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* Welcome Matthew Moran

 
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This week, we're delighted to have Matthew Moran helping to answer questions about the new book Building Your I.T. Career: A Complete Toolkit for a Dynamic Career in Any Economy.

The promotion starts Tuesday, March 26th 2013 and will end on Friday, March 29th 2013.

We'll be selecting four random posters in this forum to win a free copy of the book provided by the publisher, Pearson.

Please see the Book Promotion page to ensure your best chances at winning!

Posts in this welcome thread are not eligible for the drawing, and should be reserved for welcoming the author. Questions posted in this topic are subject to removal.

 
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Welcome Matthew!
 
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Welcome Mathew wanna to have a look on the book. Hope it will help freshers like me to build a successful career in this industry..
 
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Welcome to the Ranch Matthew Morran,


… and Joydip Ghosh
 
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Hello all,

I'm happy to take part in this discussions and will offer what advice I can. Beyond being an author, I am an active I.T. consultant, providing solutions across a number of disciplines. Right now, I am building a web-based time tracking applicationan for a construction company. It uses asp.net, sql server, jquery/javascript, and HTML w/CSS. It also interfaces with their Quickboooks accounting to ensure customer jobs, employees, activities, timesheets, and payroll can be automated.

Other clients/projects I work with right now include: General technology and social media help for a few entrepreneurs and small organizations, I serve as a Virtual-CIO for a small business in Arizona, and another SQL Server database project.

I mention this so you can a feel that I am not an career theorist. My goal this next year is to write at least 1 other book, do some public speaking, and continue to develop the music side of what I do.

I enjoy what I do and am generally an unrelenting optimist.

As any questions about me, careers, broader objectives, and even training your dog if you would like. :-D
 
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I am also very new to this industry/field. I am of the ripe age of 23, a fresh college graduate a new employee in the corporate world as a Systems Analyst (primarily java development). I would love to here about what road blocks you've encountered or advice you could give to someone like me.
 
Matthew Moran
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Hey Michael (and all),

Some general ideas...

Don't be a hammer/nail contractor/technologist
What I mean by this, is that a contractor does not call himself a hammer and nail contractor. He is a contractor and those are his tools. I like that you refer to yourself as a "System's Analyst" who is mostly doing Java. A lot of developers who did older languages found both mentally and professionally passed by. In his head he was a "Cobol Programmer". And that is how he was seen. (he- generic). That is like saying I am a hammer and nail contractor. "You mean, you cannot help us if a drill is needed." - Technology is not about the tool but about the solutions you build with it.

No job makes a career. No job breaks a career.
Don't freak out if you take a job that is not ideal. Learn what you can, add value where you can, and find a new one. Moving jobs 2-3 times rapidly is not really a problem. Especially early. Find the right place. And early on, the right place might not be based on pay...although that is a factor. It might be based on opportunity to learn and exposure to various technologies.

It's always about your employer
Be obsessive about adding value. If you feel under-appreciated, that's maybe a drag but in in the end, don't let that alter your pursuit of adding value. You can always find a new arrangement but you adjusting the value you provide based on what they pay you is bad practice. You'll never go to sleep at night after adding value to an organization and think, "I did the wrong thing."

Good luck!
 
Michael Getz
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Thanks for that bit of advice. I notice myself making the claim to hammer and nail more often than not. I need to work on that. Most of that stems from how specific my course work in college was to Java and that my first career involves it heavily. I do work on the side to broaden my horizon but other less familiar technologies do have a tendency to scare me.
 
Henry Wong
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Colin Annetti,
Your post was moved to a new topic.
 
Henry Wong
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Michael Getz wrote:Thanks for that bit of advice. I notice myself making the claim to hammer and nail more often than not. I need to work on that. Most of that stems from how specific my course work in college was to Java and that my first career involves it heavily. I do work on the side to broaden my horizon but other less familiar technologies do have a tendency to scare me.



Unfortunately, there is no way to split this -- as the question has been answered. And it was followed by another question, which I did split off. Keep in mind that posts in this welcome topic do not qualify for an entry in the drawing. Sorry.

Henry
 
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Hello Mr. Matthews Morran , many congratulations to you on the launch of your new book

I wish you all the best in everything you do
 
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Hello Matthew Morran. Welcome to Code Ranch.
It is an interesting book thank you very much
 
Matthew Moran
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Thank you everyone for the kind welcome.. Inspired by the conversations here and an instructor at International Academy of Design and Technology who is using my book and has asked me to do a live Q&A Skype stream into her class, I modified this week's podcast to discuss "Breaking Into I.T.". Rather than post a conversation about working with a headhunter/recruiter.. That will happen next week.
http://www.itcareertoolkit.com/podcast-episode-4-breaking-into-i-t/

I do specific mention the forums here and typing my fingers off this morning..
 
Matthew Moran
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I just noticed.. my name is misspelled in the topic title.. one "r" - Moran.

No worries though.. It's better than the oft-used and at times appropriate, Moron.. or the magical appearance of the "g" turning me into "Morgan".

Thanks for inviting me and all the great questions. Looking forward to more.
 
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Hello Matthew,

I'm delighted that you took a step to help the people who wish to crave their future in the IT industry. I hope your new book helps us to move forward in our career. Thank you.
 
Don't get me started about those stupid light bulbs.
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