Help Your Boss Help You

We are hosting our first in-person JUG meeting since January 2020. Ken Kousem Java Champion and published author is coming into town to present on the topic of his new book "Help your boss help you" https://pragprog.com/titles/kkmanage/help-your-boss-help-you/ and we are having a mini launch party for him. We will have several copies which Ken has graciously agreed to sign, and some e-book versions to give away!

Roam has a big room for us but we will be limiting the attendance number to 40 people. We will also live stream this event and will share the link just before the meeting.

Abstract - Help Your Boss Help You

The conflict between technical professionals and traditional managers is inevitable because each side wants different things. Most employees feel that when conflicts arise with their managers, their only options are either to go along with what the manager wants, or leave. Neither option gets you what you want when you want it. This talk, based on the book of the same name, discusses a third option: how to build a relationship over time that makes your boss want to keep you around and keep you happy. It includes how to push back when your manager makes decisions you don't like, how to provide good enough answers that build a constructive loyalty relationship, how to avoid common mistakes like believing your boss is actually your friend, and more.

Preesenter - Kenneth Kousen

Ken Kousen is a Java Champion, Oracle Groundbreaker Ambassador, and a Grails Rock Star. He is the author of the Pragmatic Library book “Help Your Boss Help You,” the O'Reilly books “Kotlin Cookbook”, “Modern Java Recipes”, and “Gradle Recipes for Android”, and the Manning book “Making Java Groovy”. He also has recorded over a dozen video courses for the O'Reilly Learning Platform, covering topics related to Android, Spring, Java, Groovy, Grails, and Gradle.

In 2013, 2016, and 2017 he won a JavaOne Rockstar award. His academic background includes BS degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Mathematics from M.I.T., an MA and Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering from Princeton, and an MS in Computer Science from R.P.I. He is currently President of Kousen IT, Inc., based in Connecticut.