Introduction

Recently, I was asked "What are the core basics that someone who wants to move beyond 'beginner' needs?"

Well, that's an interesting question that I actually get asked quite a bit. You see, I have been "in the business" for 25 years. I started as a programmer on the old 16-bit PDP-11 computers (when 128KB of memory cost $10,000 and fit in a refrigerator box, and a 10mb disk was HUGE) back in the late '70s. I moved up to "operating systems guru" on the "new" 32-bit operating system called VMS. I was actually quite good, and could program assembly language faster than virtually everyone could code BASIC (someone dared me to prove this once so we took out a stopwatch and programmer a database application, and I finished it in a quarter the time as the expert BASIC programmer).

From there, I moved onwards to design and analysis as well as project management, then to higher management (working my way up to a Vice President). Now I am a director of a multi-billion dollar company (Director of computer operations and technical services).

Why tell you this? I've managed hundreds of people and have to deal with the question virtually every day (now I manage about a dozen). People (from my own department and others) ask me questions like: What should I do next? What training should I be doing? Should I be attending conferences? What books should I be reading? I always answer carefully, as this could mean the difference between employment and unemployment, or a good raise and a not so good raise. I want people to do well, so I try very hard to guide them properly...

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