DDJ: What's your job at Atos Origin?
AS: Most of the time I am involved in different projects for different customers. That brings me throughout the country. My official title is ICT Architect/developer, meaning 20 percent architecture and 80 percent development.
AS: It's tempting to first answer that all that variety of technical things and products are the big bonus (and they are). However, I also much appreciate to work for different kinds of companies. The latter helps me to keep a fresh look at people and people's behavior.
AS: Keeping up with the technological changes is challenging indeed. There's so much to know. I had to learn to make choices and not try to do everything. I also had to learn that I don't need to know everything beforehand. Just-In-Time Learning does well for me.
AS: Communication with peers! We all benefit from that. In the preInternet days, I had a small group of colleagues to discuss and exchange ideas with. Now we have such a vast amount of online possibilities.
AS: As almost everyone working in the ICT realm, I spend some time studying and playing with the Newest This and the Greatest That. Besides that I do some voluntary work for the regional museum as well as some digital photography.
DDJ: Where do you work?
RC: I am employed at Collin W. Fritz & Associates, Ltd., a small Pension Consulting Firm that specializes in services that help financial institutions throughout the US manage their pension accounts.
DDJ: What's your job there?
RC: Since we are a small shop, I perform all functions from the CIO down to programmer and sometimes even technician. There is not a function in this organization that I have not performed at some time or other.
RC: I am pretty much my own boss. I am extremely picky on how things work. There is no time to redo things, so getting it right the first time is important. One of the aspects of my situation is that the more it takes to get a product to work just right, the better the feeling is when it is complete and it is productive.
RC: Besides the everyday needs of keeping the systems purring the most challenging part is attempting to stay somewhat current in what tools are available, how things are done. I depend a lot on information gathered from the Internet. Teaching oneself a new language is interesting. Any bad habits that may have developed in other areas carry over and no one is there to inform you.
RC: Without hesitation it is the vast knowledge that is available on the Internet, such as Dr. Dobb's articles. In my case personal interaction with other developers is limited so having the Internet available is very helpful.
RC: Getting away from computers is tough. I enjoy immersing myself in Astronomy Astro-Physics. I also love airplanes, and my Corvette.
VI: I work for a software company named Oy IT Mill Ltd. We are specialized in secure RIA software, developing a Java Framework for developing secure RIA. We try to be the aspirin for RIA developers.
VI: My history is quite geekyMSc degree in Software Engineering and multiple years of software engineer and software architect work in various J2EE projects. Now I work as a Technical Sales Manager, trying to make our solution for secure RIA more familiar to all enterprise developers out there.
VI: It's highly motivating to be involved in something that is on the sharp edge of today's web technologies. When you combine this with collaborating with software experts around the world, you could say that I'm a happy man right now.
VI: The technology field is moving unbelievably fast. The biggest challenge is to keep up with tomorrow's big things.
VI: Colleagues, definitely. Talented colleagues can make your dayevery day. I'm blessed to work with people who can contribute to our community and intellectual capital. Another thing is a great working atmosphere. We play Guitar Hero on our coffee breaks.
VI: This kind of job tends to fill some spare time from time to time, but you really should remember that you go to work so that you could finance your spare time. When I'm doing my own stuff, I try to learn some golf. If you like challenges, try golf.