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 | How to be an Expert in your Field by Vuyiswa Maseko 
Wednesday, September 24, 2008 9:03 PM
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Good Morning Friends
I would like to Share my Knowledge and my Experience. Am a Programmer by Profession and we all know how few programmers we have these days. If you find someone doing Computers they will be System Analyst who dont want to Code, who will soon be Project Managers, you will find Technicians doing Support, You will find network Administrators and DBA's. Well i must respect DBA's they are doing a good Job and others like Technicians. But why do you think they will pay lot of money to a Programmer? , it’s because they are few and few people can Program. People fail to be Experts in their Field because of four Things i know of. The First thing they "Jump from one Position to another", let me explain a bit.  , many people when they join Companies they always want to impress for the sake of Promotions. They think if they get promotions they will get more money and grow Career wise. And that is true about money but not true about Growth. When are Promoted, you are no longer going to do what you were doing in your previous position. That means you have to start fresh with something new and that means you will not be an expert in what you were doing in your previous position and even in the current position you might not be an expert, because you might get promoted again . Promotions will hinder your chances to be an Expert in your field; well some other people open companies to run away from this problem, so that they can keep on doing what they love forever and that is why we find expert not working for a particular company, but being outsourced by the Companies. The Second reason why we don’t become experts in our fields is because “We don’t read”, A technologist should never stop reading, infect it does not matter what is career everyone must always read. People should always remember that they got Jobs because they knew something and that something is from Books , now for you to be knowledgeable you need to read and never stop leaning and guard your knowledge well and not forgetting to have a good attitude towards your career. I think people will never be experts if they don’t read, I don’t see the possibilities in that. The other reason that can make a Person not to be an expert in his/her field is “Don’t Practise”. Practice make perfect , why is that, well to other people it looks stupid even to practise a Speech before a meeting , or practice your answer before your boss ask you. Programmer know that they have to Practise when they learn something new, you have to Create those Small “hello world” examples, because without that, you will never understand the basics of what you are doing. You can read but if you don’t practice, you knowledge is useless because you cannot put them into practice. The last reason I know that can make a Person not to be an expert in his/her field “Adopt easily to new things”. When you Master something, and later something new that you have to learn, you must be able to learn and understand how it fit into your expertise and what is the different between what you knew before and what is the improvement and why should you use it. People must have resilience to change. I know Programmers who will Still initiate Developments in VB6, even there is a better language that can make a Programmer to be more productive, the reason they stay there is that they don’t want to “Read, Don’t Practice, Cant Adopt to new things”. I know it’s a difficult thing to do to master a Subject or Field. The reasons are different, some of the reasons are Social Pressure, e.g. my friend is a Project Manager and am a Programmer, well on my opinion, to be a Programmer is better than to be a Project Manager, people want Fancy Offices, come at work on his/her time and Drive a Big Car, Live in a Townhouse. But hey if you are an Expert in your Field, you can even earn more than your Project Manager. This Blog will be read by Programmers and Non Programmers, what let me tell you what it means to me to be a Programmer. If I can die now, I know that I will die happy because I was honest to myself and I knew what few knew and I was the master of my game and I knew what to get at anytime, because I did not hope or wish for a Promotion, I did not want to be a Project Manager, CEO, President, IT Manager and I always read and Practice what I read and most of the time help people for free and write articles about what I know and accept if I don’t know and have the attitude ”I don’t know everything” I have to keep on learning , am a fool for a minute and after I ask am no longer a fool. To my Conclusion is either you choose money or you choose knowledge, if you choose knowledge you will be the happiest person trust me.
Thank you
Vuyiswa Maseko,
Sorrow is Better than Laughter, it may Sadden your Face, but It sharpens your Understanding
VB.NET/SQL7/2000/2005
http://vuyiswamb.007ihost.com
http://Ecadre.007ihost.com
vuyiswam@tshwane.gov.za
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I don't understand something. Promotion is no way related to "code". Companies have grades & *designations*. If you want to code till the very end, you can still continue but that doesn't stop your grade from getting promoted- unless you perform below average. The the designation becomes "Analysts & Architects-even CTOs" but not managers. Also, I don't believe in sticking to the same position till the very end. As and when you grown, we need to master things on the way. It's not like even after 20 years we should take up how to program arrays in C. When you move on, you should be giving out the design to your junior programmers. Now you don't need to study anything again. My manager does that. He's a project manager but only he designs the application for us. Though we suggest things on designs & we concentrate more only on the coding part. And he even sits with us to debug if something goes wrong. btw, if only companies find you worthy, they'll make you managers.
Vuyiswa Maseko wrote: Sorrow is Better than Laughter, it may Sadden your Face, but It sharpens your Understanding
And I totally disagree with you.  
He never answers anyone who replies to him. I've taken to calling him a retard, which is not fair to retards everywhere.-Christian Graus
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In my Company they pay you what you are worth. You can earn more than your Manager, because a position does not mean money, but it means authority. Now even if i earn better than my manager he is still the person to tell me what to do. Now do you understand why i say Promotion will hinder your chances of being an Expert. Your problem is that you don want to learn. In the Programming World, especially if you are a Microsoft Developer, you will have to get used to the fact that you must always be able use new technologies and even buy books on them and learn them. Now i dont think your manager will able to do that, and that is why he cannot be an expert. So if you will follow the route he followed, comes 2030, in the Programming world we will be singing another some and you wont fit into the choir because you will not know what we are talking about, you will only remember the days of vb6 , C and .NET 1,1 ,2.0, 3.0 and 3.5 and we will be telling you with .NET 10.2
It is not a Good Idea to run after Promotion if you want to be an Expert in your Field
Vuyiswa Maseko,
Few companies that installed computers to reduce the employment of clerks have realized their expectations.... They now need more and more expensive clerks even though they call them "Developers" or "Programmers."
C#/VB.NET/ASP.NET/SQL7/2000/2005/2008
http://www.vuyiswamaseko.tiyaneProperties.co.za
vuyiswa@its.co.za
www.ITS.co.za
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Yho i must say am inspired by your words...thank you keep it up.
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thank you
Vuyiswa Maseko,
Spoted in Daniweb-- Sorry to rant. I hate websites. They are just wierd. They don't behave like normal code.
C#/VB.NET/ASP.NET/SQL7/2000/2005/2008
http://www.vuyiswamaseko.com
vuyiswa@its.co.za
http://www.itsabacus.co.za/itsabacus/
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Thanks for chatting to me today... Look forward to hearing from you guys again.
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You are welcome , We are also looking forward in meeting you.
Vuyiswa Maseko,
Spoted in Daniweb-- Sorry to rant. I hate websites. They are just wierd. They don't behave like normal code.
C#/VB.NET/ASP.NET/SQL7/2000/2005/2008
http://www.vuyiswamaseko.com
vuyiswa[at]dotnetfunda.com
http://www.Dotnetfunda.com
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| Vuyiswa's Preferance [modified]
Thursday, July 12, 2007 11:27 PM
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Thanks Guys, i have grown Skill wise, and i must say without CodeProject, i would have been nothing, Dave,Colin guys you are Stars.
thanks
-- modified at 7:32 Wednesday 14th November, 2007
Vuyiswa
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I want to make pos.(point of sale).please help.
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ok, i will help,
Do you want to Start Designing from Scratch, or you want an existing code that you can modify and create a Solution?
Vuyiswa Maseko,
Sorrow is Better than Laughter, it may Sadden your Face, but It sharpens your Understanding
VB.NET/SQL7/2000/2005
http://vuyiswamb.007ihost.com
http://Ecadre.007ihost.com
vuyiswam@tshwane.gov.za
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please mail lankaudaranga@yahoo.com
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ok
Vuyiswa Maseko,
Sorrow is Better than Laughter, it may Sadden your Face, but It sharpens your Understanding
VB.NET/SQL7/2000/2005
http://vuyiswamb.007ihost.com
http://Ecadre.007ihost.com
vuyiswam@tshwane.gov.za
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Nice thoughts Vuyiswa. I think the same. I am a 45 y.o. Programmer and I'd like to stay a Programmer until the end.
I mentor more junior developers, of course, but I need to be close to the code. I also need to keep updated else my possibilities of getting interesting projects diminish. However, I like C++ more than any other language. It's full power is barely utilized most of the time.
Thanks for your thoughts and stay well.
J Rivero
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Good Morning jrivero
Thanks for you input. Am 27 Years old and i dont have a decade being a programmer. You should be my Mentor what do you think ?
Vuyiswa Maseko,
Few companies that installed computers to reduce the employment of clerks have realized their expectations.... They now need more and more expensive clerks even though they call them "Developers" or "Programmers."
C#/VB.NET/ASP.NET/SQL7/2000/2005/2008
http://www.vuyiswamaseko.tiyaneProperties.co.za
vuyiswam@its.co.za
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@ Vuyisiwa.
As a Jnr. C# with 6 Months Experience under my Belt, I was touched by ur Letter:
"How to be an Expert in your Field by Vuyiswa Maseko"
If you have any free C#,ASP PDF books, Please mail me @ safnate@yahoo.com.
I am currently studying to Write my first Certificate: MCTS.
I am now sitting with the First Module: Exam 70-536. It's going great and im enjoying it.
My question is: is it advisible to write the Exam, without any Formal Training? Cause i haven't attened any so far. As Training is very Expensive compared to Examz.
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If you cant Educate your self through Formal training , you can take an Exam. I have seen people who only have Exam and never had a formal training writting code like Guru's. Formal and Non formal is not Important , the most important thing is how good and dedicated you are in this.
Yes i have e-books but i bought them ,downloading e-books for free on the internet its illegal, people who write e-book spent sleepless nights trying to make a living and if we make a copy you will be stealing out of his pocket.
My advise is to buy a Book, Write exams, Read articles, Practice a lot and Lastly ask God to give you wisdom to understand what you are doing.
Kind Regards
Vuyiswa Maseko
Vuyiswa Maseko,
Few companies that installed computers to reduce the employment of clerks have realized their expectations.... They now need more and more expensive clerks even though they call them "Developers" or "Programmers."
C#/VB.NET/ASP.NET/SQL7/2000/2005/2008
http://www.vuyiswamaseko.tiyaneProperties.co.za
vuyiswa@its.co.za
http://www.itsabacus.co.za/itsabacus/
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What you have said on that article "how to be an expert in your field" i srongly agree with it...how can i get hold of you..here's my email r.gkhamali@yahoo.com
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Thank you for your kind Reply
Vuyiswa Maseko,
Spoted in Daniweb-- Sorry to rant. I hate websites. They are just wierd. They don't behave like normal code.
C#/VB.NET/ASP.NET/SQL7/2000/2005/2008
http://www.vuyiswamaseko.com
vuyiswa[at]dotnetfunda.com
http://www.Dotnetfunda.com
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