en-us http://www.keithwatanabe.net/index.php Keith Watanabe's Website http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/1/26/77bee09f5232daa8edb7ec8e1787b2ef.html Duels! I'm skilling up at work!

If there's one real positive thing I can say in the last four months of my new job, it's that my tech skills have massively improved. Here's a kind of laundry list of knowledge I've been able to gain:

• Ubuntu Desktop knowledge
• Installation and management of Subversion
• Working with NFS
• Working with proxies/mod_proxy
• Working with Apache 2.2
• Working with JQuery
• Working and building on top of the Zend Framework
• Installation and management of MediaWiki
• Working with IPTables
• Working with Redhat Enterprise Edition 4.0
• Working with Musashi
• Architecting a multi-tiered platform
• Improving my software designing skills

Back a few years ago, when I was a wee little IT guy, I had met a group of guys who were really senior back at Idealab/New.net. I realized at that time that I had a long way to go before I could compete in the industry. I needed to really improve all aspects of my knowledge in software, APIs, design, administration, etc. So I took it upon myself to fully expand my skills in those areas. Years later, I'm coming full circle. I can design, optimize and handle almost any web system given a well defined set of requirements. I can administer databases and Unix/Linux systems. I can even do a little bit of networking.

So what's next for me?

Skill-wise and software-wise, I'd like to get my hands on mod_cache. At least for work since it goes nicely with mod_proxy. Also, I'd like to get my hands dirty on LDAP (specifically the OpenLDAP implementation) since I would be able to centralize my user ids, passwords, groups, etc. From an API perspective, I'm trying to get into trackback, OpenID and some of the search APIs out there. Also, I'd love to work more with Google and Yahoo's APIs.

Career-wise, I feel that the natural next 2-3 moves will be software/system architect, lead developer and director/assistant director. Being a software/system architect and lead developer are somewhat I got a taste of at my last company. But I need more exposure to both, especially the lead developer type of position. I hope to be able to some day get some junior developers under my wing and train the next generation of software/web programmers. Getting experience in those two areas would lead towards larger organizational roles.

As this is my coming 9th year in IT, I definitely would like to get one or two junior level people under me as well as being able to handle more architectural situations. I'm already doing a lot of architecture at work, but I need to do it on a company-wise scale. Although we're small, I still see there being a massive need for various internal systems to improve the operational efficiency of the analyst side. It'll be great if they can give me that title by the end of the year or so.]]> Sat, 26 Jan 2008 22:28:27 -0700 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/1/26/77bee09f5232daa8edb7ec8e1787b2ef.html http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/2/14/25d93f22dd89c1f492a91b2b368268d3.html
That said, I also realized that I would not be able to receive a salary hike for another year. I cannot even negotiate at this point because of the fact that I had just started the job and would cause irrevocable damage to my career if I attempted to look for another job. In other words, I'm stuck.

The biggest problem for me is that I could not contribute enough to deserve a salary hike at this point. Certainly, my (lack of) Japanese skills deducted some points, but I think that the harsher reality is that I did not do something to earn the company money. I think the communication skills, while critical at work, would not truly boost my salary at this stage for what I do, considering that my focus is almost strictly technical and that the company faces a great deal of intergroup communication problems.

This situation has led me to a theory about finding jobs. I think that the best time to switch jobs, at least in Japan, is around April. By that time, you can grab the bonus and still have 8 or so months to produce something in your next company that might qualify you for a pay raise. My friend works at Lehman Brothers and he has about 2 additional months over me in experience, but did not get a salary hike. Of course, he got a bigger bonus and got his "raise" by switching to that job. Still not getting a raise is not getting a raise.

In general though, I think you need some time to deliver something so that you can give the company a good reason to give you a raise, promotion or decent bonus. Normally, I got my raises through switching jobs but I had to make an exception this time, due to the fact that I needed to exit my previous company. So make sure that you can get enough time to deliver something like a product or major adjustment to receive the bonus/raise, etc.]]> Thu, 14 Feb 2008 17:21:30 -0700 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/2/14/25d93f22dd89c1f492a91b2b368268d3.html