Life in Balance: Amit Chaudhary’s Blog
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I am reading this excellent book called My Job Went to India And All I Got Was This Lousy Book 52 Ways to Save Your Job by Chad Fowler. More appropriate title of the book could have been “Staying relevant as a Software Developer” or “Tips for Programmers to get ahead in your career “. Here is the amazon.com link.
I ran into this book when checking the Pragmatic Programmer website, the free excerpts showed me ways to improve as a software developer, so I brought a pdf version of the book which was a first for me. I would suggest reading the book, if you are into software development.

I will write my comments on chapters worth note from this book. Some starting thoughts:

• I have not yet lost a job to India or other reasons, so far, but it helps to be aware it can happen.

• I believe I will add some insight as I have worked more on Product companies as compared to Chad who brings an IT background

• I have worked in linux, kernel, old fashioned C and some C++ as compared to Java and Web for Chad’s

• Have both worked in India and USA and as part of offshored work and product work and still know people who do.

• Finally have not transitioned to being a manager, so the perspectives are more narrow (in a good way )

I will add links below to posts as I write them. Though I will start with chapters I am reading right now.

For my opinion, I will color code the chapters as follows:

Green = Agree

Yellow = Neutral

Red = Disagree

Table of Contents:

Part I—Choosing YourMarket
1. Supply and Demand
2. Coding Don’t Cut It Anymore
3. Lead or Bleed?
4. Invest in Your Intelligence
5. Be a Generalist
6. Be a Specialist
7. Don’t Put All Your Eggs in Someone Else’s Basket
8. Be the Worst
9. Love It or Leave It
Part II—Investing in Your Product
10. Learn to Fish
11. Understand Business Basics
12. Find a Mentor
13. Be a Mentor
14. Practice, Practice, Practice
15. The Way That You Do It
16. On the Shoulders of Giants
17. Automate Yourself into a Job
Part III—Executing
18. Right Now
19. Mind Reader
20. Daily Hit
21. Remember Who You Work For
22. Be Where You’re At
23. How Good a Job Can I Do Today?
24. How Much Are You Worth?
25. A Pebble in a Bucket of Water

26. Learn to Love Maintenance

27. Eight-Hour Burn

28. Learn How to Fail

29. Say “No”

30. Say It, Do It, Show It
Part IV—Marketing…Not Just for Suits
31. Perceptions, Perschmeptions
32. Adventure Tour Guide
33. Me Rite Reel Nice
34. Being Present
35. Suit Speak
36. Change the World
37. Let Your Voice Be Heard
38. Build Your Brand
39. Release Your Code
40. Remarkability
41. Making the Hang
Part V—Maintaining Your Edge
42. Already Obsolete
43. You’ve Already Lost Your Job
44. Path with No Destination
45. Make Yourself a Map
46. Watch the Market
47. That Fat Man in the Mirror
48. The South Indian Monkey Trap
Part VI—If You Can’t Beat ’Em
49. Lead ’Em
50. Manage ’Em
51. Learn from Open-Source
52. Think Global