chapters were kind of fluffy and didn't provide any concrete advise. But overall, I think this book is very good.

A Classic in the Making
Chad Fowler has written a gem of a book that is full of wisdom, and is deeply insightful in a way that only someone with Chad's experience (of working with a fortune 5 company in the U.S. and in India) could have.

Written with compassion and empathy for it's intended audience, the book conveys a very important message -- that it's not about Americans beating Indians out of jobs or Indians beating Americans. It's about building things of value and making software developers better.

I believe this book is going to be of as much value to the leaders of organizations that hire software developers across the globe as it will be to the employees of those organizations and will provide benefits to readers in unexpected ways. It provides a blueprint for continuous learning and self- improvement as well as a way to motivate oneself to always aspire to reach higher and achieve more and enjoy the journey along the way!

This is a must-read book that has already found a permanent place on my bookshelf as it will in the bookshelves of all the others whom I plan to gift copies to.

I HIGHLY recommend it.

Great book about your IT career, not just the outsourcing threat
I think this book suffers from a poorly chosen title. It makes it seem much more of a niche book than it is.
"Take Charge of Your Career" would have been a better title. This book is for those of us who really want to be in this sector and are looking for what the right moves are. It is too easy to end up working in an IT job that you floated into rather than worked towards or deliberately chose.

The last line of the book says it best:

"Satisfaction, like our career choices, is something that should be sought after and *decided* upon *with intention*.