I'm surprised no one said project mgmt yet.
Some day, maybe you'll want to have a broader impact. I'd say MBA is overrated and anyway certainly not the best next step after development.
You're a good techie. Now learn to plan, lead and deliver (read: get a team to deliver). Get a degree in PM. It won't teach you everything you need to know to be a good PM but that, with technical skills, and, most importantly, people skills will get you a long way.
I don't buy that. A post like that doesn't deserve a 5. It's not insightful, it's sheer misleading I'd-rather-stuck-my-head-in-the-sand-with-easy-non sense-cliché-explanations.
I've been an H1B for 5 years in the Bay Area. I'm back in Canada now. While in the BA, I've run in competitive bidding situation when looking for job (5 bidders at a time but that was back in '99). I certainly never had to compromise on treatment for being an H1B.
Also I've hired people and no there was no difference in treatment whatsoever.
Sorry I don't have a good explanation to provide in exchange for bombing yours but I thought someone needed to set the record straight on that myth.
Stop wasting your brain on myths and look for real causes or you'll never fix what you think is a problem.
> I like to think that, a skilled engineer could learn to be a skilled manager in under 12 months, but a skilled manager, could only become a skilled engineer in 12 years:)
And then you wonder why so many managers suck! 90% of the managers most people on this thread blast started as managers thinking just what you think.
See, just too many tech people think they can easily switch to mgmt and be good at it in a year or so. I've done mgmt for 10 years now. Along the years I've prepared a hell of a lot for it and I'm still learning it. What makes you an ok manager can be read in books. But unlike technical work, what makes you a really good manager can't be found in books. It takes a lot of time, requires that you live through a lot of varied situations, and takes an awful lot of introspection which starts with willingness to do so.
CDs and DVD only account for a fraction of "physical media". What about photos! Invoices! Printer material like books and newspaper?
Here's what I'm aiming/waiting for: 1) Never buy music on some physical media again. 2) Never walk to Blockbuster again. 3) Never print photo en-masse again 4) Never receive paper invoice again. 5) Never archive my paper invoice again. 6) Newspaper? Books? When will get decent device to view them instead of wasting perfectly good trees?
Number 1) will require that the labels understand that. And they'll have to share the savings. $.99 a tune won't cut it. I won't pay more than $.50/tune. You cut the middleman, that's saving #1. No brick-and-mortar store, that's saving #2. No distribution infrastructure, that's saving #3. And we could go on. So come on labels, shares the savings and you'll see the average Joe like me won't stop at a typical collection of 200-300 CDs. You'll still make plenty of money. Also required is decent DARs (digital audio receiver) that don't impose their UI and don't store music locally. sO FAR http://www.prismiq.com/products/index.asp looks the closest to what I have in mind...
#2 requires video-on-demand. Pay-per-view probably already dented the video/DVD industry somewhat. I don't know how much. Someone on this thread said he prefers buying CD over using v-o-d. How many people want to see how many movie twice? Very few to both answers is my guess. So I won't pay more for a permanent copy. v-o-d is coming. We just need the bandwidth to come along. Oh and good software.
#3 starts with digital camera. My Canon S40 does wonder. Took 3K pictures while on the road for 6 months earlier this year. You need a good tool to manage all this however. What's your preferred one? I tried Adobe's, Jasc's, Apple's and ACDSystem's solutions. Adobe won't let me try with more than 250 pictures. Dang! Ruled out, since it's doesn't allow for a realistic test. Jasc Photo Album is sluggish when there's a lot of pix. Also too buggy. iPhoto? C'mon, give me a break. I just bought a Powerbook. Love the Mac but only Apple bigots can pretend iPhoto rules. In fact, it sucks (ask me why?). Best of show goes to ACDSee. It does _nearly_ everything I'd like and with just a little more work, it would manage any kind of document, not just photos, with flying-colors.
#4 Service providers are picking up on that one. At least some. Schwabs, Etrade, the banks (Wells Fargo finally got that) all give a choice to opt-out of paper delivery. Not so with PAcbell, Verizon, PG&E (at least last I checked).
As for 5) The ones I still get on paper, I will start scanning. But I need a good filing management system.
#6 One edition of your preferred newspaper requires that someone cut down all the trees on an area roughly the size of a football (american or european, you pick) field. I haven't tried the tablet PCs yet but anyway, before they're any use they need to be more mainstream. What's the screen luminosity like? Anyone tried those? Are you getting headaches after a while? Eye fatigue? Are they light enough to take out anywhere (or nearly)?
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I'm surprised no one said project mgmt yet. Some day, maybe you'll want to have a broader impact. I'd say MBA is overrated and anyway certainly not the best next step after development. You're a good techie. Now learn to plan, lead and deliver (read: get a team to deliver). Get a degree in PM. It won't teach you everything you need to know to be a good PM but that, with technical skills, and, most importantly, people skills will get you a long way.
I've been an H1B for 5 years in the Bay Area. I'm back in Canada now. While in the BA, I've run in competitive bidding situation when looking for job (5 bidders at a time but that was back in '99). I certainly never had to compromise on treatment for being an H1B.
Also I've hired people and no there was no difference in treatment whatsoever.
Sorry I don't have a good explanation to provide in exchange for bombing yours but I thought someone needed to set the record straight on that myth.
Stop wasting your brain on myths and look for real causes or you'll never fix what you think is a problem.
> I like to think that, a skilled engineer could learn to be a skilled manager in under 12 months, but a skilled manager, could only become a skilled engineer in 12 years :)
And then you wonder why so many managers suck!
90% of the managers most people on this thread blast started as managers thinking just what you think.
See, just too many tech people think they can easily switch to mgmt and be good at it in a year or so. I've done mgmt for 10 years now. Along the years I've prepared a hell of a lot for it and I'm still learning it. What makes you an ok manager can be read in books. But unlike technical work, what makes you a really good manager can't be found in books. It takes a lot of time, requires that you live through a lot of varied situations, and takes an awful lot of introspection which starts with willingness to do so.
Do all your peers a favor, keep coding.
Here's what I'm aiming/waiting for: 1) Never buy music on some physical media again. 2) Never walk to Blockbuster again. 3) Never print photo en-masse again 4) Never receive paper invoice again. 5) Never archive my paper invoice again. 6) Newspaper? Books? When will get decent device to view them instead of wasting perfectly good trees?
Number 1) will require that the labels understand that. And they'll have to share the savings. $.99 a tune won't cut it. I won't pay more than $.50/tune. You cut the middleman, that's saving #1. No brick-and-mortar store, that's saving #2. No distribution infrastructure, that's saving #3. And we could go on. So come on labels, shares the savings and you'll see the average Joe like me won't stop at a typical collection of 200-300 CDs. You'll still make plenty of money. Also required is decent DARs (digital audio receiver) that don't impose their UI and don't store music locally. sO FAR http://www.prismiq.com/products/index.asp looks the closest to what I have in mind...
#2 requires video-on-demand. Pay-per-view probably already dented the video/DVD industry somewhat. I don't know how much. Someone on this thread said he prefers buying CD over using v-o-d. How many people want to see how many movie twice? Very few to both answers is my guess. So I won't pay more for a permanent copy. v-o-d is coming. We just need the bandwidth to come along. Oh and good software.
#3 starts with digital camera. My Canon S40 does wonder. Took 3K pictures while on the road for 6 months earlier this year. You need a good tool to manage all this however. What's your preferred one? I tried Adobe's, Jasc's, Apple's and ACDSystem's solutions. Adobe won't let me try with more than 250 pictures. Dang! Ruled out, since it's doesn't allow for a realistic test. Jasc Photo Album is sluggish when there's a lot of pix. Also too buggy. iPhoto? C'mon, give me a break. I just bought a Powerbook. Love the Mac but only Apple bigots can pretend iPhoto rules. In fact, it sucks (ask me why?). Best of show goes to ACDSee. It does _nearly_ everything I'd like and with just a little more work, it would manage any kind of document, not just photos, with flying-colors.
#4 Service providers are picking up on that one. At least some. Schwabs, Etrade, the banks (Wells Fargo finally got that) all give a choice to opt-out of paper delivery. Not so with PAcbell, Verizon, PG&E (at least last I checked).
As for 5) The ones I still get on paper, I will start scanning. But I need a good filing management system.
#6 One edition of your preferred newspaper requires that someone cut down all the trees on an area roughly the size of a football (american or european, you pick) field. I haven't tried the tablet PCs yet but anyway, before they're any use they need to be more mainstream. What's the screen luminosity like? Anyone tried those? Are you getting headaches after a while? Eye fatigue? Are they light enough to take out anywhere (or nearly)?
What do you think?