Author: Aaron Erickson
Publisher: Addison-Wesley (www.informit.com/aw)
Published: May 2009
Companion Web site to book: www.nomadic-developer.com
Print ISBN 13: 978-0-321-60639-6
Print ISBN 10: 0-321-60639-6
Print format: Soft cover, 408 pages (free online edition with purchase of the book)
Price: $35.99
Surviving and Thriving in IT
The book, “The Nomadic Developer”, despite its reference to the term "developer" within its title, is still the sort of book that will appeal to a wide readership because it basically reveals how to succeed in the world of professional IT, regardless of your current position, and most importantly, the prevailing economic situations. Although the book's subtitle is "Surviving and Thriving in the World of Technology Consulting", even IT professionals, in permanent employment within the one company, can still further their careers by adopting a consultant's mindset. No job is secure these days, and it essential to know how to make yourself not only invaluable to the company or organization that you now work for, but also to maintain and upgrade your IT skills for any potential job opportunities that may arise in the future. Of course, if you are seriously contemplating a move into IT consulting, or you are already involved in that kind of work, or maybe you are just interested in exploring the possibilities of such a move, then “The Nomadic Developer” is akin to having your very own "career road map." It can definitely help you to progress your IT consulting career in the right direction whilst also avoiding major pitfalls along the way. As Rocky Lhotka writes in the book's foreword, "this is the type of book I wish I'd had in 1995. That was the year I left a comfortable, though frustrating, IT role and started work for a consulting company with no idea what I was getting into. Looking back on it, I made the right decision, but there were days when I really wondered what I'd done!"
The book's author, Aaron Erickson, is well-qualified to write such a book as “The Nomadic Developer.” The opening page of his book reveals that "for the past 16 years, Aaron has worked with leading-edge companies, providing prescriptive guidance to both the knowledge workers – those who actually produce the software – as well as the management side of the business, including CEOs, CTOs, and other executive staff. His experience has led him to do business with a variety of clients across financial services, supply chain, and insurance, vertical industries. His consulting mantra in recent years has been technology matters, but business results matter more."
“The Nomadic Developer” begins by exploring the question of why anyone would want to consider consulting as their preferred career path. Once you've read this opening chapter, it's highly likely that you will agree with Erickson's point of view that, with consulting, "the benefits are great – in terms of the expanded network with its job security, the opportunities to continuously develop not just your technology skills, but your people skills. Not to mention the higher salaries." The second chapter describes the "seven deadly firms" that you want to avoid at all costs. An example of one of these is what Erickson refers to as "FEAR Consulting", which he sums up as being a "firm founded on its ability to motivate software developers by fear. Micromanagement, abuse, and/or Machiavellian management techniques are the tools this firm uses to generate mundane and uninspired results for clients."
In the next chapter of “The Nomadic Developer”, Erickson puts forward an explanation of how technology consulting firms typically go about what they do. This chapter should be regarded as mandatory reading for any consultant because, as Erickson correctly points out, "understanding the whole picture of how a technology consulting firm works and where you fit into the picture is a key factor to being successful." The fourth chapter discusses the ten, and often "unstated" traits that technology consulting firms look for in the IT people they like to hire, while the fifth chapter poses the questions that you should ask before taking on employment with any technology consulting firm. Your goal should not only be to win the job when you go for interview but to also make sure that a company that is willing to employ you is also a company that you want to work for! Erickson reminds his readers that "interviews are not just for the employer."
The next chapter of the book looks at what is probably the most important aspect of consulting for the majority of people, namely, that of surviving. All up, Erickson provides ten survival strategies in this part of his book, with, for example, survival strategy #4 being: "Avoid being useful for only one kind of skill. The more different things you can do technically, the more likely you will find a spot on a project or with a client." The good news is that this particular chapter about surviving is the one that has been chosen to be the sample chapter that is available online for free on the Web site of the book's publisher, Addison-Wesley (www.informit.com/aw).
Once you can guarantee your survival with your chosen technology consulting firm, the next obvious challenge is to learn how to thrive as a consultant, and indeed, that is the very topic of the book's seventh chapter. Thriving in IT consultancy, or in any career for that matter, involves both tangible and intangible matters such as having a purpose; enjoying what you do; having fun; avoiding burnout; doing work that matters; constantly acquiring more knowledge; learning new practical skills; being positive; and making sure that your consulting is win/win/win for everyone involved – for yourself, for the consulting company that employs you; and for the clients whose projects you work on.
The next two chapters go hand in hand, and respectively map out a potential consulting career path, followed secondly, by information about the seven career-limiting moves that you must always be aware of if you don't want your consulting career to stall. The tenth chapter of “The Nomadic Developer” tackles the question, "Is consulting right for you?" Erickson suggests that there are "five main reasons you may want to consider not being a technology consultant, namely"
• "Lack of risk tolerance"
• "Incompatible personality"
• "Incompatible lifestyle and/or responsibilities"
• "Single product focus – desire to work on one product over a long period of time"
• "Desire to do it for the money"
The final chapter of the book is titled "An Anthology of Sage Advice", and it lives up to that title by consisting of insights from a collection of people that Erickson describes as sometimes having different perspectives from himself on "careers, technology, and consulting". He says that "the purpose of this chapter is to provide you with some advice from luminaries who have seen some level of success, as well as learned from their failures. The group of individuals in this chapter spans many disciplines, career stages, and technologies. Some are independent consultants, some work as salaried consultants, whereas others have since left consulting but still have valuable things to say about the profession."
The book ends with a couple of appendices. The first appendix describes the "ideal consulting firm", a firm that Erickson has labeled "Consultopia". You will have to read this part of the book yourself to see if such a company as "Consultopia" exists, or even has the potential to exist! The second appendix consists of a brief, but still handy, consulting lexicon, where, for example, you will find definitions of phrases such as a "Come to Jesus" meeting; "dumpster engagement"; and the "walking wounded."
Erickson has identified the potential audience for his book to be a diverse one, ranging from those just starting out in technology and who are looking at consulting as a possible career path, to those existing consultants who want to improve on what they're currently doing. He believes that even managers or owners of technology consulting companies can benefit from what he has to say. He also identifies those IT people who definitely should not read his book, and therefore should not go into consulting when he states that "if your goal is to find a secure place and do the same thing over the next 20 years, this is probably not the place for you."
In conclusion, it bears repeating – do not be put off reading this book simply because the words "developer" and "consulting" appear in its title and subtitle, and you therefore think its contents do not apply to you. The book's author, Aaron Erickson, acknowledges in the book's preface that he is "a software developer by trade, and some of the advice will seem suited toward that particular sector of the technology consulting business. That said, most of the advice can be translated easily to other areas of technology consulting, whether it is interaction design, infrastructure consulting, database consulting, product implementation, or the dozens of areas adjacent to software development consulting." In a similar fashion, whilst you may not, technically speaking, be currently employed within your company or organization as a consultant, if you were to act "as if" you are a consultant, then there is much to be learned from this particular book. And by doing so, you will become a much more valuable employee, and, in turn, be better equipped to finding another IT placement if you were to lose your present job to an economic downturn beyond your control.