Resources to help your development career “Thrive”

Over the last few years, I’ve had a lot of friends lose their jobs, have their companies disappear, withstand RIFs, worry about their jobs, not get a raise, or not get promoted.  I also know a lot of consultants and contract workers who are looking for their next job.  I was a little envious last year when the Thrive program came out for IT professionals, but not for developers.

Well, now you can find Thrive (for developers). Some of my co-workers contributed heavily to it, like Glen Gordon, Peter Laudati, Zain Naboulsi, Andrew Duthie, Joe Stagner, and Brian Prince.  It provides a lot of resources, including

• .NET Rocks “Development in a Downturn” podcast series – 10 part podcast series focusing on developers in the community sharing their stories of how they have handled the recession, what they have learned and advice they have to share to others based on their personal experiences

• Step by step resources to help devs ramp quickly on new tasks. Developers are being asked to take on more with fewer resources and limited training, these step by step scenarios help save time and money. You can find a lot at

  • www.microsoft.com/click/thrivedev/Enhance/WebDevelopment/ and
  • www.microsoft.com/click/thrivedev/Enhance/WindowsClientDevelopment/
    Also, don’t forget about “RampUp”: Join Ramp Up and Help Advance Your Career

  Ramp Up is a free, online, community-based program that can help you save time in learning Microsoft technology. The easy-to-access content, provided by subject-matter gurus, is specifically tailored for the Ramp Up program and offered in a variety of forms, including articles, virtual labs, “codecasts” and “slidecasts.”
  Move from PHP to ASP.NET
  Move from ASP to ASP.NET
  Web Development with ASP.NET
  For the Java Developer Learn .NET
  For the Visual Studio 2002/2003 Developer: Learn Visual Studio 2005

• “How to be a better Developer” series – everything from community MVP’s weighing in with their advice, to how to leverage social networks to benefit your career, to “Driving your Career Forward” , a 32 part screen cast series on how to develop key soft skills that can help you be more successful on the job (Download this week's screencast).

• Industry resources and articles on how to land a job; including a 4 part webcast series on “Getting a Development Job in the Current Economy”

• Community Connection to find local developer events and user groups.  Networking isn’t just important for finding jobs—it’s also important for finding out what’s happening in your field.  It has options for

  • Finding a Job: ‘nuf said.
  • Finding User Groups: A good place to find out more regarding what’s popular in your community.
  • Finding Developer Events: Events by MVPs and specialists. Just yesterday, we had events in the Atlanta office teaching about Windows Azure (cloud services), and Monday night we had a preview of VSTS 2010 architecture features.
  • "Eating with other Nerds": These “nerd dinners” are a good informal place to talk to some of the brightest developers in your area.

I’ll add a badge to my sidebar to help find Thrive, and I’ll blog about some other resources too.