It's been a whirlwind!

I've been at my new position for several months and I've been so caught up in learning new things that I haven't had a chance to update. However, many of the things I've encountered are article-worthy.

Some highlights of my last three months:

• Learning ASP.NET and SQL Stored Procedures so that I could make enhancements to an application that has been sitting on the shelf ready to go out to users, but had no one to take care of it since the last guy left.
• Learning how to write Transact-SQL for a project to customize Infor's Datastream 7i, a product usually used for managing facilities plants.
• Project Management - how it works in the real world! I took the classes, but now I'm managing, let's see, 3 projects at once.
• Managing! I am the supervisor of one employee, which may not sound like a lot, but I'm glad I'm starting with only one. Being a good manager is like being a psychologist and an educator as well as a "boss".
• Upgrading three different servers to ARS 7.0 has been an adventure. I can tell you that I've run that upgrade script no less than 100 times.

To that end, I picked up a few excellent books, and I'll do a little capsule review in the meantime.

The Art of Project Management - Scott Berkun

This is an O'Reilly publication, although it lacks their characteristic animal on the cover. It is a fabulous book. While most Project Management books focus on helping you pass the PMI test, this book is focused on real life and has extensive chapters on dealing with difficult situations and so-called "difficult people".

Getting Past No:Negotiating Your Way from Confrontation to Cooperation - William Ury

As the author points out, most interactions we have in life end up being negotiations. We cannot provide everything for ourselves, so we have to work with others who may not have the same motivations and goals as we do. This book was an excellent resource when I was struggling with a particular person on one of my projects. It helped me understand that this person had his/her own understanding of the situation, different from mine, and wasn't just trying to be difficult. I believe I will return to this book again and again for guidance. I liked the fact that it wasn't about tricking the other person into doing what you want, but rather about finding a mutually beneficial solution.

Just Promoted!: How to Survive and Thrive in Your First 12 Months as a Manager - H. Betof Edward

This book is geared more towards the executive manager, but it has some advice that is useful for any new employee. Some of it talked about the importance of first impressions, and what you need to achieve in order to earn credibility in a new position. It also wrote about the psychological effects of going from an individual contributor position to supervisory/management position. Overall, it hasn't been that helpful to me but I will keep it on my shelf for the future.