Aaron Erickson - The Nomadic Developer: Surviving and Thriving in the World of Technology Consulting

Surviving and Thriving in the World of Technology Consulting

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Erickson, Aaron, 1972
The nomadic developer : surviving and thriving in the world of technology consulting / Aaron Erickson.
p. cm.

Includes index.
ISBN 978-0-321-60639-6 (pbk. : alk. paper)

1. Technology consultants. 2. Computer industryVocational guidance. 3. Computer scienceVocational guidance. I. Title.

QA76.25.E75 2009
609.2dc22

2009009837

Copyright 2009 Pearson Education, Inc.

All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. This publication is protected by copyright, and permission must be obtained from the publisher prior to any prohibited reproduction, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or likewise. For information regarding permissions, write to:

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ISBN-13: 978-0-321-60639-6
ISBN-10: 0-321-60639-6

Text printed in the United States on recycled paper at RR Donnelley in Crawfordsville, Indiana.
First printing May 2009

To Dad, who always told me (paraphrasing)
Go big or go home.

CHAPTER ONE
Why Consulting?

CHAPTER TWO
The Seven Deadly Firms

CHAPTER THREE
How Technology Consulting Firms Work

CHAPTER FOUR
Getting In: Ten Unstated Traits That Technology Consulting Firms Look For

CHAPTER FIVE
What You Need to Ask Before You Join a Technology Consulting Firm

CHAPTER SIX
Surviving

CHAPTER SEVEN
Thriving

CHAPTER EIGHT
Your Career Path

CHAPTER NINE
Avoiding Career-Limiting Moves

CHAPTER TEN
Is Consulting Right for You?

CHAPTER ELEVEN
An Anthology of Sage Advice

APPENDIX A
Consultopia: The Ideal Consulting Firm

APPENDIX B
A Consulting Lexicon

A ARON E RICKSON is a veteran technology consultant, writer, and technical evangelist with Magenic Technologies, based out of Chicago. He has spent the majority of his career catering to the individual needs of companies of all sizes. His strategic consulting focus has been centered around delivering high-value solutions that break new technological ground and bringing added value to both up-and-coming clients, as well as those who are already established.

For the past 16 years, Aaron has worked with leading-edge companies, providing prescriptive guidance to both the knowledge workersthose who actually produce the softwareas 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.

Aaron is frequently invited to speak at events such as TechEd, VSLive, and .NET user groups on topics ranging from the highly technical (F#, C#, LINQ, and Functional Programming), to more business-focused topics that open the floor to an exchange of ideas, best practices, and observations about the specialized world of technology consulting.

Aaron has been a Microsoft MVP since 2007. He has written for .NET Developers Journal and InformIT. He blogs at both nomadic-developer.com as well as for Magenic at blog.magenic.com/blogs/aarone. Readers can follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/AaronErickson.

Jason Bock is a principal consultant for Magenic (www.magenic.com), a Microsoft MVP (C#), and an INETA (www.ineta.org) speaker. He has worked on a number of business applications using a diverse set of substrates and languages, such as C#, .NET, and Java. He is the author of Applied .NET Attributes, CIL Programming: Under the Hood of .NET, .NET Security, and Visual Basic 6 Win32 API Tutorial. He has written numerous articles on software development issues and has presented at a number of conferences and user groups. He also runs the Twin Cities Code Camp (www.twincitiescodecamp.com) and the Twin Cities Languages User Group (www.twincitieslanguagesusergroup.com). Jason holds a masters degree in electrical engineering from Marquette University. Visit his Web site at www.jasonbock.net.

Michael Hugos, principal with Center for Systems Innovation [c4si], mentors companies in business and IT agility and supply chain management. Previously, he spent six years as Chief Information Officer of a multibillion dollar distribution organization where he built the suite of supply chain and business systems that transformed the companys business model from old-line distributor to value-added provider of products, information, and supply chain services.

He won the CIO 100 Award in 2003 and 2005 and the InformationWeek 500 Award in 2005, and in 2006, he was selected for the Computerworld Premier 100 Award for career achievement. Michael earned his MBA from Northwestern Universitys Kellogg School of Management. He writes a blog titled Doing Business in Real Time for CIO magazine, and he has authored several books, including Building the Real Time Enterprise and CIO Best Practices; his newest book is Business Agility: Sustainable Prosperity in a Relentlessly Competitive World.

Derik Whittaker is a software developer currently working with AllscriptsMisys Healthcare. Derik has nine years of experience developing, mentoring, and leading Microsoft-based products for a wide variety of different professional fields.

Derik is a C# MVP and is a member of the ASPInsiders group. He has been working exclusively with .NET since its inception and has professional experience in both VB.NET and C#. He is also a follower and believer in the Agile methodologies and has a wide array of experience using various Agile techniques in the real world. You can catch Derik online as a member of the blogging group Devlicio.us (http://devlicio.us/blogs/derik_ whittaker/) or at www.DimeCasts.Net.