For long time beggars asked “Do you have changes?” when they saw me. Most of the time I gave them pennies, nickels, and maybe dimes. But I didn’t give quarter. I saved quarters for parking.

From a few years ago, they started to ask, “Do you have a quarter?” or “Do you have quarters?” I continued to give them small changes, but I did give a quarter in addition, if I was in good mood. As I heard more and more requests specific for “quarters” rather than “changes” in general, I got used to hand out quarters, but only one or two a time.

One day a nice lady asked me, “Honey, do you have three quarters?” I answered “Yes” and then gave her 3 quarters although I thought I should only give her one or two.

Right questions make difference. If she had asked “Can I have 3 quarters from you?” or “Could you give me 3 quarters?”, I could answer either “Yes” or “No”, both answers were technically correct. But she, and other beggars, never asked me to give them money, they only asked me a fact, – did I have a small amount of money in pocket. In this case, I was obligated to tell the truth. I did have more than 3 quarters in pocket, so that I answered “Yes” since I didn’t want to lie. Than, a “Yes” answer meant I wanted to meet her request, thus I gave what she demanded. That was just a hypnotic mind-setting process.

Recently, they often asks, “Do you have a dollar?”

They keep asking, and asking more, why? Beggars are self-employed professionals, just like our independent consultants, they are very motivated to take care of business. In fact, they are facing the same changes and challenges of the world as we are facing, – raising cost of living, instability, globalization, etc. To keep the same living standard, they need to adjust the salary. They truly believe they deserve the raise.

Back to the topic, what can we learn from beggars? Many. Look at how they make themselves visible, their persistence persuasiveness. They know how to ask right questions in right place to right people in right time so that they get the most they possibly can.

To make it simple, there are three things you can learn and do as beggars:

1. Ask
2. Ask more
3. Keep asking

Ask your boss for salary raise, bigger bonus, better benefit package, flexible hours, tele-commute, and more. Whatever you want, whatever you need, you have to ask. If you don’t ask, you’ll never get it.

Do you deserve all of the good things? Only God knows. What you’ve had, you deserve, because otherwise God wouldn’t give to you. What you haven’t got, does not mean you don’t deserve, because you didn’t ask.

If you keep asking, you boss will think you deserve it. “This guy has asked for promotion 10 times. He must have done a good job. I think his raise is due. Let’s give him a 15% increase.” That’s how you get it.

I don’t give money everytime when beggars ask. But if I recognize one who had asked me several times before, I usually hand out a dollar. As a reminder, they don’t ask for changes any more, they want dollars, and they can get dollars, only because they asked.

Is this a good lesson? I think it’s great, and easy too. Just ask, ask more, and keep asking. As my beggar friends can do it, you can do it too.

Walk to your boss and ask now…

http://www.javacoding.net/certification

Leo Crawford’s website provides Study Guide for Sun’s Java Certified Enterprise Architect
http://www.leocrawford.org.uk/work/jcea/index.html

Software Architect Resources by Michael Thomas

http://www.michael-thomas.com/tech/java/architect/index.htm

Amit Jnagal’s SCEA Resources

http://www.stormpages.com/jnagal/

SCEA Mock Exams Online

Harish Ramchandani’s SCEA Mock Exam – Harish created a new mock exam based on my experience of this exam.

http://www.harishramchandani.com/

Prasks Mock Exam and Resources on Sun Certified Enterprise Architect

http://prasks.webahn.com/architect/mockExam/

JavaCoding.Net

http://www.javacoding.net/certification/mocks/index.html

SCEA and Other Java Exam Simulation Quiz and Questions

http://www.jaworski.com/java/certification/

SCEA Mock Exam from Amit Jnagal’s website

http://www.stormpages.com/jnagal/mock.html

SCEA Mock Exam at janswebpage.com

http://www.ianswebpage.com/cert/scea/scea.htm

SCEA exam simulator and Resources – INESystems.com

http://www.INESystems.com/scea/

Build Basic Skills

To look for a job in Java programming, you must prepare yourself with some basic skills:

1. Making yourself familiarized with Java syntax.

2. Using JDBC to develop database applications.

3. Learn Java Swing API to develop graphical interface.

4. Develop JavaBean components for JSP web applications.

5. Learn to use Java in different OS environments.

6. Learn a IDE tool to create Java applications.

Learn Advanced Skills

Although advanced Java skills are not prerequisite considered by hiring managers, they can make your resume stand out, and employers do reward you for advanced skills and experience. If you plan to have Java in your career path, you must learn to master these advanced skills:

1. Get ‘deep development’ server-side Java skills including J2EE, Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB) and servlets.

2. Unified Modeling Language (UML), the standard notation in object-oriented design methodology.

3. Learn Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) and Web Services Description Language (WSDL), which are key Web services underpinnings, to be well positioned for the expected surge of Web services. Another technology to know is XML Schema, or XSD, which is at the core of SOAP, WSDL and Uniform Description, Discovery and Integration.

4. Get development experience in Java based application server environment, such as IBM WebSphare, BEA WebLogic, sybase EAServer.

5. Business experience and in-depth knowledge in analyzing and creating business-logic modules.

Training

A lot of colleges use Java as the teaching language for programming/algorithm courses, thus a lot college graduates have got good Java knowledge when the enter the job market. For those who didn’t get formal Java training, there are wide choices among myriad Java training options, from free online tutorials to Sun Microsystems Inc.’s Java University. Also, You are never short of tech books on this hot topic.

For busy IT professionals, the best training option is self-study. Available resources are more than enough, all you need is to allocate the time and get started. You must have a self-training plan and stick to it. Discipline, Persistence, and focus are the most important factors for self-training success.

If you don’t use Java on your job, you should setup Java environment on your PC with JDK that you can download from Sun website for free, so you can practice your skills. There are also all kinds of Java development tools with free license for development, you can download a few and learn to use them.

Certifications

There are hundreds of Java certification options. Recruiters say Sun’s offerings carry the most weight, but any certification may help; only about 25% of Java developers are certified.

For beginners, Sun Certified Java Programmer (SCJP) is the best choice. You just need to pass only one exam to get it, so it is fairly easy. Sun offers 2 high level certification programs: Sun Certified Java Developer (SCJD) and Sun Certified Architect for J2EETechnologies (SCJA). They are more difficult because they require essay exam and completion of programming assignment. SCJD has higher market value.

It is hard to determine how much the certification would help in your career. Some training experts say certifications can help boost your salary 35% or more, but other recruiters say Java certifications mean little to them.

“Polymorphism refers to overload and override features in object oriented design. Overload is implemented by define multiple methods with the same name but different arguments. For example, getContractNum(String agencyNum) may overload getContractNum(). Override is implemented by defining the same method with the same signature in the derived class but may execute different functions from the parent class. Override is often used to included more functionalities in the constructors in the derived class.”

Using Java, you can develop any kinds of applications, — client/server, web-based, embedded, wireless, you name it. In today’s business world, Java is most likely used to build web-based, enterprise-wide systems. In the past years, Java SWING had been used to develop client/server desktop based, GUI rich applications. Therefore, if you are not sure what specific skills an employer want, the best approach is to present your knowledge and experience in developing SWING based client/server applications and web applications with JavaBeans and J2EE technologies like JSP, Servlet, and EJB.

Here’s an example answer:

“I started to program in Java 6 years ago and have developed many Java applications. My first Java project was a client/server application using Java SWING. All of my resent works are related to Java and J2EE based web applications. The project I am working now is a multi-tier web-based Java J2EE application, it’s contact management system for a state agency. I coded JSP pages for the presentation tier, build many JavaBeans for business logic processing on the middle tier, I also developed a few EJBs for business data persistence on the J2EE server.”

What if you don’t have real-life Java experience? Do your homework. Java is free, so if you know you would be asked with Java related questions, then build some quick experience by yourself and then sell them to the interview. Here’s how you could do it.

Download Java JDK and a middle tier application server like Tomcat or JBoss, they are all free. Follow the instructions to setup your local Java development environment. Then code a few JSP pages and JavaBeans, here you get Java development experience. If you have time, test a pilot project in your work. So on the interview you can say something like:

“I’ve spend a lot time to build hands-on Java skills and experience in the past years. I have my own local Java development and have learned a lot of the latest Java/J2EE technologies. Recently I just started a pilot project with our company to convert a Budget Reporting System from PowerBuilder to the Web-based Java/J2EE platform. I implemented Tomcat as the application server and programmed many JSP pages, JavaBeans, and Servlets for this system.”

What’s in Common

For programmers and developers who build business solution systems in mid-market and enterprise level, both Java and C# are great languages to use. In fact, when you look at the languages themselves, you will find they’re extremely close. Both Java and C# tout features like simplicity, object orientation and robustness.

Java

Developed by Sun Microsystems Inc., Java is a platform-independent, object-oriented language. Java works with a variety of server flavors, including Unix, Linux, NT and others – a breadth that C# and .NET aspire to but have not yet achieved. Java programs are not compiled; they are interpreted as they run, that’s how it delivers the “write once, run anywhere” feature.

C#.NET

Microsoft describes C# as a programming language that makes it easier for C and C++ programmers to generate COM+ ready programs with type safety, garbage collection, simplified type declarations, versioning and scalability support, and other features. C# supports attribute-based programming, operator overloading and defining custom enumerations, among other functions.

What’s the Difference

What C# is missing is Java’s double dose – Java is both a language and a platform, while C# is the language that uses the .NET platform. Java platform works on both UNIX and Windows, but C#.NET is Microsoft Windows specific.

Java and C# run in very different
environments. Each of them has very unique API structures. The knowledge required to interface to the APIs is very different.

Because Java deals with platform in the language, you may need more time to learn Java. For an average programmer it takes less than a month to learn a new language, but learning the underlying platform is a much harder task and can take a couple months.

Which One to Choose for Career

As I’ve pointed out, today’s enterprise business solutions are implemented with either Java/J2EE platform or C#/VS.NET. Both Java and C# target the same application development market. Thus programmers who know either Java or C# are walking on the same career path. Because Java supports multiple OS environments, Java programmers have wider choice in career growth. For those who program C# only, their job opportunities are limited to Windows environment only.

Currently there are more Java/J2EE projects going on than C#/.NET in the industry, although C#.NET is catching up. For the foreseeable future, Java will continue to be a significant driving force in IT for large enterprises. In terms of C#, we are seeing more mid-market pilot projects in the .NET environment.

For experienced programmers, I recommend Java as the primary skill-set. Java skill is more valuable because it covers platform knowledge. Java programmers can jump onto C# quickly if there is a need in current job or in a new opportunity. Moving from Java to C# is an easier transition to make. On average, it would take about a week for those fluent in Java to get comfortable with the C# syntax and three months to get familiar with the .NET platform.