ISerializable - Roy Osherove's Blog

I don't know about that. My wife moved from Iran to America because America offered her greater opportunities than Iran did. I notice that Silicon Valley keeps getting more and more crowded. Why? Because of the career opportunities offered there. Same up here in Redmond.

Going to the PDC is the same kind of thing. By not being there, you've decided to turn down some economic activity. How much, I'm not sure. I spoke at a user group six years ago and got a new job there and a $10,000 a year raise. Had I decided not to go, I would have turned down $60,000 (and growing).

But, I can't guarantee the same thing will happen to you. We'll never know.

One can't always rely on this for their survival. There's no way I'd have 4k to put in this thing. Life is just not that easy. Now tell me, would you go to a conference in Iran, spending all your savings, blowing off your job responsibilities, just for the chance that somehow someone will hook you up? I'd say that unless I'd know theres a definite possiblity that something like will happen, I'd be reluctant. Plenty of oppertunities closer to home (although much less, which is part of the "suckiness" of it all)

I'm one who ranted - both at (1) those who have (and still IMHO) overhyped the "need" to attend the PDC in order to get a sneak peek and decidedly alpha bits of products that won't be available for true solution providing for 1-2 more years at best, and (2) those who speak of "responsibility" of directing their own careers like this is some sort of divine revelation that puts them in some advantageious position.

Each of these points of view are simply untrue.

To the former I say decide for yourself if the PDC is cost effective, both in money AND time. Decide if getting the beta releases that will most likely be offered through MSDN Universal is a better route. Decide if using alternative resource venues (including the overwhelming amount of blogging from the PDC) can give you the edge you need. Decide if formal training using handson of pre-release software cuts it.

To the latter I say... well, if you already asked the above questions in a honest and objective manner, you've already accomplished everything that Eric Sink wrote so eloquently. And if you have, then nothing he wrote should strike you as revelatory.

If you haven't asked these questions, then take his words to heart, and add one more question too: do you honestly believe YOUR worth to YOUR clients (remember, as an employee of some company you are really offering your services to your employer)... do you really believe you are worth much at all if you haven't been taking responsibility all along? You aren't! Remember, rule #1 for anyone in their job is to know what value you provide to your client/customer/employer. If you don't understand where the value lies and do whatever you MUST to keep providing that value you WILL eventually LOSE that value to someone who comes by and yields much better value.

In my case, I spend maybe 10% of my year learning new things. This is enough to stay ahead of the curve on what I need to use. I spend about 60% of my year developing brand new solutions that are needed to address needs today. About 30% of my time is spent working on enhancements and maintenance of existing solutions. When I add in that we still haven't eliminated all Win2k clients nor MSSQL7 servers, I objectively assess that (1) Whidbey is something to consider but I won't be able to gain from it's unique benefits for 12 months, (2) Yukon is not going to be in use until Q4 2005 or Q1 2006 for us and (3) Longhorn is definitely not going to be on clients until sometime in 2007. For me, the time and money is simply not worth it. Both are better spent in other ways today. And both will be spent on these unreleased products in the next few years - just not now.

The PDC is a great thing for some. It is completely worthless for me. I have no fear - sorry Robert - of "losing my job to someone in India". (Yeah, that comment still rubs me the wrong way. You made it directly to me Robert. You made it such an absolute too. No only did you assume to know my career needs by saying this, you also assumed I didn't do the thorough assessment I spoke of above. How dare you? PS: I mean this with all due respect. I just ask that you pay me the same respect.)

Clearly, Roy, the PDC is not the thing. Doing any of the things that improve your L, Learning, is the issue.

How many developers do you know who do nothing to continue learning and growing as developers? I can tell you that at one client site, there were perhaps half a dozen developers who did not read *a single development related book* in the last year.

PDC may not be essential for you in your situation, however, I am sure there are other things you can do to add value to what you offer in the employment/consulting marketplace, and I expect you do. However, there are lots of folks who do not. And many of these same folks will be very upset when they find themselves mostly unemployable because what they learned a decade or so in school has very little revelance to the work that needs to be done.

Many readers of my piece saw more PDC hype than I intended to convey.

I agree with Roy. Attending PDC is just one example of grabbing the reins of your own career. There are lots other examples, many of which don't cost so darn much. Nobody should feel like a slug just because they skip PDC.

The point was not about PDC. The point was that we need to grab opportunities to learn new stuff, all kinds of stuff. If we don't, we've got nobody to blame but ourselves.

BTW, Roy, thanks for the link, but let's try to move a little quicker next time, okay? You were the last blogger on earth who had not linked my article, and I was just getting ready to send the blog police after you. :-)

Eric, I'll comment here only because you did. I didn't take your piece as PDC related at all. The only connection to it was that the PDC initiated some talk about how one handles their career throughout their life. Like you and your piece, I agree that one should always be proactive. Proactive also includes saying "no" or having no interest in something too, just in a conscious thought-out way. Your piece was only conveying like thoughts in a well-written way (like alot of what you have to say).

The "about commitment guy" could have been me 2 years back. Only then saving all the goodies on a 100 mb zip disk ;)

Roy do yourself a favor, buy (or lend) the book I recently blogged about.

ps: Great post, was feeling the same about the PDC horror (for those that aren't going).