A detailed guide to self-employment for software and web developers—from identifying your target market, through to managing your time, finances, and client behavior About This Book Discover how to make money with software development skills. Learn how to develop a marketing and sales strategy and develop profitable pricing strategies for your software services and products Gain insights through real case studies and insights provided from industry experts Who This Book Is For Going the self employed route in software development offers many opportunities to develop awareness and skills to enhance your career. Whether you are a student currently studying software development or a veteran software developer already in the industry, Going IT Alone provides you with insights you need to avoid the pitfalls of self employment and to succeed with software projects that are profitable and sustainable. What You Will Learn Identify and understand your target market. Propose the value of what your service or product offers. Build a business model that identifies key entities required to make your software business work. Develop marketing a marketing strategy that targets the right customer segments and produces the sales you need to be profitable. Analyze information to make better decisions and understand your business performance. Understand people through observation and use this to your advantage in project management and negotiation. Improve accuracy of estimates for time and costs of your software projects. Understand the relationship between code and the business strategy. Identify software features from a business perspective, allowing you to prioritise must have features from those that are less important to your profitability. Avoid the trap of increasing software development time and costs from features that provide no benefit or sales increase. In Detail No matter whether you are a student or an industry veteran, self employment adds a new dimension of opportunities to “learn and earn”, whether it be on a full-time or part-time basis. Develop the business acumen and understanding of the link between software patterns and business strategy that you need to become a successful and profitable independent software developer. Discover how to apply your software development skills to entrepreneurship. Decide whether you just want to earn or aspire to build the next Facebook. Supported by real world case studies and input from industry experts, the book looks at the business topics you need to understand to become an independent software developer. From the initial steps of identifying how you can make a profit with your software development skills, through to making your first sale and managing your projects, you will learn how to manage each of the major steps involved in becoming a self employed software developer – whether you decide to go freelance, take up contracting or develop your own product. Written specifically for software and web developers, the book identifies how business issues have a direct impact on code patterns used in software projects. Learn how to build your code to support your business model and with safety features to protect against potential threats that may emerge from the changing business environment. Style and approach This book is a detailed guide to self employment for software and web developers , covering major topics from identifying your target market and business model, through to managing your time, finances and client behavior.

"With its gentle affirmations, inspirational quotes, fill-in-the-blank lists and tasks — write yourself a thank-you letter, describe yourself at 80, for example — The Artist’s Way proposes an egalitarian view of creativity: Everyone’s got it."—The New York Times "Morning Pages have become a household name, a shorthand for unlocking your creative potential"—Vogue Over four million copies sold! Since its first publication, The Artist's Way phenomena has inspired the genius of Elizabeth Gilbert and millions of readers to embark on a creative journey and find a deeper connection to process and purpose. Julia Cameron's novel approach guides readers in uncovering problems areas and pressure points that may be restricting their creative flow and offers techniques to free up any areas where they might be stuck, opening up opportunities for self-growth and self-discovery. The program begins with Cameron’s most vital tools for creative recovery – The Morning Pages, a daily writing ritual of three pages of stream-of-conscious, and The Artist Date, a dedicated block of time to nurture your inner artist. From there, she shares hundreds of exercises, activities, and prompts to help readers thoroughly explore each chapter. She also offers guidance on starting a “Creative Cluster” of fellow artists who will support you in your creative endeavors. A revolutionary program for personal renewal, The Artist's Way will help get you back on track, rediscover your passions, and take the steps you need to change your life.

The ultimate guide to successful interviews for Enterprise, Business, Domain, Solution, and Technical Architect roles as well as IT Advisory Consultant and Software Designer roles About This Book Learn about Enterprise Architects IT strategy and NFR – this book provides you with methodologies, best practices, and frameworks to ace your interview A holistic view of key architectural skills and competencies with 500+ questions that cover 12 domains 100+ diagrams depicting scenarios, models, and methodologies designed to help you prepare for your interview Who This Book Is For This book is for aspiring enterprise, business, domain, solution, and technical architects. It is also ideal for IT advisory consultants and IT designers who wish to interview for such a role. Interviewers will be able leverage this book to make sure they hire candidates with the right competencies to meet the role requirements. What You Will Learn Learn about IT strategies, NFR, methodologies, best practices, and frameworks to ace your interview Get a holistic view of key concepts, design principles, and patterns related to evangelizing web and Java enterprise applications Discover interview preparation guidelines through case studies Use this as a reference guide for adopting best practices, standards, and design guidelines Get a better understanding with 60+ diagrams depicting various scenarios, models, and methodologies Benefit from coverage of all architecture domains including EA (Business, Data, Infrastructure, and Application), SA, integration, NFRs, security, and SOA, with extended coverage from IT strategies to the NFR domain In Detail An architect attends multiple interviews for jobs or projects during the course of his or her career. This book is an interview resource created for designers, consultants, technical, solution, domain, enterprise, and chief architects to help them perform well in interview discussions and launch a successful career. The book begins by providing descriptions of architecture skills and competencies that cover the 12 key domains, including 350+ questions relating to these domains. The goal of this book is to cover all the core architectural domains. From an architect's perspective, it is impossible to revise or learn about all these key areas without a good reference guide – this book is the solution. It shares experiences, learning, insights, and proven methodologies that will benefit practitioners, SMEs, and aspirants in the long run. This book will help you tackle the NFR domain, which is a key aspect pertaining to architecting applications. It typically takes years to understand the core concepts, fundamentals, patterns, and principles related to architecture and designs. This book is a goldmine for the typical questions asked during an interview and will help prepare you for success! Style and approach This book will help you prepare for interviews for architectural profiles by providing likely questions, explanations, and expected answers. It is an insight-rich guide that will help you develop strategic, tactical, and operational thinking for your interview.

Learn the techniques used by the most successful IT people in the world. About This Book Get real-life case studies for different IT roles, developers, testers, analysts, project managers, DBAs Identify with your IT scenarios and take the right decision to move up in your career Improve your EQ and face any difficult scenario confidently and effectively Who This Book Is For This book is for professionals across the IT domain who work as developers, administrators, architects, administrators system analysts, and so on, who want to create a better working environment around them by improving their own emotional intelligence. This book assumes that you are a beginner to emotional intelligence and will help you understand the basic concepts before helping you with real life scenarios. What You Will Learn Improve your observation skills to understand people better Know how to identify what motivates you and those around you Develop strategies for working more effectively with others Increase your capacity to influence people and improve your communication skills Understand how to successfully complete tasks through other people Discover how to control the emotional content of your decision-making In Detail This book will help you discover your emotional quotient (EQ) through practices and techniques that are used by the most successful IT people in the world. It will make you familiar with the core skills of Emotional Intelligence, such as understanding the role that emotions play in life, especially in the workplace. You will learn to identify the factors that make your behavior consistent, not just to other employees, but to yourself. This includes recognizing, harnessing, predicting, fostering, valuing, soothing, increasing, decreasing, managing, shifting, influencing or turning around emotions and integrating accurate emotional information into decision-making, reasoning, problem solving, etc., because, emotions run business in a way that spreadsheets and logic cannot. When a deadline lurks, you'll know the steps you need to take to keep calm and composed. You'll find out how to meet the deadline, and not get bogged down by stress. We'll explain these factors and techniques through real-life examples faced by IT employees and you'll learn using the choices that they made. This book will give you a detailed analysis of the events and behavioral pattern of the employees during that time. This will help you improve your own EQ to the extent that you don't just survive, but thrive in a competitive IT industry. Style and approach You will be taken through real-life events faced by IT employees in different scenarios. These real-world cases are analyzed along with the response of the employees, which will help you to develop your own emotion intelligence quotient and face any difficult scenario confidently and effectively.

For most software developers, coding is the fun part. The hard bits are dealing with clients, peers, and managers and staying productive, achieving financial security, keeping yourself in shape, and finding true love. This book is here to help. Soft Skills: The Software Developer's Life Manual is a guide to a well-rounded, satisfying life as a technology professional. In it, developer and life coach John Sonmez offers advice to developers on important subjects like career and productivity, personal finance and investing, and even fitness and relationships. Arranged as a collection of 71 short chapters, this fun listen invites you to dip in wherever you like. A "Taking Action" section at the end of each chapter tells you how to get quick results. Soft Skills will help make you a better programmer, a more valuable employee, and a happier, healthier person.

The original how-to guide for people who want to launch and run a successful freelance translation business, fully revised and updated! With over 10,000 copies in print, How to Succeed as a Freelance Translator has become a go-to reference for beginning and experienced translators alike. The fully revised third edition includes nearly 250 pages of practical tips on writing a translation-targeted resume and cover letter, preparing a marketing plan, marketing your services to agencies and direct client, avoiding common pitfalls, and more! New in this edition: an all-new technology chapter by translation technology expert Jost Zetzsche, and more detailed information on ways to market to direct clients.

Phil Factor is a legend in his own runtime. Scurrilous, absurd, confessional and scathing by turns, Confessions of an IT Manager targets the idiocy, incompetence and overreach of the IT management industry from vantage point all the way up and down the greasy pole. Phil Factor (real name witheld to protest the guilty) has over 20 years experience in the IT industry, specializing in database-intensive applications. For withering insight into the human weaknesses and farcical levels of ineptitude that bring IT projects to their knees, plus occasional escapes into burnished pastiche and cock-a-leg doggerel there is no funnier, more illuminating commentary on the IT crowd.

From the creator of the popular website Ask a Manager and New York’s work-advice columnist comes a witty, practical guide to 200 difficult professional conversations—featuring all-new advice! There’s a reason Alison Green has been called “the Dear Abby of the work world.” Ten years as a workplace-advice columnist have taught her that people avoid awkward conversations in the office because they simply don’t know what to say. Thankfully, Green does—and in this incredibly helpful book, she tackles the tough discussions you may need to have during your career. You’ll learn what to say when • coworkers push their work on you—then take credit for it • you accidentally trash-talk someone in an email then hit “reply all” • you’re being micromanaged—or not being managed at all • you catch a colleague in a lie • your boss seems unhappy with your work • your cubemate’s loud speakerphone is making you homicidal • you got drunk at the holiday party Praise for Ask a Manager “A must-read for anyone who works . . . [Alison Green’s] advice boils down to the idea that you should be professional (even when others are not) and that communicating in a straightforward manner with candor and kindness will get you far, no matter where you work.”—Booklist (starred review) “The author’s friendly, warm, no-nonsense writing is a pleasure to read, and her advice can be widely applied to relationships in all areas of readers’ lives. Ideal for anyone new to the job market or new to management, or anyone hoping to improve their work experience.”—Library Journal (starred review) “I am a huge fan of Alison Green’s Ask a Manager column. This book is even better. It teaches us how to deal with many of the most vexing big and little problems in our workplaces—and to do so with grace, confidence, and a sense of humor.”—Robert Sutton, Stanford professor and author of The No Asshole Rule and The Asshole Survival Guide “Ask a Manager is the ultimate playbook for navigating the traditional workforce in a diplomatic but firm way.”—Erin Lowry, author of Broke Millennial: Stop Scraping By and Get Your Financial Life Together

Hugo and Shirley Jackson award-winning Peter Watts stands on the cutting edge of hard SF with his acclaimed novel, Blindsight Two months since the stars fell... Two months of silence, while a world held its breath. Now some half-derelict space probe, sparking fitfully past Neptune's orbit, hears a whisper from the edge of the solar system: a faint signal sweeping the cosmos like a lighthouse beam. Whatever's out there isn't talking to us. It's talking to some distant star, perhaps. Or perhaps to something closer, something en route. So who do you send to force introductions with unknown and unknowable alien intellect that doesn't wish to be met? You send a linguist with multiple personalities, her brain surgically partitioned into separate, sentient processing cores. You send a biologist so radically interfaced with machinery that he sees x-rays and tastes ultrasound. You send a pacifist warrior in the faint hope she won't be needed. You send a monster to command them all, an extinct hominid predator once called vampire, recalled from the grave with the voodoo of recombinant genetics and the blood of sociopaths. And you send a synthesist—an informational topologist with half his mind gone—as an interface between here and there. Pray they can be trusted with the fate of a world. They may be more alien than the thing they've been sent to find. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

This is a book for people like us, and we all know who we are. We make our own hours, keep our own profits, chart our own way. We have things like gigs, contracts, clients, and assignments. All of us are working toward our dreams: doing our own work, on our own time, on our own terms. We have no real boss, no corporate nameplate, no cubicle of our very own. Unfortunately, we also have no 401(k)s and no one matching them, no benefits package, and no one collecting our taxes until April 15th. It’s time to take stock of where you are and where you want to be. Ask yourself: Who is planning for your retirement? Who covers your expenses when clients flake out and checks are late? Who is setting money aside for your taxes? Who is responsible for your health insurance? Take a good look in the mirror: You are. The Money Book for Freelancers, Part-Timers, and the Self-Employed describes a completely new, comprehensive system for earning, spending, saving, and surviving as an independent worker. From interviews with financial experts to anecdotes from real-life freelancers, plus handy charts and graphs to help you visualize key concepts, you’ll learn about topics including: • Managing Cash Flow When the Cash Isn’t Flowing Your Way • Getting Real About What You’re Really Earning • Tools for Getting Out of Debt and Into Financial Security • Saving Consistently When You Earn Irregularly • What To Do When a Client’s Check Doesn’t Come In • Health Savings Accounts and How To Use Them • Planning for Retirement, Taxes and Dreams—All On Your Own