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In order to be remembered and noticed by the boss you will need to:
1. Be friendly and pleasant. Have a nice thing to say to everyone, ooze good manners, and have a ready smile and caring attitude. Don’t be brash and ride rough shod over others or be judgmental.
2. Refrain from gossip. It is the one thing that can make life uncomfortable. Know what’s happening in the office but stay away from discussing it or spreading things however tempting it may be.
3. Update your skills and knowledge constantly. The world today moves at a fast pace and one needs to keep up with technical innovations as well as global business trends. Make all efforts to be ahead of developments in your field of work.
4. Be efficient in your work and have facts and figures at the tips of your fingers. Always prepare for meetings well be a visionary and make suggestions that can be backed up by action. When you speak it must be “pearls of wisdom.”
5. Practice the art of listening. Analyze what others know and can tell you. Absorb knowledge like a sponge. Never restrict yourself to only your department. It pays to know other functions of the organization.
6. Be a leader in all aspects. Be the first to accept extra responsibilities, to take over someone else’s load when they have problems, lend a hand when a team is working to achieve a deadline. Make valuable suggestions. Let people know they can depend on you for just about anything.
7. Respect and obey the rules of the office. Be disciplined and spread the culture to all others.
8. Always be in control, never appear to be stressed. Keep personal life and work separate—never form a relationship with a colleague or boss. Dress well everyday and stand tall.
9. Be methodical and organized in your work. Use filing methods that anyone can use—if you are away anyone in your department should be able to locate the papers. Keep your work area neat, computer files uncluttered. Device a workable backup schedule such that under no circumstance is your work lost. Disaster management measures must be in place.
10. Be poised, stylish, and approachable. Look good and smell good—excellent personal habits are always appreciated. Carry breath mints in your pocket along with a fresh hanky. Keep a laundered shirt on hand for emergencies.
It takes more than talent to impress a boss. Be ahead in the race for success.
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In a nutshell, open source software is software made by everyone - for everyone. The hopes behind its development is that through its open access, it will evolve into something that represents the true desires of computer users. Through a wide network of user involvement, the software in question is enhanced and debugged without costs or administrative politics.
Traditionally, software is developed behind closed doors. A team of professional coders build it but the community at large isn’t part of its conception. It’s costly to produce and as you can probably guess, that cost is passed on to the end user: the consumer. Open source software on the other hand is free. Free to download, free to install, free to use, free to modify, and free to share.
Started over twenty years ago, it’s a phenomenon that is gaining in both popularity and exposure. In its first conception, open source gave birth to the World Wide Web as we know it today. The Internet as a whole is the result of free permission to access the web, use the web, contribute to the web, and share the web with others. But it certainly hasn’t stopped there. In the not too distant past, Netscape converted its once commercial version of its Navigator web browser to open source. And today, open source is venturing into the commercial realm as well.
At first thought, the idea of open source may sound just plain crazy to those who earn a living from software development. But the facts point to a different prediction. Open source software puts companies in a terrific position to re-brand and re-position themselves in a market that they may have not been able to reach before. In the business world, open source is all about image and when consumers witness corporations contributing (instead of selling) to the buying public, they gain big favor in the eyes of their users (plus tremendous opportunities to sell other items).
Inviting the public inside a product’s development builds community and trust. It also sets the platform for increased reliability. Fans of open source programs are adamant about reliable software and highly criticize commercialized versions for being buggy and error-prone. Avid fans even proclaim commercialism is the cause of shoddy software.
Another benefit that open source brings to light is the speed at which its products are developed, enhanced, supported and distributed. This is because the people who regularly contribute to an open source product do so for unmotivated reasons (other than perhaps to feed the ego.) They’re highly talented, they’re available, and they care. Bringing money into any project can almost mean instant death. It can kill motivation, desire, and a true willingness to create a good product. In a commercial setting, participants work for a paycheck rather than for the product. And this is what puts open source projects far ahead of its monetized competition.
As a software user, this means you can contribute to an open source project as well, and help to develop it into a product that reflects your direct preferences. You aren’t “stuck” using open source software the way you would be stuck using an expensive word processor or database. You have the same access to open source software as its programmers have and in essence, you are your own customer!
Perhaps at this point you’re wondering where you can get in on this wonderful opportunity. There are plenty of open source opportunities sprinkled across the Internet and they can be easily found though any search engine. Google “open source project” and you’ll be sure to find more resources than you can shake a stick at!