Small actions compound: Reputation, career trajectory, and how others perceive you in the workplace can come down to a handful of things/moments that seem inconsequential/small at the time but compound. Random Thought: Redwood trees come from small seeds and time. With every action you're planting small seeds and these seeds can grow into something bigger (sometimes unimaginably bigger) over time. Don't let small basic mistakes sabotage your reputation because it only takes a few small snafus for people to lose confidence/trust in your ability to do more important tasks. Trust is a fragile thing and the sooner people can trust you the faster they'll give you more responsibility. Some Examples: Being on time (always) or early (better); spending an extra 10-15 minutes reviewing your work and catching basic mistakes before your boss does; structuring your work so it's easy for others to understand and leverage (good structure/footnotes/formatting); taking on unpleasant schleps/tasks (volunteer for them; don't complain; do it even when there's no apparent benefit to you)

Rising tide lifts all boats: Fact: You don't become CEO of a multi-billion dollar public company in your 30s based purely on ability/talent. Your career is a boat and it is at the mercy of tides. No matter how talented you are it's a lot harder to break out in a sluggish situation/hierarchy/economy than a go-go environment. Even if you're a superstar at Sluggish Co., your upside trajectory (more often than not) is fractional to what an average/below average employee achieves at Rocket Ship Co. There's a reason Eric Schmidt told Sheryl Sandberg to "Get on a Rocket Ship". I had colleagues accelerate their careers/income/title/responsibility simply because business demand was nose bleed high (go go economy) and they were at the right place at the right time to ride the wave. Contrast that to the 2008 bust where earnings/promotions/careers have been clamped down and people are thankful for having jobs let alone moving up. Yes talent still matters but I think people generally overweight individual talent and underweight economics when evaluating/explaining their career successes. Sheryl Sandberg Quote: When companies are growing quickly and they are having a lot of impact, careers take care of themselves. And when companies aren’t growing quickly or their missions don’t matter as much, that’s when stagnation and politics come in. If you’re offered a seat on a rocket ship, don’t ask what seat. Just get on.

Seek opportunities where the outcome is success or failure. Nothing in between! You don't become a star doing your job. You become a star making things happen. I was once told early in my career that you learn the most in 1) rapidly growing organizations or 2) failing organizations. I've been in both kinds of situations and wholeheartedly agree. Repeat. Get on a rocket ship. It'll either blow up or put you in orbit. Either way you'll learn a ton in a short amount of time. Put another way; seek jobs where you can get 5-10 years of work experience in 1-2 years.

Career Tracks & Meritocracies don't exist: Your career is not a linear, clearly defined trajectory. It will be messy and will move more like a step function.

You will probably have champions and detractors on day 1: One interesting byproduct of the recruiting & hiring process of most organizations is it can create champions & detractors before you even start the job. Some folks might not like how you were brought into the organization (they might have even protested your hiring) and gun for you at every turn while others will give you the benefit of the doubt (even when you don't deserve one) because they stuck their neck out to hire you. We're all susceptible to these biases and few people truly evaluate/treat folks on a blank slate.

You'll only be known for a few things. Make those labels count: People rely on labels as quick filters. Keep this in mind when you pick an industry/company/job role/school because it can serve as an anchor or elevator in the future. It's unfortunate but that's the way it is. You should always be aware of what your "labels" are.

Nurture & protect your network and your network will nurture & protect you: Pay it forward and help people. Your network will be one of the biggest drivers of your success.

The importance of exercise for IT professionals

[May, 16, 2014] |
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Programmers often tend to be sedentary people. Sitting in a chair and pressing keys, testing code, and planning out one logical step-wise strategy after another to get the computer to process data the way you want it to is just what life as a programmer is all about. But, is being too sedentary hindering a programmers max potential? In other words, will getting up, moving around, and getting the blood pumping make us better programmers? To answer this question more efficiently, we will need to consider the impact of exercise on various aspects of programming.

Alertness And Focus

It is no surprise that working up a sweat makes the mind wake up and become more alert. As the blood starts pumping, the body physically reacts in ways that helps the mind to better focus. And improving our focus might make us better programmers in the sense that we are more able to wrap our mind around a problem and deal with it more efficiently than if we feel sluggish and not so alert. However, improving one's focus with exercise can be augmented by taking such vitamins as B6, Coleen, and eating more saturated fats rather than so many sugars. Exercise alone may be a good start, but it is important to realize that the impact of exercise on overall focus can be enhanced when combined with other dietary practices. However, it never hurts to begin a day of programming with fifteen minutes of rigorous workout to give the mind a little extra push.

Increase In Intellect

Does exercise cause a programmer to become a smarter programmer? This is perhaps a trickier question. In some sense, it might seem as if exercise makes us more intelligent. But, this may be more because our focus is sharper than because of any increase in actual knowledge. For example, if you don't know how to program in Python, it is highly doubtful that exercising harder will all of a sudden transfer such insights directly to your brain. However, exercise might have another indirect impact on a programmer’s intellect that will help them to become a better programmer. The more a person exercises, the more stamina and energy they will tend to have, as compared to programmers who never exercise all that much. That additional energy and stamina might help a programmer to be able to push themselves to learn things more efficiently, simply because they aren't getting tired as much as they study new languages or coding techniques. If you have more energy and stamina throughout the day, you will likely be more productive as a programmer as well. Greater productivity can often make one program better simply because they actually push themselves to finish projects. Other programmers who do not exercise on a regular basis may simply lack the energy, stamina, and motivation to follow through and bring their programming projects to completion.

Memory

The ability to remember things and recall them quickly is key to being an efficient programmer. Getting up and getting real exercise may be central to making sure that one does not lose control of these cognitive abilities. According to the New York Times, article, Getting a Brain Boost Through Exercise, recent research studies on mice and humans have shown that, in both cases, exercise does in fact appear to promote better memory function as well as other cognitive factors like spacial sense. (1) Consequently, if a person intends to be a programmer for a long time and wants their mind to be able to remember things and recall them more easily, then exercise may need to become an essential part of such a programmer's daily routine.

As much as one might want to resist the need for exercise and be sedentary programmers, the simple fact is that exercise very well could improve our ability to program in numerous ways. More importantly, exercise is critical to improving and maintaining good health overall. Even if a person does not have much time to get up and move around during the day, there are exercises that one can do while sitting, which would be better to do than no exercise at all.

What are a few unique pieces of career advice that nobody ever mentions?

What Options do Freelance Consultants Have with Large Corporations

iPhone-Maps

[Oct, 27, 2012] |
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One of the most recent updates to the iPhone, and more specifically the operating system that is packaged with the iPhone, iOS, brought one of the most fantastic and phenomenal updates ever: an update to Maps. Maps has been used as an application that provides an easy way to find routes, and (obviously) maps about certain areas, businesses in the local vicinity, and also leaving pins on favorited locations, or pins where you have explored, and for many other reasons. However, although Maps has always been a great way to travel with, it has always been redundant to travel with, also. When you used Maps a while ago, you had to route your map, and then manually click each next button as you reached each turn or freeway exit, and the like. So, if you had to turn left on a certain street, you had to tell your phone you had done so, so it would give you the next directions. As a result, it could become very dangerous to always have your phone out, looking at it, while you are on a high-speed freeway. But, the newest update solved that, and brought a great amount of new features.

Using Maps GPS

Using Maps is as easy as it gets. Most of the time, when you are using Maps, you are using it to search for a location, and finding a way to get there. To start off, let’s search for the nearest mall, and routes to get there. Simply search a nearby mall you know about, or search the general word “mall” by tapping on the top text box, and typing in mall, and searching. Pins will drop down on the screen, and locating the mall by zooming into certain streets and locations will help you find the mall you want. Once you find the mall you desire to go to, click on the blue arrow, and scroll down, and tap on the button that says “Directions To Here.”

As a result of tapping on that particular button, a new window should show up asking where your starting location is. On default, this location is your current location; if it is anything else, simply type in the starting location into the top address bar, such as your house. Once you are ready to go, tap on route, and you should be ready to go. Well, not exactly. One of the best features that has been implemented in the new system is suggested routes, and alternative routes. If you don’t like to drive on certain streets, or roads, the system provides you with different methods to get to your destination, which may avoid a road you don’t feel like driving on that certain day, or time, or you simply don’t want to take the freeway. It’s all okay, as Maps provides you with many different routes to take. Once you find the route you want (by tapping on the certain route’s outline), click start, and you should be ready to go. Make sure you turn up your volume so you can hear the directions!

Maps for Alternative Transportation

Why did the Obamacare Website Fail?

[Mar, 20, 2014] |
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Millions of people experienced the frustration and failures of the Obamacare website when it first launched. Because the code for the back end is not open source, the exact technicalities of the initial failings are tricky to determine. Many curious programmers and web designers have had time to examine the open source coding on the front end, however, leading to reasonable conclusions about the nature of the overall difficulties.

Lack of End to End Collaboration
The website was developed with multiple contractors for the front-end and back-end functions. The site also needed to be integrated with insurance companies, IRS servers, Homeland Security servers, and the Department of Veterans Affairs, all of whom had their own legacy systems. The large number of parties involved and the complex nature of the various components naturally complicated the testing and integration of each portion of the project.

The errors displayed, and occasionally the lack thereof, indicated an absence of coordination between the parties developing the separate components. A failed sign up attempt, for instance, often resulted in a page that displayed the header but had no content or failure message. A look at end user requests revealed that the database was unavailable. Clearly, the coding for the front end did not include errors for failures on the back end.

Bloat and the Abundance of Minor Issues
Obviously, numerous bugs were also an issue. The system required users to create passwords that included numbers, for example, but failed to disclose that on the form and in subsequent failure messages, leaving users baffled. In another issue, one of the pages intended to ask users to please wait or call instead, but the message and the phone information were accidentally commented out in the code.

While the front-end design has been cleared of blame for the most serious failures, bloat in the code did contribute to the early difficulties users experienced. The site design was heavy with Javascript and CSS files, and it was peppered with small coding errors that became particularly troublesome when users faced bottlenecks in traffic. Frequent typos throughout the code proved to be an additional embarrassment and were another indication of a troubled development process.

NoSQL Database
The NoSQL database is intended to allow for scalability and flexibility in the architecture of projects that will use it. This made NoSQL a logical choice for the health insurance exchange website. The newness of the technology, however, means personnel with expertise can be elusive. Database-related missteps were more likely the result of a lack of experienced administrators than with the technology itself. The choice of the NoSQL database was thus another complication in the development, but did not itself cause the failures.

Another factor of consequence is that the website was built with both agile and waterfall methodology elements. With agile methods for the front end and the waterfall methodology for the back end, streamlining was naturally going to suffer further difficulties. The disparate contractors, varied methods of software development, and an unrealistically short project time line all contributed to the coding failures of the website.

Tech Life in California

Largely influenced by several immigrant populations California has experienced several technological, entertainment and economic booms over the years. As for technology, Silicon Valley, in the southern part of San Francisco is an integral part of the world?s innovators, high-tech businesses and a myriad of techie start-ups. It also accounts for 1/3rd of all venture capital investments.

A program which perfectly meets a lousy specification is a lousy program. Cem Kaner

other Learning Options

Software developers near Glendale have ample opportunities to meet like minded techie individuals, collaborate and expend their career choices by participating in Meet-Up Groups. The following is a list of Technology Groups in the area.

BayLISA · Bay Area Alfresco CMS User Group · AngularJS Ventura ·

Fortune 500 and 1000 companies in California that offer opportunities for IBM developers

Company Name	City	Industry	Secondary Industry
Mattel, Inc.	El Segundo	Retail	Sporting Goods, Hobby, Book, and Music Stores
Spectrum Group International, Inc.	Irvine	Retail	Retail Other
Chevron Corp	San Ramon	Energy and Utilities	Gasoline and Oil Refineries
Jacobs Engineering Group, Inc.	Pasadena	Real Estate and Construction	Construction and Remodeling
eBay Inc.	San Jose	Software and Internet	E-commerce and Internet Businesses
Broadcom Corporation	Irvine	Computers and Electronics	Semiconductor and Microchip Manufacturing
Franklin Templeton Investments	San Mateo	Financial Services	Investment Banking and Venture Capital
Pacific Life Insurance Company	Newport Beach	Financial Services	Insurance and Risk Management
Tutor Perini Corporation	Sylmar	Real Estate and Construction	Construction and Remodeling
SYNNEX Corporation	Fremont	Software and Internet	Data Analytics, Management and Storage
Core-Mark International Inc	South San Francisco	Manufacturing	Food and Dairy Product Manufacturing and Packaging
Occidental Petroleum Corporation	Los Angeles	Manufacturing	Chemicals and Petrochemicals
Yahoo!, Inc.	Sunnyvale	Software and Internet	Software and Internet Other
Edison International	Rosemead	Energy and Utilities	Gas and Electric Utilities
Ingram Micro, Inc.	Santa Ana	Computers and Electronics	Consumer Electronics, Parts and Repair
Safeway, Inc.	Pleasanton	Retail	Grocery and Specialty Food Stores
Gilead Sciences, Inc.	San Mateo	Healthcare, Pharmaceuticals and Biotech	Pharmaceuticals
AECOM Technology Corporation	Los Angeles	Real Estate and Construction	Architecture,Engineering and Design
Reliance Steel and Aluminum	Los Angeles	Manufacturing	Metals Manufacturing
Live Nation, Inc.	Beverly Hills	Media and Entertainment	Performing Arts
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.	Sunnyvale	Computers and Electronics	Semiconductor and Microchip Manufacturing
Pacific Gas and Electric Corp	San Francisco	Energy and Utilities	Gas and Electric Utilities
Electronic Arts Inc.	Redwood City	Software and Internet	Games and Gaming
Oracle Corporation	Redwood City	Software and Internet	Software and Internet Other
Symantec Corporation	Mountain View	Software and Internet	Data Analytics, Management and Storage
Dole Food Company, Inc.	Thousand Oaks	Manufacturing	Food and Dairy Product Manufacturing and Packaging
CBRE Group, Inc.	Los Angeles	Real Estate and Construction	Real Estate Investment and Development
First American Financial Corporation	Santa Ana	Financial Services	Financial Services Other
The Gap, Inc.	San Francisco	Retail	Clothing and Shoes Stores
Ross Stores, Inc.	Pleasanton	Retail	Clothing and Shoes Stores
Qualcomm Incorporated	San Diego	Telecommunications	Wireless and Mobile
Charles Schwab Corporation	San Francisco	Financial Services	Securities Agents and Brokers
Sempra Energy	San Diego	Energy and Utilities	Gas and Electric Utilities
Western Digital Corporation	Irvine	Computers and Electronics	Consumer Electronics, Parts and Repair
Health Net, Inc.	Woodland Hills	Healthcare, Pharmaceuticals and Biotech	Healthcare, Pharmaceuticals, and Biotech Other
Allergan, Inc.	Irvine	Healthcare, Pharmaceuticals and Biotech	Biotechnology
The Walt Disney Company	Burbank	Media and Entertainment	Motion Picture and Recording Producers
Hewlett-Packard Company	Palo Alto	Computers and Electronics	Consumer Electronics, Parts and Repair
URS Corporation	San Francisco	Real Estate and Construction	Architecture,Engineering and Design
Cisco Systems, Inc.	San Jose	Computers and Electronics	Networking Equipment and Systems
Wells Fargo and Company	San Francisco	Financial Services	Banks
Intel Corporation	Santa Clara	Computers and Electronics	Semiconductor and Microchip Manufacturing
Applied Materials, Inc.	Santa Clara	Computers and Electronics	Semiconductor and Microchip Manufacturing
Sanmina Corporation	San Jose	Computers and Electronics	Semiconductor and Microchip Manufacturing
Agilent Technologies, Inc.	Santa Clara	Telecommunications	Telecommunications Equipment and Accessories
Avery Dennison Corporation	Pasadena	Manufacturing	Paper and Paper Products
The Clorox Company	Oakland	Manufacturing	Chemicals and Petrochemicals
Apple Inc.	Cupertino	Computers and Electronics	Consumer Electronics, Parts and Repair
Amgen Inc	Thousand Oaks	Healthcare, Pharmaceuticals and Biotech	Biotechnology
McKesson Corporation	San Francisco	Healthcare, Pharmaceuticals and Biotech	Pharmaceuticals
DIRECTV	El Segundo	Telecommunications	Cable Television Providers
Visa, Inc.	San Mateo	Financial Services	Credit Cards and Related Services
Google, Inc.	Mountain View	Software and Internet	E-commerce and Internet Businesses

training details locations, tags and why hsg

the hartmann software group advantage

why take IBM Training with the hartmann software group?

A successful career as a software developer or other IT professional requires a solid understanding of software development processes, design patterns, enterprise application architectures, web services, security, networking and much more. The progression from novice to expert can be a daunting endeavor; this is especially true when traversing the learning curve without expert guidance. A common experience is that too much time and money is wasted on a career plan or application due to misinformation.

The Hartmann Software Group understands these issues and addresses them and others during any training engagement. Although no IT educational institution can guarantee career or application development success, HSG can get you closer to your goals at a far faster rate than self paced learning and, arguably, than the competition. Here are the reasons why we are so successful at teaching:

Learn from the experts.
1. We have provided software development and other IT related training to many major corporations in California since 2002.
2. Our educators have years of consulting and training experience; moreover, we require each trainer to have cross-discipline expertise i.e. be Java and .NET experts so that you get a broad understanding of how industry wide experts work and think.
Discover tips and tricks about IBM programming
Get your questions answered by easy to follow, organized IBM experts
Get up to speed with vital IBM programming tools
Save on travel expenses by learning right from your desk or home office. Enroll in an online instructor led class. Nearly all of our classes are offered in this way.
Prepare to hit the ground running for a new job or a new position
See the big picture and have the instructor fill in the gaps
We teach with sophisticated learning tools and provide excellent supporting course material
Books and course material are provided in advance
Get a book of your choice from the HSG Store as a gift from us when you register for a class
Gain a lot of practical skills in a short amount of time
We teach what we know…software
We care…

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IBM Training Classes in Glendale, California

Learn IBM in Glendale, California and surrounding areas via our hands-on, expert led courses. All of our classes either are offered on an onsite, online or public instructor led basis. Here is a list of our current IBM related training offerings in Glendale, California: IBM Training

IBM Training Catalog

Course Directory [training on all levels]

Blog Entries publications that: entertain, make you think, offer insight

Using Maps GPS

Maps for Alternative Transportation

Tech Life in California

training details locations, tags and why hsg

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