(Hint: 8 of Them Are Free)
This list contains resources that can help those of us that are new to the IT industry. They’re not new resources, and all but one of them are free!
If you want more career advice and information on how to improve your career in the IT software industry, come and have a look at Complete IT Professional at www.completeitprofessional.com
1 – TECH ON THE NET
www.techonthenet.com
Tech On The Net is a website that contains advice and how-to’s for many technologies that software professionals use. It’s been a valuable resource for me when looking up syntax and usage for languages such as SQL, Excel, Access and Word.
It shows up at the top of most of my Google searches on these kinds of keywords, and for good reason. If you ever forget how to use a certain function, or what the function is called, Tech On The Net can give you the information for these technologies.
2 – STACK OVERFLOW
www.stackoverflow.com
Stack Overflow is a free question and answer site for programmers. You’ve probably heard of it or even used it in your programming experience.
It’s a great resource if you ever get stuck on a programming issue. Provide source code and a problem description, and other users will usually respond with answers or more questions. A voting system ensures that top answers and questions rise to the top.
It’s helpful for finding out the limitations or certain quirks of languages. The people there genuinely want to help others, and taking part in the questions is also good because it makes you think about the problems.
www.completeitprofessional.com
3 – YOUR UNIVERSITY OR COLLEGE ALUMNI
Once you graduate college or university, you become part of the “alumni” of that school. It represents a group of former students, and they often have more official operations such as meetings.
They’re also a good place to meet people and build relationships with similar people. This can be helpful for your career, as a big part of a career is the people that you meet along the way. Having a university or college in common is a good start, and you can build some good relationships out of it.
Have a look at your university or college’s website and find the links to the alumni section. If you can’t find any, contact the school and enquire about it.
4 – LINKEDIN
www.linkedin.com
LinkedIn is a social network for professionals. It mixes the networking and social side of Facebook with an online, resume-style profile. It’s important for IT professionals, especially those new to the industry, to have a LinkedIn profile.
It’s a good addition to your resume, it’s easy to set up and maintain, and allows you to get in contact with other people in the industry. Being on LinkedIn is a great way to start your career in the IT industry.
5 – “GETTING THINGS DONE: THE ART OF STRESS-FREE PRODUCTIVITY” BY DAVID ALLEN
This book has revolutionised the way I go about my life. I don’t like to talk things up, but for this, I can make an exception. It’s also the only resource on this list that isn’t free.
Getting organised is a big way to improve your career, and the concepts in this book (widely referred to as GTD or Getting Things Done) teach you to organise your work and your life in order to reduce stress and increase focus in what you do.
I recommend reading it as you start your career. Even if you don’t implement the system in its entirety (you can do parts of it to start), the benefits will be noticeable. Your employer will be impressed by how organised you are.
6 – W3 SCHOOLS
www.w3schools.com
W3 Schools is a collection of online tutorials that show you how to learn many different kinds of languages.
Sure, you might know a few from your own experience or from university or college, but this site can be used in many ways. You can use it to learn new technologies you haven’t learnt before. You can use it as a reference for syntax for your code you write. You can use it to learn how to apply a certain concept in a language.
This site, just like Tech On The Net, has been a great resource for me over the years when doing development work.
www.completeitprofessional.com
7 – WINDOWS 7 SHORTCUTS
http://lifehacker.com/5390086/the-master-list-of-new-windows-7-shortcuts
This is a very helpful list if you use Windows 7 in your office. In many places, at time of writing (late 2013), it’s the standard operating system in many companies, as Windows XP approaches end of life. Windows 7 includes many new features, and having shortcuts to those can increase your productivity.
For example, Win+Up will maximise the current window, and Win+Down will minimise it - very useful for changing the display of windows quickly.
Keeping a page like this on your bookmarks is helpful so you can refer to it if you forget a shortcut and need it.
8 – NOTEPAD++
www.notepad-plus-plus.org
Notepad++ is a fantastic text editor. It has so much functionality it’s ridiculous. It allows for tabbed usage, which is remembered when you close the application. It can display the text in a file as different programming languages, which is useful for writing code in before copying it to another application. It also opens very fast, and has a great Find feature.
It has a lot of features that I’ve never even used, as well as support for plugins. This is a very versatile tool that should serve you well as an IT software professional.
9 – EVERNOTE
www.evernote.com
Evernote is a note-taking application, but it’s also so much more than that. It’s available on the web, as a standalone application, and also has mobile versions of the app.
It allows you to take notes and store them in notebooks, all in digital format. Notes can also be tagged, formatted, and combined with images and audio so that you can keep everything in the one place.
If you haven’t used it before, try it out. It’s free to store a certain amount per month, and it could be a big help to you.
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