1. Software as Career
2. What do You Want From Your Career?
3. Combining Software With Other Fields
4. Does Education Matter?
5. Personal Networking
6. How to Become an Expert Developer
7. How to Become an Expert Quickly
8. Will Open Source Development Help Your Career?
9. How to Become a Freelance Java Developer
10. Don't Be a Herdie
11. Learning is Hard But Don't Give Up
12. Veteran, Senior and Junior Developers

This trail of my tutorials is about software as a career. The reason I decided to write about this topic is that I have been getting a fair amount of questions from my news letter subscribers within this topic.

Furthermore, there is not that much information available on the topic elsewhere (or maybe I have just not been looking thoroughly enough). A lot less than on specific technical details, or about development processes. Yet it strikes me, that career advice or inspiration is often of equal or greater interest to many developers. After all, who does not want to know how to get that architect job, or publish that book they've been planning to write for years?

I am a Freelancer

Personally I am freelance Java developer working contract jobs for banks, governmental projects, logistics systems, mobile billing etc. In short, "enterprise software development". I have a bachelors degree in computer science from RUC, and a master of science in IT from ITU. I am planning to get some more education, but we'll see what the future brings.

I have always wanted my own company, and have been a freelancer since 2000, which is most of my "career". Since 2007 I have been working on changing direction a bit from freelancing, into product development, writing books etc. It's a long, tough process, but it's fun. And isn't that really what is most important in the end?

I Don't Have all the Answers

Of course it would be naive to believe that I myself hold all the answers to each and every career question. Therefore I will probably have to reach out both to readers (you), and people I know in the industry. Some of these people are employees, some freelancers, some run their own companies, and some run websites. I even think I have some old colleagues who participated in developing the game Hit Man here in Copenhagen, Denmark. It could be interesting to hear their stories too. I'll see what I can do :-)

About Career, Not Business

This trail focuses on software as a career, not as a business. Being a business owner is a career too, though. So, if this trails mentions business owners stories, it will be focused on what life is like as a business owner. Not the technical details about how they run their business. Such detail would go in a separate trail.

Inspiration, Not Eternal Truths

Remember, career advice can be extremely subjective. What worked for someone else, may not work for you. Or you may not want the same from your career. Take what you can use, and skip the rest. But do also keep your mind open. What you think may not work for you, might actually work. Be inspired, and experiment.

Don't Miss a Tip - Be the First to Know

If you want to make sure you are notified of new texts, tips and tools in this and other trails as soon as they arrive, you can sign up for my news letter or subscribe to my RSS feed. You can find the sign up form for the news letter in the right side bar of every page on this tutorial site, just under the trail menu links. There is a link to the RSS feed at the top of every page on this website.

Feel Free to Contact Me

If you disagree with anything I write here, or just have comments, questions, or interesting stories to share, feel free to send me an email. You wouldn't be the first to do so. You can find my email address on the about page.