Book Review: My Job Went to India

  • Read: January 2014
  • Rating: 8.0/10

My Job Went to India by Chad Fowler is a typical book written about things programmers do, and could do, in order to keep their job. While the advice seems pretty generic, I found the book to be very interesting, and they type of information given in the book is great to hear again-and-again. I don’t know that it’s worth buying, but it is definitely worth reading at least once.

The book is divided into 52 chapters, one for each piece of advice over 6 parts:

  • Choosing Your Market
  • Investing in Your Product
  • Executing
  • Marketing… Not Just for Suits
  • Maintaining Your Edge
  • If You Can’t Beat ‘em

I’ll be covering what I felt were the best pieces of advice within each part.

My Notes

Choosing Your Market

  • You can’t afford to compete on price- research current technical skill demand.
  • Learn a new programming language (with a different paradigm).
  • Be a generalist (know a variety of things).
  • Be a specialist (know one thing really well).
  • Work with smart people (be the worst in the room and learn from everyone).
  • Find a job you’re actually passionate about.

Investing in Your Product

  • Understand business basics.
  • Find a mentor.
  • Be a mentor.
  • Practice. Code all the time.
  • Pick a project, and read it a like a book. Make notes, outline, critique, learn.
  • Automate something.

Executing

  • Do your long tasks first.
  • Have an accomplishment to report every day.
  • Be where you’re at- be present.
  • Make your job fun.
  • Learn to love maintenance.
  • Projects are marathons, not sprints.
  • Learn how to fail.

Marketing… Not Just for Suits

  • Perception is reality.
  • Keep a development diary.
  • Learn to type.
  • Build your brand.

Maintaining Your Edge

  • Carve out weekly time to investigate the bleeding edge.
  • Focus on doing, not on being done.
  • Watch the alpha geeks.
  • Pick a technology you hate most, and do a project in it.

If You Can’t Beat ‘em

  • Lead.
  • Learn from open source.
  • Think globally.