Five Most educated countries

The Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) recently released its Global Education 2012 report and list the five most educated countries in the world:

The young and richest in China

Hurun, the research company announces the 2012 list of richest Chinese under forty with thirty-three young people selected. Only individuals who have more than $1 billion Yuan in assets and less than forty years old can be chosen. This is the second year that Hurun has published the list. Yang Huiyan, 31, won first place with a wealth of 36 billion Yuan ($5.7 billion US dollars). Fang Wei, 39, second only to Yang , was found to be the richest young entrepreneur starting from scratch with assets of 15 billion Yuan ($2.4 billion US dollars). Among the richest under 40, most came from business and information technology industries. Many started when they were still in college and some even made more than million when they were younger than 25. Most people think that rich Chinese got their wealth through inheritance but actually most of them are self-made billionaires," said Rupert Hoogewerf, chairman and chief researcher of the Hurun Report.

Getting work experience

Today many companies are looking for recent software graduates with some experiences to fill entry-level jobs. Most require at least two years of experience. A company owner explains: “We hired many graduates in the past, since they did not have the skills that we need, we had to train them. After a year or so, they all left for better positions or higher salaries in another companies. Since so many of them keep switching jobs, we do not want to hire recent graduates and train them anymore but prefer workers with at least one or two years of experience because they are trained by somebody else. It is strictly a business decision.” Other industry representative comments: “The frequent switching of job among software workers has left many companies bitter about newly graduates. A trained worker that leaves a company is very costly, especially if it happens within a year or so. It is the workers fault.”

Although the industry blames software workers but I think the main issue is the gap between what school teaches and what the industry needs. According to several reports, many recent graduates do not have the right skills and must be retrained because what they know is not what the industry needs. Unless this gap can be closed, this situation will get worst. Today software companies want their new hires to have both technical skills and soft-skills such as teamwork, problem solving, communication and critical thinking etc.

With this attitude from companies, what should college students do? The solution is to start career planning when you first enter college. You must select schools that have the most up to date curriculum to get the technical skills that the industry wants. You must continue to read more about industry trends to prepare yourself for the future. You must develop the skills that will help you to get into the career that you want. You may need to work in the summer to get some experiences even it may not pay much. In this working place, you will learn about what the company needs, what skills are important as well as develop your soft-skills. A summer job allows you to develop these valuable skills and this is your investment in your future. In this highly competitive world, only the well-prepared will succeed.

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Prof. Vu

Carnegie Mellon University

source: http://www.segvn.org/forum/mvnforum/viewthread_thread,1937

Top 13 questions to ask yourself

The questions we ask determine the answers we get. And it is from these answers that we create the actions of our day-to-day lives. This simple progression of questions to answers to actions implies that if we want more effective and productive actions, we can start by asking ourselves better questions.

The questions below are meant to help you create the actions you desire, and while you can ask these questions at anytime, the second half of December is a good time to ask, reflect on, and answer these questions.

Will it take some time? Yes it will. But it will be time well-spent. Read the questions now to get them in your sub-conscious mind. Then, schedule a two hour appointment (or schedule 10 minutes each day and do one question a day) with yourself in a quiet place, with your Journal, computer or just a pad of paper and record your answers to these questions.

Career Goals

Career goals are objectives that you set for yourself on what you want to achieve in your career. It is also a way to evaluate your progress along your career paths toward your goals. Career goals can be short term or long term. Long-term goals are often more general since they may change over time; short-term should be specific because they can be planned accordingly. For example, a student may set a short term goal to be a software developer when graduate. A software developer may set a short term goal to be a software project manager in three years. The long term goals are usually five to ten years in the future. A software worker may set long term goals to be a software director, Chief Information Officer (CIO), or an owner of a software company and measure his achievement along his career paths to determine whether he is making progress or not.

Learning new things

Lifelong learning is much more than just keeps up with technology knowledge. You also learn from experiences and from making mistakes. Many students believe by learning the newest technology would be sufficient but as you grow older and advancing in your career, you will learn more things that may have nothing to do with technology. Basically, you are maturing and becoming wiser.

Make a lot money

A software developer wrote to me: “I have software skills and want to start a software company that make a lot of money. My dream is to make million dollars or more. Is it possible? Or am I just dreaming? Please advice. 

Selecting fields of study

In the past, few college students have to plan for their careers because life is simple. If they go to college and get a degree, they can find a job, then go to work on that job for the rest of their life. Today thing is more complex with globalization, fast changing technologies, economic competition, and more people compete for fewer jobs. Therefore, college students must carefully plan their career, get guidances to select the right field of study, obtain the right skills to find a good job. They will change job several times in their life by continuously learning new skills as demand changes. 

CIO - Sharing experience

Dear professor, I always remember that you asked graduates to share their working experience with current students so here is my story:

“The dream of many Information Technology (IT) graduates is to work for software companies like Microsoft, Google, Apple, IBM or Oracle etc. When graduated, I got job offers from Microsoft, Google and a manufacturing company in New Jersey. I chose the manufacturing because it was located not far from Pennsylvania, where my parents live. To work nearby home instead of moving far away to California was a difficult decision for me. Most professors advised me that working for Software Company would be better for my career with better future and higher salary. You were the only professor who told me that nothing is better than staying close to my family to visit my parents often.”

The career path

Many students go to college to learn higher level of knowledge and skills that will hopefully lead to a better career and better life. However, after graduated many could NOT find good jobs or even any kind of jobs. Many are continue to live with their parents with college degrees that are not valuable in this highly competitive market. Some look at their college education as failure and wasting money of their parents. Some even wonder if their life would have been better had they not gone to college.

Being an entrepreneur

A Computer Science student wrote to me: “I like to start my own software company and be an entrepreneur like Bill Gates or Steve Jobs but all my friends told me that I am dreaming. What do you need to become an entrepreneur? "

Answer: To many people being an entrepreneur is just a dream but there are few people who can make this dream come true. These are people who have an overwhelming desire to start their own company. They have the courage to devote everything to achieve their goal. They are willing to take risks and accept the consequence on what they do. They do it NOT because they want to be rich or famous BUT because they love it. And, through all the ups and downs, good or bad times, they still believe in doing what they love. These are the characteristics of an entrepreneur. In simple word, they do it because they love the challenge.

To be an entrepreneur, you must have knowledge, both technical and business knowledge. You should have a working knowledge about the business that you want to start BEFORE starting it. That means you must learn as much as possible about the business, not just have some ideas but working knowledge of how the business is operated. You must know everything in detail such as identify customers, analyze market, and control your risk by placing a limit on how much you invest in your business. Starting a company requires a lot of preparations.

Operating the “wrong business” is the major mistake that most entrepreneurs make. You should spend time analyze the market before making your decision. You must select the business that is right for you. Preparation takes a lot of planning and complete knowledge to be successful. Do not start something that may be too challenging. Start small then grow rather than start big then get into trouble. Try to find a market that has long-term potential. Go to where the market WILL BE, not to where it is now. Many people start company based on what is fashionable at that time without knowing that a business is not a hobby to do when you have time and money to spend. For example, today building personal computer is not a good business as you are competing with HP, Dell, Lenovo or Apple etc. Even you could do that at lower price but you do not have the capital to stay long and the “brand” to compete with them. You should work “Smart” not work “Hard”. 

Every company needs money to start and to operate. As a businessman, you must learn how to predict cash requirements and cash flow control. Many companies can be started on a very small scale with a small investment. As the business grows and you gain more experience, you can spend more for growth. In the beginning, be very careful with your small capital. You must learn how to be humble and willing to listen to what customer needs. Never assume that you know what the customer wants or what function to build. Remember, it is the customers that make your business success or not.

Prof John Vu    

Carnegie Mellon University

Original source: http://www.segvn.org/forum/mvnforum/viewthread_thread,1689

Improve the knowledge and skills within a company

To improve the knowledge and skills within a company or business you need to start with the Competency Analysis ...

* First, the business must evaluates what "Workforce competencies" it needs to operate in performing its business - typically 5 to 10 competencies should be adequate for the software business. "Workforce competencies" are made up of "knowledge" (the classroom, or other training that an individual receives), "skills" (the demonstration by actual practice and work experience using the concepts learned in the training), and "process abilities" (the proven ability to know and to operate the standard defined processes used within the organization in the execution of the particular workforce competency -- e.g., Agile, Plan-Driven, Scrum etc. may be the standard way of develop software so a project manager would need the knowledge and skills associated with its use).

* Next, the business conducts an inventory of the people in the organization. What do they personally possess of the business-driven workforce competencies; what level of competency in these areas do they operate at?

* Perform an analysis of the GAP that exists in what the business needs and what it has.

Next comes Workforce Planning...

* How will the organization fill the gap, short-term and long-term?

* Develop a plan that will become the basis for the organization achieving the workforce competencies it needs.

* By the way, example options then available to the organization are: train their own people; outsource some particular workforce competency that you do not want to develop; bring in temporary workers; mentor the less competent people by the more competent. Of course, the workforce plan can/should include a short-term approach to filling a particular gap, and (perhaps a different) long-term approach. An example would be that for the long-term you want a particular capability available within the organization, but because you need certain things to start within 3 months and that isn't enough time to complete the long-term goal, use of a short-term, temporary solution may be needed.

Now to your specific questions...

* Your question: What is the definition of "training and development program?" Is that the organization's program or the company program, or both? Training is inadequate by itself. Development is a planned, deliberate effort to have people practice (develop) real skills associated with what they've learned (in a class, for example). It could be accomplished by a temporary assignment along with coaching by a mentor, temporary assignment to another group or project, or even a permanent assignment with careful monitoring and coaching. There may be other options as well.

* Your question: What is the definition of "graduated training?" Think of a thermometer; a graduated scale. The "student" is guided and monitored through a carefully orchestrated series of training and development opportunities to gradually increase their workforce competency in a particular area from Entry level position to Master or Expert in a field. These activities are not ad hoc, they are deliberate and planned.

* Your question: What is the definition of "standard for learning activities?" The standard is established so that everyone recognizes that when we say you are an Expert, they know what that means and can have a confidence in the knowledge, skills, and process abilities (i.e., the workforce competency) of the person in question. This is where a professional level for software engineer is needed. Please refer to my lecture on "The need for Professional Software Engineer in The U.S" This might be accomplished, for example, by a series of exams, certifications, problem assignments, benchmark, or other methods. Within a company, there is likely an expectation that a person who is a project manager and is operating at a specific level (for example, Expert) has a recognizable, perhaps universal, set of capabilities.

As a final word, knowledge and skills are essential to success in global competitive world. In the next few years you will see the competition for skilled workers intensified in some areas. Today both India and China do not have enough skilled workers and they are looking hard and training hard. The U.S and Europe also are facing critical shortage of skilled workers, especially in the software and High Tech areas and they are also looking for them. I strongly believe that to success, your company must focusing on training and developing skilled workers and keep them by having good incentives Your organization should determine what it needs to conduct its business, nothing less, nothing more. What's right for one organization may not work in another but having skilled people is already a significant advantage and differentiate you from your competitors.

I hope this helps. If not, feel free to continue the dialog.

John Vu

Carnegie Mellon University
Original source: http://www.segvn.org/improDetail?id=149

What is the most important factor to start your own company successfully – marketing or luck?

A reader wrote to me: “What is the most important factor to start your own company successfully – marketing or luck? Please advise.

Answer: As I have written in previous article, the most important factor in starting your own company is to have customers who are willing to pay for whatever you sell. Having customer is everything. Even if your product is not very good, you can improve it later. Having the best product but no customer is a waste of efforts and the way to file for bankruptcy. Of course, marketing and advertising are important but if you already have a lot of customers then why bother? Steve Jobs said: “I never listen to advertising consultants or market research people. I focus on create the best products that people are willing to pay.” He was right because you only need marketing and advertising when you need customers. In my opinion, having customer is everything and satisfies customers are the key to stay in business.

Starting a company has nothing to do with luck. Some people believe that luck determines everything. If they fail, they say that they are not lucky. My question is if you have luck, do you need to have a good idea? Do you need to have good product? or do you need marketing? You only need to be lucky then everything will happen as you wish. If you know that you are lucky then why bother to start a company? All you have to do is to buy lottery ticket or invest in the stock market. It is easier and with less effort than starting a company.

Some people start their own company with a single goal of making money. Most of them failed because they do not have the passion for what they do. When they face obstacles, they quit. When they have to work hard, they quit. When thing does not happen as they want, they quit. These people believe that starting a company is like buying a lottery ticket. If they make money, they also quit so they can go and enjoy. They do not love their work or passionate about their idea. They only dream of having money.

To start a company, you must begin with what you believe in and have passion for the work you do. If you do not have passion for your work, people will notice and will not take you seriously. Without passion it is impossible to convince other people to believe in your idea. Passion motivates people, partners, investors and customers. People always notice passionate people – People who really care about their product and their ideas. If you watch Steve Jobs’ talk about Apple products, you will notice his passion. He never mentioned money, being rich but only in making a difference – that is passion. If you watch Bill Gates’ talk about Microsoft and how to put a computer in very home in the U.S, you can feel his passion. If you watch Mark Zuckerberg talk about connecting people together, hundred thousand or million people all connected through Facebook. That is passion.

If you agree that working 80 hours to 120 hours a weeks for a year with no salary (You work for yourself) is needed to start your own company then you should do it. If you are excited in doing what you love then building your own company is the right thing to do. Even you may not succeed; you will learn more from it. If you fail, you will start another company again. With passion and determination, you have the right attitude to start your own company.

Several years ago, Bill Gates and Paul Allen, the two founders of Microsoft, often skipped classes in high school to go to University of Washington to learn computer programming. They used “Fake” student cards to sit in computer classes and accessed to school’s computer systems. They got caught but the professor let them go because they were only 16 years old. They continued to do it again until they convinced the professor that they love programming and wanted to learn. Finally, the professor made exception to allow two high school students to stay in his class and used university’s computer. Today, many students skip class; go to internet cafe to use chat room, play video games, and then dream of being movie stars. Skip class to learn new technology or new programming language is definitely not on their mind.

It was the passion for programming that drove Bill Gates and Paul Allen to do what they did when they were young. If they think about making money, they probably would never create Microsoft. Bill probably stays in Harvard’s Laws school and Paul probably became a rock musician (You probably do not know that Paul Allen was a rock musician who played guitar in a local rock band).

If you do not have a passion for something, you cannot do it well. Few years ago, a journalist asked Steve Jobs: “Why working hard when you have so much money?” Steve said: “Money never excites me but the journey, the excitement of creating an elegant product drive me. I would work for free just to enjoy it.”

Bill Gate and Paul Allen started Microsoft with a single idea of develop programming language to Altair Computer. They worked nights and days for months to build the product. Altair Computer did not like their idea and refused to buy the program that they created. Without customer, the company of six people was almost bankrupt when Bill Gates heard that IBM was also building another computer to compete with Apple. He approached IBM to sell his product. IBM refused to see him four times but Bill still insisted to meet with IBM management. The fifth time, IBM said that they did not need a language compiler but an operating system. Bill did not have an operating system but he knew that one of his friends in Seattle had written one. He went back to Seattle to purchase that operating system for few thousand dollars then sold it to IBM as PC-DOS for much higher price.

Bill and Paul improved the operating system and created MS-DOS to compete with the previous version PC-DOS that they sold to IBM. Because MS- DOS was better than PC-DOS, many customers preferred it over the IBM’s product then overtime, Microsoft captured the market. As they built their reputation as a solid, reliable company with good software products, they began to expand their products and collaborated with other companies. They allowed them to create software products with licenses from Microsoft.

Microsoft did not start as a big company. They were very small but they focused on having more customers, more users, and more collaboration with others. They formed a network of software companies using MS-DOS. They remained quiet for two years to build their customer’s base before issued their initial public offering (IPO) of stocks. They followed a formula for success: “Having passion for what they do and have customers who are willing to pay for what they sell”.

If you want to start your own company, you can learn from these successful stories.

Prof John Vu

Original source: http://johnvublog.com/?p=243

Opening Essay

I have been software professional for 40 years. I have worked in the semiconducting industry, telecommunication industry, software industry, and aerospace industry as a software developer, project manager, software director, and Chief engineer. I have managed small, medium sized, large and very large project of all types. Beside my work in the industry, I also work as a lecturer, modeler (Participate in creating several software models such as the CMM, CMMI, e-CMM etc.), innovator (several patents), and professor at university. This year marks the beginning of my retirement from active working in the industry but I still remain as professor at university.

I believe in learning for life because everyday is a school day. As you never stop learning and never know everything. The more you learn, the more you know that you do NOT know much. Today learning is much easier than few years ago, there are so many books, so many articles, and so many things on the internet that you can read or download. As students in technology area, you know that things change rapidly and there is always something new that you will need to know. There are new theories, new frameworks, new methods, new programming languages, and new approaches to solve problem.

When I was student, textbooks were very expensive (they still are) and I have to share them with others since I can not afford them. When I became a professor, I wrote textbooks but I found out that the publishers would sell them at expensive prices that many students could not afford them, so I stopped. I wrote my lectures using computer, print them out and gave to students so they can photocopy them as it was much cheaper. Few years ago, email came then all I have to do was to send the files to students so they did not have to buy books. Today with the internet, I place my lectures on website for students. I even videotape my lectures so students can watch them in case they missed class or want to review something. Some students told me that they want to lean about things that are not “pure academic” but broader, more global, more practical, easier to read, and more fun. As they want something different so I create this blog to share my view about technology so students could have a broader view of what is going on in the technology world. All I want is to enable students to keep studying, and continue to learn.

As an educator, I constantly think about ways to help students to make the most out of their learning. I want to help them to be successful in their careers. I want them become “professional software developers”. I want to help when they have issues with their works as they enter the industry. That is why I wrote this blog as I believe our education journey begins and it is a “shared experience” and not a learning course. I am excited to be able to be part of that journey for thousands of students across the globe. We all are students for life who are excited to share in our experiences.

I believe that education must not be regarded as a “luxury for a few people” or an event which has only a short time span of ten or fifteen years in school, but education should be a permanent national necessity, an inseparable aspect of citizenship, and therefore should be lifelong. Basically, Education is life, and it should never end.

However, to do well at anything, you will need to learn and to practice. To become a “Professional” at anything you will need to spend a lot of time doing it. A student asked me: “How much time should I spend on my learning?” My answer is: “All your life” as I also continue to learn by helping you to be better software professionals. That is the reason why I continue to work on my research, my textbooks, my lectures and blog to support students on their way to become experts, not just having degrees from university but true professionals.

As we are learning together you need to know that your life at the university is precious. It is the best time of your life, so do not waste it on other trivial things. Take advantage of what technology offers you, take advantage of what university offers you, take advantage of what others share with you, take advantage of what this blog offers you as you are learning. You do NOT become expert at anything in a day, in a week or in a year but you will become expert day-by-day as everyday is a school day.

Prof John Vu

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Original source: http://www.hualong-info.com/Blog/JohnVu/2010/March/opening.en.html

The critical moment

Ben Olson took my “Introduction to Software Engineering” class fifteen years ago but he did not continue with other courses. In university environment where students come and go, you do not know what happen to them. Last week, Ben came to see me. I did not remember him but he remembered me. He said: “I really like your class but unfortunately I could not finish my education here. I just want to come to see you and thank you for what you taught me.” Since Ben is a vice president of a software company, I assumed that he probably went to another university for his education but he said: “No, I never finish school. My parents died in an auto accident when I was in the second year at CMU so I had to quit school and went to work to take care of my younger sister. I worked in an automobile factory in Detroit.”

He probably saw my surprise so he continued: “I worked hard to put my sister in school. After she graduated and got married, my uncle asked me to come to California since he could get me a better job at Intel as an assembler of electronic circuit board. It was at my time in Silicon Valley that my life took an interesting turn. A friend who worked for a software company told me: “My company is hiring a lot of programmers so give me your resume and I can help you get a better job than assembling circuit board.” Few days later he called me: “Ben, what kind of degree do you have? You did not fill in the section on college degree.” I told him that I did not have a college degree. He hesitated for awhile and said: “This job requires a college degree but if you write that you have a computer degree. They probably do not check, I know that they need to hire hundred programmers immediately and they are very busy.” I told him that I did not even know how to program. He laughed: “You work with me and I can help you, it only takes a few months to learn programming.”

“At that time, I knew that I had a choice. I could lie; the worst thing was if they found out, they could fire me. If they did not check then I can get a good job. I told him that I would think about it. After a few days I sent him my updated resume and he sent it to the company. Few days later I was called into a job interview. There were three people who interviewed me. The last interview was with a software director. He said: “It is interesting that you wrote in the degree section: “one year of college” that means you do not have a college degree.” I nod my head: “Yes, I did not have a college degree.” He stared at me for few minutes as he wanted to know why a person without a degree would apply for a job that requires a college degree. Finally he said: “Tell me what you did when you quit college.” So I told him about my situation and my years of experience in a car factory and at Intel. He said: “You took a class in Software Engineering, tell me about what you have learned in that class.” I explained to him why I loved Software Engineering but I did not have a chance to finish it.” He asked more questions and I answered most of them based on what I learned from your class. I did not remember all the details but I knew that I am very passionate as I learned from the way you taught us in that class. When I finished he asked me about my working experiences. We spent another fifteen minutes on topics that had nothing to do with software. He looked at me for a long while but not saying a word. I was exhausted and did not know what to do. Then he pointed at the door, signaling me to leave and said: “Thank you for coming in.” I left the company and thought to myself: “I should never do something like this again.”

“That evening I got a call from the company that I had a job, not as a programmer but as an assistant to the Director of software. To my surprise, the hiring officer said: “I did not know what happen but the Director liked you. In fact he had to convince the company and others who did not want to hire you. Please come to work as soon as possible.”

“I went to work as the assistant to the Director. My job was to interact with project managers and provide status reports to him. Few years later, he moved me to Marketing to run advertising and public relation for the company. After seven years, I got promoted to vice president of Marketing. The director who gave me the job is now the president of the company. I never forget what he told me on my first day at work: “Honesty is the virtue that many young people do not pay attention to. I hired you because of your sincerity and honesty. Technical and other things could be learned but honesty and integrity are something that you must have. I am sure your parents did a very good job of raising you.”

“I always remember the critical moment that I had to make decision at that time. If I lie, I will be faced with ethical dilemmas all my life. I may be able to get a job but I always worry that somebody will find out. If I lie, I will have to continue to lie and cheat all the time. Of course, it is the easiest choice and it seems inconsequential at that time but it will have a lasting consequence all my life. I can cheat other people but I cannot cheat myself. I remember the lesson that you taught me in your first Software Engineering class: “Be honest, be ethical, and work hard to make a difference in this world.” That is why I came back and thank you for your valuable lesson. I might not learn much about technical but I do learned something important: “Make all your decisions wisely and honestly.”

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Prof. Vu
Carnegie Mellon University

Original source: http://www.segvn.org/forum/mvnforum/viewthread_thread,1670