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Making It Big
in Software
Get the Job. Work the Org.
Become Great.
Sam Lightstone
Upper Saddle River, NJ • Boston • Indianapolis • San Francisco
New York • Toronto • Montreal • London • Munich • Paris • Madrid
Cape Town • Sydney • Tokyo • Singapore • Mexico City
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Lightstone, Sam.
Making it big in software : get the job—work the org.—
become great / Sam Lightstone.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 978-0-13-705967-6
1. Computer programming—Vocational guidance. 2.
Computer software industry—Vocational guidance. 3.
Computer software developers—Interviews. I. Title.
QA76.25.L54 2010
005.1023—dc22
2010000235
Copyright ©2010 Sam Lightstone. Copyright claimed in entire
work exclusive of the reproduction of US Patent No. 6,161,223
All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America.
This publication is protected by copyright, and permission
must be obtained from the publisher prior to any prohibited
reproduction, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission in
any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording, or likewise. For information
regarding permissions, write to:
Pearson Education, Inc
Rights and Contracts Department
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Boston, MA 02116
Fax (617) 671 3447
ISBN-13: 978-0-137-05967-6
ISBN-10: 0-137-05967-1
Text printed in the United States on recycled paper at
R.R. Donnelley & Sons, Crawfordsville, Indiana
First printing March 2010
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To my wife and children, Elisheva, Hodaya, and Avishai.
Thanks for making our home a place of perpetual fun and love.
To my high school English teacher, Mr. David Aldwinckle.
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Contents
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiv
About the Author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvi
Part I Fundamentals
Chapter 1 Making It Big . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
What Do “Big Shots” in Software Do? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Follow Your Bliss . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Why Bother? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
It’s Not as Hard as You Think . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Chapter 2 What Good Software Is Really About . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Software Projects Gone Bad and Other War Stories . . . 11
The Marketplace Is the Driving Force Behind
Everything We Do . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Two Kinds of Customers: Ones You Have
and Ones You Want . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Winning Strategies and Tactics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
When (Not) to Listen to Your Customers . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Interview Marissa Mayer: Google VP and
First Lady of Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Chapter 3 School Versus Job . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Limited Field of Vision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
School Is a Fishbowl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Industry Is a Fishbowl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Leveraging the Differences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Interview Jon Bentley: Author, Programming Pearls . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Chapter 4 Mission Impossible? Getting a Job in Software
Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Choosing Wisely . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
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CONTENTS V
Resumé Realities for New Graduates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Killer Resumés for Software Development . . . . . . . . . . 47
Beyond the Resumé—Way Beyond . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
The Value (or Not) of Grades . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
The Value of Extracurricular Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Why Student Positions Dramatically Improve
Your Odds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Fifteen Points to a Great Interview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Interview Bjarne Stroustrup: Inventor of the
C++ Programming Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Chapter 5 Making the Most of the Early Years As
a Software Developer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Tradecraft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
The Business of Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Build Domain Expertise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
What’s Old Is New . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Watch the Leaders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Start Building Your Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Who Do You Want to Be? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Everyone Needs a Mentor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Fun Breeds Success . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Interview Richard Stallman: Founder of the Free Software
Movement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Chapter 6 Essential Skills. Some Are Even Technical . . . . . . . . . . 84
Hard and Soft Skills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Technical Skills for Career Growth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Programming Languages: What’s Hot
and What’s Not . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Debugging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Surviving Spec, Design, and Code Reviews . . . . . . . . . 91
The Growth Skill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Soft Skills at the Top of Most Organizations . . . . . . . . 95
The Ultimate Soft Skill: Emotional Intelligence . . . . . . 95
Interview Ray Tomlinson: Inventor of Email . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
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