How to adapt to changes within a company

Hey everyone,

I had an annual review a couple of months ago. One of which it said that I adapted to changes very well.

Now part of this is because of the skills that were retained. In either case, skills can always be learned, and there are many ways to learn a skill.

One of those skills that retain as the most important is to not be an egoistic character. Now let’s say something did strike your ego this day. If you had one of these days, think about it as you’re on your way home before going back to work the next day.

This may be putting yourself in another person’s shoes. This may also be thinking about how you’ll see yourself later on in the company.

Selfishness, in programming, is not exactly the best choice. It’s a toxic behavior that cannot be tolerated. Also, going back to the bad habits will not be any beneficial either. I know a guy who was let go because of this.

But having the mental strength will help a lot. I’ve had emergency requests that came up, and this worked out quite well.

Anyway, those are just some thoughts about facts for this week. Therefore, just have fun, reap the rewards you will obtain, and keep moving forward!

Until next time!

Brian.

Theory versus your work, and how to tie the two together

Hey everyone,

Just sharing some things of what I’ve learned in my work place along the way.

There’s a giant blob of code, in which, at the beginning of this week, it was hard for me to understand. I wasn’t the person who wrote the code originally by the way. The work on starting to fix the bug was Thursday with other priorities that remained.

So now, are you asking exactly how I was able to solve the issue? If the answer is yes, then read on!

Now then, you’re going to need to ask how what you’d like be doing will make the most sense to you.

You can try to solve it 100% by yourself which is totally fine, but it would normally be a consumption of time. So the cost of trying to look at what’s going on is a lot more time than value to be put in. Therefore, unless you are looking into architect a solution, a bug fix should take around a week maximum.

Today however, we’ll look into a bug that you are unfamiliar with the code base. Now, there are steps and sub-steps along the way.

First, ask the person who originally coded the solution, and then introduce the bug. Most likely, he’ll be able to answer why the bug is happening.

Now for step A, he should be suggesting a solution that should be very simple. Now if that works, then you can stop here. If it doesn’t work, he’ll suggest step B. If that works, then you probably don’t want to stop here just yet.

Why?

Although the solution is simple, the fix is not a permanent fix. Therefore, now it’s time to go into the second step.

Start commenting out code that may take a while, which also has sub-steps by itself. Eventually, it’ll get to the point where you’ll be able to understand what is going on. Now, you can start to make a workaround.

The third step is to try and ask yourself what else can be done. If you need yet another person to give you some theory, then feel free to ask away. You might get an abstract solution, but at the same time, there should almost always be a derivative to the abstract. During this time, the sub-steps would be to do some research, and then find a way to implement not the same solution, but something similar to the nature.

Step four would be to code something up with trial and error. You’ll find that it works for that bug, and now you’ll need to do a lot of sanity testing. You’ll find that you might be introducing other bugs into the equation. That is all sorts of bad.

Step five would be yet another trial and error solution, mainly in finding what worked before and how you can re-implement the old logic back without breaking the new fix. Now go back to step four. Until you’re completely satisfied, then the only next step would be to commit the fix.

So there is always theory, but your job is to analyze whether or not it is right for the piece of work. That’s all I have for today, let me know of thoughts.

Until next time!

Brian.

Don’t worry, and just do your job

Hello everyone,

I’ve come to the realization of quite a bit of stuff going on. Now, of course, different people are different from one-another, but at the same time, there are commonalities within any work environment.

That is, there’s a work process.

Now then, you don’t want to be deviating from this, especially if you’re new to the company’s procedures and standards. You’ll want to learn about them first before implementing your own strategies.

And then, you know what happens if those are not followed, right? It just won’t work out.

Therefore, if there’s some way that anything’s being done, then just do it that way. Also, expressing out your weaknesses to your fellow team members will only benefit you to become better.

Also, make sure that everybody is in the know-how. It is very crucial to make sure efficiency is widened across all places.

And if that’s not happening, then well, the job is not being done correctly….

I’ve met a few guys like these, and I was also one of them by the way…. I’ll tell you that it sure ain’t fun being that guy!

Therefore, I’ll be frank and say that those who are in this position are in the start of their careers. So guys, I’m also learning about life as well, and my goal is to try and help anybody learn better. As humans, we all make mistakes in our lives. The important thing is that we try to learn from them incrementally.

What does that mean?

Explicitly, each time you’re working, introduce something new that might throw off another person. But introduce one or two things, and nothing crazy of let’s say ten things. One or two things are much easier to digest, and this also forces your habits to change for the better. If it’s good, then you know that it can be kept. If it’s not good, then you know that now is the time to change it.

Also, it’s perfectly okay not to have good communication skills. This will grow over time.

You can also luck out having really great leadership guide you. If you follow along towards their tailored “program”, then everything will work out. Again, don’t deviate, otherwise it can mean bad news.

Therefore, if you’re new on the project, just follow along. Afterwards, just relax and enjoy the ride!

Until next time!

Brian.

Why initiatives are important

Hey there!

Just had a thought about why you should always take initiatives in your programming career.

Although you don’t have this confident feeling of getting something done… well, you are producing something still, right?

Even if it’s not the time right now, and that you are mainly just following the standards of what other people want, that’s okay. It just means you’re in the process of producing something, and that is still taking initiative.

However, if you really wanted to, then you can always improve and grow! Then you won’t have to be stuck on that same level all the time. Only time plays a huge factor on this.

Okay, so now you might be asking the question of “how do I become better?”

As you reach the end of that work day, go home. Now don’t just relax, but also think about who you want to be.

Some added bonuses you might want to include are stuff like:
What is that next project that will give me an opportunity to lead it?
Can I make the existing code base that I’m working on even better?
Has this one niche been implemented before? And if not, can I get a patent for it?
Where do I see myself in the next year or two from now?

That’s 4-5 questions that can have at least 5 answers for each question. Now if you have gotten your answers jotted down and can perform them, then you are on your way to that shining star status. So although you don’t see a lot of results in the beginning, you’ll be surprised in the next months coming. Things will just start to make more sense of what you picture your life to be! Your personal interests might even favor you as well.

Anyway, just something short, but the main idea is just to keep pushing forward.

Until next time!

Brian.