According to Michigan Economic Development Corporation:
The life of a software writer is stereotyped as one of isolation and technical drudgery. In reality, it’s a fun job – really. Today’s coders are highly social and collaborative, take initiative to creatively complete projects and bring ideas to life, love learning, and are highly flexible problem solvers and team players.
This is of course presented as a blessing. Nothing wrong with emphasizing the upside, but for those of us who are not highly social the future looks like a very scary place. Even the traditionally nerdy jobs require above-average communication skills. They invite me to register for the course here. Apparently it’s offered by the organization called “Ann Arbor Spark,” founded by current Michigan governor and ur-conservative Rick Snyder. The link is to a list of 10 Spark events, the other 9 of which are explicitly about either running a business or about marketing:
- Ann Arbor OpenCoffee (This is a networking event for entrepreneurs, investors…)
- Marketing Roundtable – Live Your Brand
- CFO Roundtable – US Economy in 2012: Economic Outlook and Policy Challenges
- Starting Your Own Business
- Shifting Code: Informational Session (the one I’m considering participating in)
- Marketing Roundtable – Town Hall – The Knights of the Marketing Roundtable
- Business Law & Order: Intellectual Property (Part II): The Keys to Technology Licensing
- Hot Shots: Career Connections at Sava’s
- Business Law & Order: Funding 101
- Business Law & Order: Doing Business Overseas
This is par for the course in the “new economy.” You’re expected to make your own breaks, and the actually-marketable mix of skills is one part programming, one part finance, 2 parts networking, 2 parts marketing, 3 parts business law and 9 parts entrepreneurship. In short, introvert hell. Oh, well. Maybe the “Shifting Code” thing will be fun.
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