Thrive for Developers is online

A little while back I wrote about a site called Thrive for IT Pros. We have launched a similar site for developers called Thrive for Developers. Microsoft has always been good about giving the information and tools developers need to build great software. Thrive is a way for  us to go beyond that. To help you learn the tools you need for your career, how to be a better developer, and do more with what you have already.

I was really excited to be asked to be a part of this launch. Many of you have seen the Soft Skillz talk that I have done over the past year. They have also brought together a lot of content from the community, as well as tools to help you find that next job.

That Soft Skillz talk originated out of a farewell talk I did as I left my team at Quick Solutions. It focused on retelling the lessons we had learned over my time there, so I could pass on some of our culture and tribal knowledge to the next generation of the team.

The talk evolved, and became very popular. When I heard about the new Thrive site, I pitched it to the team, to see if it could be part of the content. I was going to turn the talk into a screencast anyway, so why not have a place to host it? They accepted, and I started breaking the show down into 7 minute chunks. Way faster than an 8 minute show, and of course 6 minutes would too short, you wouldn’t even be able to get your heart rate going..

The first four episodes are up:

Driving Your Career - Soft Skills to Move You Forward

Sit shotgun with Brian Prince in “Driving Your Career” – a 32-week screencast series that explores the new skills developers need to thrive. Brian will tackle relevant topics including quick learning techniques, how to manage your career, how to build consensus, and the always-tricky task of talking to humans. Brian will share his expertise of being a manager, a consultant, and many other roles over his career, to help you succeed in yours.

  • Week 1 - It’s always darkest before the dawn  |  WMV MP3
  • Week 2 - How I learned that humans don’t care about technology  |   WMV MP3
  • Week 3 - Always have a mentor  |  WMV MP3
  • Week 4 - Body language doesn’t use CSS  |  WMV MP3

So please check them out, and even more importantly, forward the link to anyone you know that is struggling in their career, or in finding a job.

Comments

Anonymous said…
It looks like the links to the last few episodes are incorrect. I keep checking back and I hope I can listen to the last couple weeks. It looks like there are some really intresting sessions that I can't get to yet. Thanks for your help. Here is the link that I have been using: http://www.msdnevents.com/thrivedev/DriveCareer/
2/01/2010 04:34:00 PM
Brian H. Prince said…
We are looking into the problem, and hope to have it fixed in the next day. Thanks for watching the show.

Also, I have moved my blog to www.brianhprince.com.
2/02/2010 01:19:00 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Farewell

I don't often explicitly state that I work for Quick Solutions when I post to my blog. Others that work with me talk about QSI all the time. I do this because I want the articles to be what 'I' have to say about technology, not what QSI has to say. I started working for QSI in June of 2003. I was about to start my own consulting company, and they asked me to come in to help them start their solutions business (having built a high quality technical staffing business). I thought, why not? Getting to build what I want to build on someone else's dime definitely reduces my personal risk, and if it didn't work out, I could just pick back up the 'start my own company' thing. Nearly five years have passed, and we have built a great team. A team that is considered one of the leading development shops in our region. Each, and EVERY person on this team would be considered a rock star at any company. We have a great culture for the team, and a deep seated ownership...
Read more

How does an Architect pack?

Today we are packing for the big move. Quick Solutions is moving to some new swanky office space, with an awesome new delivery center. The new center has wall to wall whiteboards, network projectors for group programming (pair programming is so 20th century), a game room, new open seating (shared workspace is the key to productivity), and lots of other new goodies. It is an amazing investment by the company, and shows their commitment to building the best team on the block. As we are packing, we started joking around (not that joking around is rare, and would have occurred regardless of the packing state). How does and architect pack? An architect doesn't pack anymore. He did that ten years ago. He goes to plenty of packing conferences, and has read a lot of books on packing. An architect will map out how the whole enterprise should pack, and even dictate what (clearly out of date) packing supplies and processes should be used. These processes will be the perfect match for some ...
Read more

Job security is a myth, and how IT Pros are Thriving

No matter how you slice it, the economy is definitely in a state of concern. Some call it a recession, some a depression, others it is a crash. Since all of those words are overloaded, I will choose to use the word Grapefruit to represent the current situation. How concerned you are with grapefruit depends on who you are, and your personal situation. It is these times of grapefruit when there is the most opportunity. Crazy, I know. But now is the time to start that crazy idea, to outmaneuver an opponent, or get desperate enough to take risks you normally wouldn’t take (personally, or as a company) during up times. All boats float in the high tide. Only great captains can navigate the low tide. There is no such thing as job security. Surprise. There just isn’t, it is a complete myth. ‘Job Security’ might have made sense two generations ago, but it just doesn’t work now. You make your own security, during good times, and during grapefruits. Through keeping your skills sharp, thro...
Read more