Part of a well planned investment business strategy is knowing when to invest. The other side of the coin, knowing the time to leave is just important.

Employment takes time and effort once you have invested your time and effort you should see a proper return. If you do not you should work on your exit strategy. Decide definitively when is the right time for you to jump ship and look for better opportunities.

If this means taking a class to upgrade skills or simply waiting for a bonus figure it out set some guidelines and execute. You’ll be much happier about life.

If you work in today’s business world you are probably looking to upgrade your skills on a consistent basis. One of the best things you can do is take some time in deciding what you should learn next.

The skills that you choose to upgrade should be pertinent to your current job and industry. It will do you no good to take a word processing course if you are a construction worker or a chef unless your moving from the front lines to the back office. If you are looking for suggestions about what to learn. Here is what I would say as a rule of thumb.

If you currently work in an office it is a good idea to learn how to better use the tools in your office. Every business has a set of software and licensed applications. You should look to learn and become efficient in what is in house. The industry standard for most companies across the nation for word processing is th Microsoft’s Office suite, however if your company uses another product you should strive to be skilled in using that application. The good news is that most pc applications work in a similar manner so by learning one you are building a skill set that will likely be usable for others.

If you are more closely tied to the sales and profitability of a company focus on concepts related to reporting, analytics, and marketing. The task here is to learn as many tools as possible to gain, track, and earn more sales. Learn about spreadsheets, word processing, presentation software, and online marketing.

There is overlap in these categories so by learning one you are helping your aptitude in the other category, but the goal here is to develop a laser focus and set a path for yourself to reach your business goals.

Okay people.  Here are a few rules of engagement for comments.

1. ACTUALLY, READ THE POST IF YOU EXPECT TO GET APPROVED.
2. Your site should actually load to be approved.
3. Related websites take priority.
4. More than one link will be marked as spam.
5. I will and do blacklist.

For the record, blink links to your account that are not related count against you in SEO terms.

So you spammers are really only hurting yourselves.

Have a nice day.

How many software developers does it take to code something?
Sounds like a bad joke doesn’t it? Well, in many ways it IS a very bad JOKE!

Listen… people… talking about working IS NOT WORKING! If you are a software developer and you spend more than 30 minutes a day in someone else cubical or office talking about how we “should” code things. You are not working… period. You should be reprimanded for wasting company time. Unless you are a project lead, or a on the project management team, you should be putting your head down and generating quality code for people to use and not talking about coding with your peers.

Just because you think you should be in a leadership position doesn’t mean that you get to act like one and “practice” leadership on your less knowledgeable peers.

If you were truly fit to be a lead then they would have already put you in that position. Leadership is not about how quickly you can drop acronyms, how much you can obfuscate your code, or if you are using the latest “coolest” MVC.

Here is a little hint… if you are a developer learning a new technology and you have a peer sitting in your cube telling you what to type and how to code then he/she is not really teaching you. They are trying to make you dependent upon them to do your work. You need to ask them very specific questions about where you need help and the, *** ask them to leave while you try their suggestions and  your own theories***.

You will learn more by trial and error on your own than under duress from a more peer. Plus, you’re better off without their griping and erudite behavior.

Last point… then I will end my rant. Management people (if you are reading this) you need to recognize this behavior and deal with it immediately. You are allowing two full time high wage earners to waste company time. Case in point, would you pay two doctors to sit in a cube and talk about diagnosing your problem? I would hope note.

If you allow this type of behavior you must recognize that you are allowing to Full Time Employees to work on one problem. You could and should be getting twice the production that you are currently getting. If they feel the developers need to talk about how things “should” be done grab the lead developer and project management and make them explain what they plan to do in one short meeting.

Be aware: Developers WILL try and steer a project left or right so that they can use the latest buzz word technologies and add them to their resume. The problem is that in most cases this does NOT add any value to the business or the application just their egos.

As a developer, I often take for granted the basic computer skills. Even as
I write this entry I am using short cut keys for editing and moving about
the text content. I am using a text editor rather than a word processor, and
I know how to fix any formatting errors that might arise from posting.

So as a self introspective experiment I am going to try and list different
skills that I use every day to help with my experience with computers.

1. Operating System short-cut keys – window key, shift-key combinations,
function keys
2. Mouse functions – right click options and double-clicking for different
situations
3. Software specific short-cut keys – calling the search/find through
keyboard keys, maximizing and minimizing windows, moving from application to
application without the mouse

It is an interesting exercise to self-examine ones computer skills however I
would encourage everyone to try this exercise. If there is something that I
have listed that you are not familiar with. Visit us again later as I will
write articles on these skills in the future. If you have others that you
use that you would like to share please feel free to post a comment and let
us know.

Welcome to the Learn Real Computer Skills Blog. Here we will provide commentary about technology and computer issues that we come across everyday. This blog will have entries for realizations about programming, technology, and entries about general triumphs and tribulations in our projects. We hope to provide knowledge, resources, and at the very least humor to your day.