DEV Community: Ken Darling

I need to Learn Project Management

Ken Darling — Fri, 11 Dec 2020 21:20:11 +0000

I need some help, I am becoming frustrated with my CEO micromanaging his "HOT" requests.

I need some resources, class, books, tools to tackle this and show what I have been working on and such.

blazer server on IIS

Ken Darling — Fri, 14 Feb 2020 23:04:00 +0000

I need some help trying to set up blazer server side up on my IIS, which I have done. It’s going to be an intranet page, I can access it but I get the this site is not secure and have to click the go to this page anyway. What do you have to do?

Hacktoberfest C#

Ken Darling — Thu, 03 Oct 2019 12:06:46 +0000

I would like to get involved with Hacktoberfest, can some one point me in the right direction of some Open Source C# projects?

Help! Hiring a Jr Dev

Ken Darling — Thu, 18 Jul 2019 20:03:09 +0000

Hi All, We just got the green light to go a head and start the process to hire a jr dev for the team? Currently I am the only developer on the team, and I am going to be leaned on heavily on the interview process.

I want to make sure that I vet the person properly. This is all new to me any help and or pointers are greatly appreciated.

Looking for direction - Web Dashboard

Ken Darling — Sat, 06 Jul 2019 14:39:19 +0000

Hi all, I am looking to build a web dashboard for my company. Was wondering what the community has used to build such things.

I currently mostly code in C# but open to anything, also it would just be an intranet type dashboard.

The Misadventures of a Programmer 000

Ken Darling — Mon, 10 Jun 2019 18:58:55 +0000

The Start

A bit about me, I have been a developer I guess for about 15 years, the 1st 10 or so was all in VBA (for those of you who don't know that is the scripting language for Microsoft applications). Doing varying projects in Excel and Access, over those 10 years or so, mind you all these projects where "off-grid" projects (meaning they where not sanction nor supported by IT).

After getting my foot in the door, while still finishing my Bachelors in CIS, I always seemed to be cherry picked for roles on elite teams or maybe I am just delusional, I don't know...

Getting Laid Off

The last role that I had at this company was in finance, tasked with streamlining and automating various tasks and presentations. About a year in, it was decided that the entire finance department was to be transitioned to Jacksonville. I had until December to find something new.

I was lucky that my manager at the time was trying to work something that so that his team could remain doing other functions. He was success fill at doing that, but around October the recruiter I was working with presented me with a possible opportunity, in a proper IT department (so I thought) as a programmer in VBA mostly Access. After a 2nd interview I was offered the job.

A New Place

From going to a large corporate job to a small ~50 person corporation was a big change. I come to find out that the only database that they use is a tangled web of access database, poorly written and maintained by director of operations, as well as locked in to windows XP (we are talking December 2014) because of an application written by a third part that could not, would not run on Windows 7.

At the new place employees who have 10+ years of tenure get the week between Christmas and New Years. During this week is where I made my 1st big jump from VBA to VB.net, and with in that week I rebuilt that app, so that we could start rolling out 7 Machines.

From there I started to write more and more in VB.Net. The CEO wanted a program to manage Purchase orders that we where making to vendors, with an Approval system before sending them to the vendor. a quick aside her, mu manager had been proposing getting a proper server to put the file server on and a number of other things, the current servers with old over powered desktops. So while building this approval app, it was using access as it database and it was slow. So I was asked what would make it faster, And that's how we got our SQL Server.

Before i joined the team mt company had farmed out a Web project to a 3rd which was written in C#/MVC which up until this point I have 0 experience with and wanted to dump this on me to maintain an update. I was able to convince them to give me classes for both. The switch from VB.NET C# was easy and all new apps have been written in C# and expending on using OOP, and more reusable classes. MVC for some reason just didn't stick.

A Clear Path

That get me to about current, earlier this year, I approached my manager with some data about average salaries based on title, location and experience to show that I was way under average and would like a raise to be around the average. The amount of back and forth an waiting was ridiculous, but in the end worked out. Along with the raise is what seems like a path to Senior and/or Lead role, which I think can move to a manager role. Upper management said that they want to heir a Junior Dev, which I would be helping to heir and mentor (which makes sense as I am currently the sole developer at my company)

With the discussion of a junior get me thinking of how to best to grow the team with tools accountability and a whole bunch of things that I never thought about being a team of one. With All of that said, I am thinking about documenting my way forward, attempting to and a few levels to the current IT process of where I work currently.

TL:DR

I am a programming with Impostor Syndrome, mucking my way programming, and getting a team to mentor, and implementing new tools and processes along they way. Buckle up and enjoy the ride.

Single Developer, to a duo

Ken Darling — Tue, 28 May 2019 12:44:10 +0000

I am currently the sole developer at my company. A few months go a did some reach to show that what I was getting paid was a bit low for the area/experience that I bring to the company, and to my surprise, I got a raise.

While in the meeting with the CEO and my VP the the plan to hire a junior developer relived to me, along with that was that I would be a mentor to the person that we hire for that role, which I am assuming would help move me along to Senior --> Lead --> Manger path.

While I am excited at the opportunity, I am lost and do not know which direction to go. Also being that I am the sole developer, I am being tasked to create the Job Description/Skill sets required for the role as well as doing the interviews along side my manager.

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

What’s my skill set worth?

Ken Darling — Mon, 04 Feb 2019 23:26:34 +0000

Help! I am the sole programmer/developer/sql admin etc for a small company, compared to what I was hired to do vs. what I now do 4 years laters have vastly change. My skill set has expand a great deal as well to move the company forward.

I would like to get a gauge of what my skills are worth to see if it’s worth wild to ask for a rise.

Any kind of input would be great!

Analog Tools

Ken Darling — Thu, 12 Oct 2017 14:24:39 +0000

I have just recently moved in to an office and have some space to spread out. I was wondering what analog tools that you use? I have a dry erase board on order, what to know what else I should consider?