It’s been so long, again!

It’s quiet crazy how time goes so fast! I haven’t had any time to make posts here, but I hope to write some more in the near future, and if not here at least on Travelfusion’s blog (I’ll post the link here when we go live). I’ve been working for Travelfusion since July and it’s been a great experience! If you want to find cheap flights you should check our website. I am currently the lead developer for the site and we have a planned a major redesign, so there are so many cool things to implement using GWT. Drop by anytime and give us some feedback.

I am loving London, so much to do, never bored – well almost never – and visiting friends and family once a month just makes up for the occasionally lonely days.

Here are some pictures of a team building event. I can’t say for sure that shooting each other is team building but it was a lot of fun.

TomTom Young Talent Development Program

I was selected for the TomTom Young Development Program later last year.

We had our first module in the RSM Rotterdam and it was great to meet with “TomTomers” from all other departments and offices from around the world. The TomTom YTD Program is made of carefully developed modules, courses and coaching and interaction with peers in a dynamic, multi disciplinary and international environment. Themes include coaching, personal effectiveness, leadership development and communication.

“It is not enough to have a good mind; the main thing is to use it well” – Rene Descartes

Certified Scrum Master

Officially Java

Just to keep in the record (for myself ), I officially moved from the C++ team to the Java team! The last two weeks have been great. I’ve had the opportunity to attend really great sessions given by Alef Arendsen from Interface21:

• Introduction to Java EE
• Introduction to Spring
• Spring Core

Although the training was mostly about Spring, Alef also talked about Unit Testing, EasyMock and Eclipse shortcut keys (very usefull)!

One step ahead

I once read that setting objectives was one of the most important and first steps someone should make in order to achieve something in life. I am glad I took the time to think what I ambitioned professionally and I am so pleased that I am starting to see the results of my perseverance. After a few months of looking for an opportunity as a Java Software Developer, I was offered the chance within the company where I currently work. This is a very important and decisive milestone in my career. I am looking forward to this new role, where I will have the chance to learn, contribute and hopefully have a lot of fun!

Can you forget what I just said?

Sometimes I have a déjà-vu of those times when I had to answer a last question on an exam and I only had five minutes to do it. I had to spit up an answer and I just couldn’t get it out, thus, I would write the first thing that would come to mind.

It only gets worse when I had to answer a question face to the professor! Well it depends on the question of course, but sometimes even when I happen to knew the answer I would find a way to mix it all up. And then, I would come up with the most brainless though.

Now that I am through with those times, I still find a way to resemble them occasionally. So how would you deal with it? Make a post on your blog about it? Maybe yes, if it makes you remember that you can’t know everything and that you can do better next time. If it makes you remember of how you overcome that fall short, by going home and grabbing some books or Google in search of an answer. In the end, you only win, by learning more every time again. And if you felt disappointment with yourself, you will feel contentment after learning the answer.

 

Another Orange Duke Pal

I am now, an official NL-JUG member. See you at the reunions friends!

Benefits of the Nederlandse Java User Group:

Free access to NL-JUG events
Free access to NL-JUG University sessions
Free quarterly Java Magazine
Once per quarter an eZine with blueprints, white papers

Drawing the path

If you’re a J2EE beginner like me, you probably find yourself many times wondering what should you start learning and what should you learn next. There is so much information on the web that it becomes difficult to know where to start. When I first found myself determined to learn J2EE I started by learning Servlets. I got myself the book “Java Servlet Programming” and started programming my own Servlets. It all went pretty straightforward. The book is very clear and in short time I could develop a Servlet that connected to a remote database using the JDBC API and performed a SQL query. If you want to learn Servlets I truly recommend this book. The end of the book gives a brief introduction to JSPs which you should certainly learn if you’re interested in developing the web tier and if you want to be a J2EE professional.

So what should be the path to follow if you’re a beginner? Today I found a very interesting discussion about “Learning Roadmap for a J2EE Beginner”. I could identify myself with many of the questions being asked by that student. One of the most important was: “Do I actually need to learn EJBs? Or should I just forget about it and go after a lightweight framework like Spring?” Many people say EJBs are a waste of time. That might be true but how are you going to understand why EJBs are such a pain in the ass? Personally I will not spend much time with EJBs but I pretend to understand why there are so many developers that don’t like this technology. In any case, I found really interesting advices in the discussion I just mentioned, and I more or less draw the path I am going to take in the near future. I wish I had more time to assimilate all this input! (aka “How do Java people find time to learn this stuff?”)

Getting out there

Today I added my blog to java.blogs. I decided to get myself known, since sitting still won’t get me any further.

Getting out there is certainly a good idea but it’s not enough at all. I believe that knowing the right people is fundamental. Coming across the real java professionals and learning from their examples will get me one step further. During the few months of my Java Quest (as I usually call it ), I have met some experienced people from whom I learned a lot. I truly believe that when I get the opportunity to be surrounded by such people professionally, I will learn by the minute.

The Attitude

Since this is my first post I will start by introducing myself. I am a Software Developer, Java fan, and enthusiastic about new technologies. I started my path into the professional world last year, after finishing my Computer Science Engineering degree. I am working in the center of Amsterdam (I hope I make some of you jealous ) as a C++ Developer but I am looking for a immediate change to Java. It’s true, I am looking for my opportunity in the Java world, and yes I want to be part of the community! I got myself a NL-JUG subscription today and this blog. Hopefully it’s a good start! I hope you agree with me: the attitude really matters. In Google I found a definition for newbie: “A novice player who has yet to learn much about the game”. I think it’s a good definition but I also think that the combination of attitude, motivation and eager to learn are somehow a powerful match to a perfect jump start!