If you are a server side developer I’m sure you already realized that being up to date with technology is a tough job. You may just blink and stay behind others (as I know from my own experience).
For Java EE developers it’s no different.
But if you don’t want to get stuck with your career and prefer to keep working on great Java EE projects, there are three powerful things you should be doing right now.
Read/Study the Java EE Tutorial
Talking about Java EE Tutorial with a Java Champion he told me: “(Java EE Tutorial) It’s not sexy, but it’s there, it’s complete and it’s ready“.
I know it sounds weird but… it works! You can really learn every detail about Java EE thru official Java EE Tutorial.
It’s a pretty extensive document (980 pages for version 7) covering absolutely all API’s.
If you want to try the Java EE 7 Tutorial, the link is here.
Try Java EE Samples
If have not used some Java EE feature you can’t say that’s because you didn’t find any good example. As for Java EE Tutorial, the Java EE team keeps a repository for official Java EE Samples.
More than have a bunch of examples (and it does!), you can learn from the top Java EE developers in the world.
And now it’s even better: all Java EE projects migrated to Github, so you can try the Java EE examples just cloning the repository.
The link is here.
Get involved
The Java (and Java EE) world is all about community, and community is all about getting involved. So find a JUG close to you (if still haven’t) and work together!
Discussion lists, blogs, events, webinars, ebooks, podcasts… everything you can find, promote and/or share will not only help YOU to learn and stay up to date, but will also help others.
I would even say that getting involved is even better than the items above, as when we learn things together the learning is much more effective.
If I would mention a single project about “getting involved”, for sure it would be the Adopt a JSR initiative. It’s the most effective and funny! Check it here to see more details.
And stay tunned: all those resources will soon being updated as the Java EE 8 release!
If you want to share any thoughts about it don’t forget to let you comments bellow. See you!