Of career goals and improving technical skills

By Staff, ZDNet Asia
Wednesday, July 02, 2008 03:04 PM
Looking for IT career advice? Post your question here, and we'll get our experts to answer. We regret, however, that some questions may not be answered due to insufficient information.

Q. I have worked on Perl, JavaScript and Java in one company where I did Web applications for a year.

After one year, I changed companies and my domain got changed. Now I am working on C language and Linux. I am working on GStreamer framework for developing multimedia applications for mobile, but I have not done any coding for the past one year.

In my current company, I am doing some bug fixing and optimization work on GStreamer plug-ins.

I am, therefore, neither thorough in Java nor in C.

Please suggest what I can do to improve my technical skills.

Career advice from K Srini, human resources head-strategy, of global consulting and IT services provider, Satyam Computer Services:
There are at least two basic elements to a successful career--one, you should enjoy it and two, you should have the aptitude for it.

I assume you definitely have the aptitude--but does the job or domain you are currently engaged in really excite you? Maybe this is a question you would like to ask yourself.

The reason I have put forth this line of thought, rather than typically list a set of courses is simple: you could very well quit this job and go back to the domain in which you have had prior experience.

However, you may have seen the future in mobile technology and seamless application development--and you are right. Therefore, an area of focus for you could be mobile computing, gaming or embedded systems development. Your experience in Gstreamer is something you can build upon.

Your focus would determine the skill set buckets you would like to sharpen or add to your portfolio--for example C, Linux, multimedia middleware, codecs or RTOS, C, Linux et cetera or Python.

Hence, a look at your career goals will filter the choices you make.

As for the opportunities, just ask your project manager to help you get into a project where there are opportunities for development than just bug fixing.


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