Recently, I got to participate in a career planning exercise with my employer, Crown Partners. In one section, I had to write about my professional interests, and I thought that would make good blog material. Enjoy!

Professional Interests:

• I love making computers do what I want them to do. That’s why I got into development in the first place; it is extremely satisfying to see my work actually being used in production.
• I love writing. Granted, I haven’t done much of it; my experience is mainly limited to writing a few marketing pieces for my previous company, and my personal blog. Oh, and I just started doing a weekly personal finance column in my hometown newspaper. They haven’t been published yet. I currently have three columns written; when I get the fourth completed, the editor will start publishing them. I need to have the fourth done by the end of next week, but I hope to have it done sooner. I’ve often wondered if Crown would benefit from a corporate blog. I have some ideas for putting one together, if management so desires.
• I understand C# very well, but I feel like a fish out of water with Documentum. I don’t doubt this is because I am completely new to DCTM, and it will get better as I gain experience. I’ve already learned more this week at [client] than I have in my first four months of “training” with Crown.
• I love working on new things. If there was a completely new application needing to be developed, instead of maintenance on existing systems, I’d be all over it. (In this same vein, I recently moved to a small town to help start a church.) Trying to learn someone else’s code, and figure out why they did things the way they did, is difficult and fatiguing work.
• I like being involved in planning meetings. The kind of meetings where input is eagerly sought and incorporated into the strategic plan. This can include developing procedures, methodologies, systems, and best practices. (As the treasurer of our new church, I am one of a half-dozen people constantly involved in steering our group.) Again, when I come in after all the planning is over, I’m left to discover what was decided and why, and how to work with the plans that have been made. It can be difficult and fatiguing work.