Life of a Technologist

It has been over a decade since I started working professionally (since 15 if you're counting) and it has been one experience after another. Recently, I had to crunch in a few last minute self-created projects of sort, and an year end work accompliment portfolio of sort. I felt a need to share my experiences with those who are entering their first year of professional work. Even amats can learn a thing or two from this, and most of all, these serve as the very reason that I still feel humble at learning and accepting my screw-ups. In these 10 or so years, I have had just one extremely bad performance review, mainly due to my punctuality (now now, I know some of you might be doing an RTFM, a ROFL or even a LMAO). That hasn't changed much, but I have constantly churned out result after another; perhaps, a reason why I have earned the trust of my upper management in being a dependable employee.
Anyways, so here goes the 6 tenets that I live by, or at least came to a conclusion over the years:

1. No, your co-workers don't give a rats a$$ which college (or University for the lack of a better term) you went to, nor do they care which degree you graduated with: This might raise some initial ooooo's and aaah's, but when it boils down to getting work done, if you don't know your Ruby, Java, Php, .NET hello worlds, then you better be humble and ask for help.
2. Again, I don't care if you graduated from the Oompa loompa School of l33tness: Forget what you learned in college, yes, I do mean its useless; in the real world, its all about re-learning to drive.
3. Choose your text editor wisely: Some love their emacs, others go for vi, gedit, etc. Whatever it maybe, choose it wisely and learn it inside out.
   
4. Having trouble in making acquaintance with your team mates? Silence goes a long way, smile, nod and think before you speak. Oh yes, keep a full bowl of candy, it'll take you a long way and you'll be surprised just how crowded the cube gets because of it.
5. Office Politics is messy, learn to snuggle your way around or look for a small IT shop: Regardless of where you work, office politics is everywhere, the more dependable you are, the more will you get sucked into it. Don't fight it, join it. Thats the only way to rise in ranks.
6. Gaining respect is difficult, but being liked is easy (remember the candy trick?): You'll gain respect, but it will likely take time. New to the job? Don't worry, people don't normally despise you if you're getting the "cold shoulder" from time to time, you just need to prove to them that you're dependable, and willing and able to prove that you're serious about getting the job done right.

Other than the above, be humble and keep the boasting to the minimum. Just don't speak out about doing something that you really haven't. Some smarty pants might sucker you into a tough spot and you'll be labelled as the loud-mouth who can't even be a good salesman. Because at the end of the day, you are a salesman, no software is good unless you can convince people to use it. If your shop provides the kind of support that is normally butchered when sent offshore, then you might as well pack your bags. Keep it in mind, we are living in an ever-growing global market, making an impact is one-thing, staying in business is another.

Cheers and a Happy New Year to all :)