I found a post over on MSBlog today that made me realise why i don’t class development/programming as one of my skills anymore.
The content of the post comes from various sources but talks about some of the things any serious developer should be learning in 2007
My career in IT looked like i was going to end up in coding. In one of my first jobs i was helping a quality control department at an engineering firm implement an ISO standard (QS 9000) and i was setting up document templates, and designing spreadsheets to collect statistics. The quality manager (let’s call him Dave…not his real name) wasn’t exactly computer literate but recognised how IT could help. He wasn’t up to entering data into the spreadsheets and creating new graphs all by himself so he asked me to make it “Dave-proof”
I started off just locking cells and hiding sheets that were not needed but it wasn’t long before i discovered something that i knew would be a powerful tool…..
I started off predominantly using Excel and after starting off with just the macro recorder it wasn’t long before i was reading the language reference from the help files and coupled with some previous knowledge of BASIC from my Speccy days i was creating small spreadsheet applications like a production line. The quality department thought of more and more ambitious projects and it was a good deal for both of us. I was learning lots and they were getting programming done on the cheap. It wasn’t long before i graduated to VB5 and then VB6 and i eventually moved on to a small business support company who also sold accounting packages. I developed quite a few systems and also picked up Visual Foxpro and other technologies such COM Automation & ADO and dabbled with the WIN32 API (Dan )
However it wasn’t long before i returned to my original calling for networks, desktops and servers and to cut a long story such it’s how i ended up where i am now. As the original version Visual Basic .NET was released the company didn’t want to invest in any training and with my duties being moved onto support and installation of operating systems and applications my own personal learning learned in that direction
I really do love writing code. I was never going to be the next Bill Gates but i loved making stuff work! The experience really helped in other respects as creating VBScript for administration tasks is of obviously a similar ilk and i’m sure it will also help with PowerShell as that technology takes off
So anyway..back to where i started. The reason that post inspired this one is that it lists an awful lot of things you need to know just to get started. If had to know all that as well as everything else i currently need my head would explode! I’m not saying it’s impossible and i know there are lots of talented people that can successfully do systems and develop for both the desktop AND the web but i really don’t want to spread myself too thin.
I have got Visual Studio Express installed, I have some books on order and have the online resources bookmarked as i still feel there is value in knowing (and it’s still something i find interesting!) but it’s not going to be a priority
Working in the SMB environment means we have an awful lot of tech to know about as well as the business issues that go with it…..but isn’t that why we love it? 🙂
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