I’ve been thinking about what I learned in University and more importantly what I’ve learned since University. These are the essential subjects and skills that were completely ignored at the University level, but would have been very useful to have. They might not have worked as full courses, but a lecture or seminar on the subjects would have helped.



Estimation, Procrastination and Motivation

Personal Estimation: Why it is Going to Take More Than Two Weeks to Hit Your Deadline

Why Cramming for a Deadline is Effective at School but Not in the Workplace

The Internet: Do You Really Need It For Your Job?

The Passion of the Code: Loving What You Do

Metrics: What Isn’t Measured, Isn’t Done

Focus on the Important, Not the Immediate

Programming and Testing

Why We Don’t Teach Scripting Languages Even Though You’ll Use Them More Often Than Fortran, Pascal, C or Java

All Programming is Maintenance Programming

Why Re-writing from Scratch is Always the Worst Choice

Verification: If It Wasn’t Tested It Doesn’t Work

Automation vs Doing It By Hand: What Is More Efficient?

Hardening: The Only Bug-Free Code is Old Code

The Turtle and the Rabbit: Fast and Lazy vs Slow and Diligent

Tools

Don’t Blame the Tools (Even Though the Tools Suck)

Don’t Reinvent the Wheel: Leveraging Open Source

How Version Control Will Save Your Life

Text Editors: Why Notepad Isn’t Enough

Bug Tracking: More Than Post-It Notes!

Back-up Strategy: Painful but Necessary

Documentation

Diagrams, Diagrams, Diagrams: A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

English: Not Just for Managers!

Automatic Documentation Generation: Why Documentation Should Be Tied to Code

Abbreviation: Why Abbreviating Four Letters to Five Helps No One

Users and User Interface

Keep It Simple, Stupid

Cognitive Overload

Users are People, Not Problems

Support Isn’t a Four Letter Word (It’s Seven)

Servicing Interrupts: Getting Work Done While Supporting Co-Workers

Delegation and Interpersonal Skills

Passing the Buck and Shifting the Blame

Making Small Talk When You Have Nothing in Common

Why Co-Workers Are Companions, Not Competition

Trust Issues: Don’t Assume That What Your Co-Worker Gave You Works

Bribing IT: Getting Your Computer Problems Fixed In a Reasonable Time

Meetings

How to Avoid Meetings

Who to Invite to Meetings

How to Stay Awake in Meetings When They’re Unavoidable

Shutting Up: Keeping Meetings Productive When You Have Nothing Useful to Say

Why Design By Committee Doesn’t Work

Health and Appearance

Staying in Shape Even Though You’re Sedimentary

Eating Healthy When You Have Fast Food Every Day

Hygiene: Friend or Foe?

World Wide Wassup: Meeting Your Mate on the Internet

I am Pretty: Why Go Into Consulting or Marketing

Finance and Future

Planning for Retirement

Public Companies vs Start-ups: Pros and Cons

*HOW* Much of the Company Do the VCs Own?!

Stock Options Dos and Don’ts

How to Evaluate Benefits Compared to Salary

I think each of these subjects could be a post in itself (and probably has been). If you have any relevant links then please drop them in the comments.

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