Articles with attitude

Step back and think again: How much do you know about languages you are using?

Recently I did many interviews for position of both Jr. and Sr. Developers. Here, I will not talk about the interview itself, rather the lessons I learn from those interviews. First, let’s talk about the context: I am focusing on the technical aspects. And:

  1. I know those  candidates are doing very good job at their current position since they get good paid for their job
  2. I know what people usually put on their CV
  3. I do not want to criticise on anything or any skill they have. And I assume what they write in CV is what they mean.

In candidate’s CV, I usually see these:

  1. C#: Advance, 4-5 years experienced
  2. Java Script: Fluently
  3. Other technologies (frameworks, languages) that are said as: expert or at least many years of experienced

However, when I started to ask some questions about C#, such as Event, Delegate, Parallel, Value Type, Reference Type, Argument passed to method, … I got many bad answers. Some did not know Event and Delegate.

Then I asked myself a big question:

WHY?

Then I started to think: What happen if I step back, honestly ask myself these questions:

What do you really know about C#? How deep you are in the languages you are working it day by day? And what kind of features that C# offered that you use most?

Fact: I have been working with C# for 10 years. I code C# everyday. However, sadly speaking, I have not known the language, the tool that feeds me much. The same answer goes for other tools, languages.

For fun, let summary what I usually do with C#:

  1. Create new class
  2. Define class, member, property, method
  3. Basic types: int, DateTime, string, …
  4. Lately, I coded with asynchronous style, but not much

Most of the things I do with C# are there since C# was created long time ago

OK! That are enough for fact and sad news! What do I learn from all these:

Sharpen your knife

That is: I will focus on learning deeper in the languages I work with, in the frameworks I used. For everything I learn, I will tell myself: Take a close look, a deeper step. Make sure you understand it.

The more I know about them (the tools I used) the more joy I have at work.

So keep learning!

What will I teach my children about the job?

YOU HAVE TO LOVE AND RESPECT YOUR JOB

Just that simple!

But why? why do you teach them the things that should be a common sense/ common knowledge?

Because, I started to realize that NOT many people actually love their job, or even respect the job they are doing. Usually I heard this when asking them about the job:

  1. It would be better if i am a singer, it would be better if i do other job. The job that someone get a very well-paid
  2. I would do better if I get more salary. If the boss is fair
  3. I would … If

You get the point. I do not say that everyone says that. Just the fact that i met some of them. And actually quite a lot in IT industry. Therefore, I want to make sure I have the right mindset to teach my children.

Here are what I think about the job and why I love, respect it:

  1. I spent 16 years studying to have the job (12 years at high school + 4 years at the university). Therefore, I respect, love what i have been doing in that 16 years.
  2. The job helps me pay my bills, allows me to buy food, water, beer, … all the necessaries stuff for a living
  3. It helps me foster my family, my children
  4. It gives the feeling that: I am alive, I am a human. I create things everyday.
  5. Without a job, I am nothing, no job, no money, no thing.

Some people said: hey what are you talking about?

I LOVE MY JOB

My response:

REALLY??

Did you remember when you love someone? did you tell them:

I will love you IF …

There are more in though about this topic in my mind. But it is enough for a morning 🙂 Someday, I hope my children will read this post 🙂