Career paths advice from anyone that works in IT?

[constancekelly]

In 2005, I graduated with a BSc in Computer Science. After, I worked for 2yrs in an IT company in their support desk department in a badly paid non-graduate job, steadily grew to hate it, and eventually managed to secure a role as a junior web developer with a company I?ve been with ever since (4 years). I?ve since been promoted through the ranks (first to Web UI Developer, then as SEO Developer due to undertaking some extra training off-site).

However, I feel unfulfilled in my work because I seem to be in a rut. I?m not really learning anything new in the last two years (it?s a well-respected web design agency of 10 employees that I work for, but they?re very keen to pigeon hole their employees into ?oh, Andrew is our PHP man, Sally does the project management stuff, and Kelly (me) does the search engine side of things?, etc.) and I?ve realised I miss working for a larger company where there is a chance for promotion and sideways movement (like in my previous job, even if the work and pay was crap).

So I?ve been looking through what sort of career progression I could realistically go for in a large organisation (location not a problem, we?re based in one of England?s tech hubs).

The problem is that I don?t see any role models to base my ideas on. I see vacancies listed for IT careers for jobs like Chief Technology Officer or Chief Information Officer, but I can?t see that my current career path can lead there.

I suppose what I?m asking is: what sort of large employer career path is there for ex-web developers who don?t want to set up their own web design firm or go freelance? Where do the other developers that don?t want either of those two options end up? Team Leading a team of developers for the rest of their lives?

Can anyone offer any advice? Ideally DH and me would like to start a family within the next two or three years (god willing) so this has influenced my decision to look for a blue chip employer a little bit, but not by much. It's more the career progression that I'm yearning for.

It depends on which aspects of IT that you like. Do you like learning new things regularly? Do you prefer the working with people? Do you like organising things? Do you like the technology aspect?

Depending on your answers then you could move into Team Leading then Development Manager or Architect or Project Management.
Or you could move into the infrastructure side of things, Architect or Server support of some kind.
I would though, forget about the job titles as they often overlap or are downright misleading. The important thing to do is look at the job description and if you like the sound of that, then decide what you are missing in your skill set and work out how to get there.

Do you like learning new things regularly? yes

Do you prefer the working with people? yes, I also don't mind stress or responsibility - I focus when under pressure, but get bored too easily when it's slow

Do you like organising things? yes, I'm "OCD organised" apparently (joke by my boss)

Do you like the technology aspect? not really, i fell into comp sci at uni due to my brother doing the same course 2 years earlier and he seemed to like it, and since i didn't hate it and did quite well in the degree, it wasn't a problem

Or you could move into the infrastructure side of things, Architect or Server support of some kind.

Actually the idea of that really turned me off - I was scared in my last job of being on IT or network support for the rest of my days. I absolutely hated how low status/paid it was, but then I was always on the lowest pay grade there. For some reason the department head's job (basically Head of Networking) never appealed to me for some reason. I couldn't imagine putting in 15 years of work and ending up with his job for some reason.

i suppose i'm wanting to move away from the technical side, if i'm being honest.

Project Management might be an idea though. it would fit into my organisation skills well. I've (obviously) known quite a few but it's not something I ever considered for myself. I'll maybe have a chat with a colleague about her day to day job - I don't sit in the same area of the building as her so even when she's been PM to my projects, it's a very segregated comms line.

Something to mull over anyway!

I've had another thought, what about Business Analysis?

One question to ask yourself when looking at any career path: "Can these jobs potentially be done more cheaply in India?" If the answer's yes think very carefully before heading in that direction.

(That's not the reason I got made redundant after 20 years in IT, but it's been a contributing factor for some of the guys I used to work with.)

From your answers to SageMist project management and business analysis both sound plausible. At least two people I used to work with were good at both and did both depending on what the department's needs were at any given time.

Business Analyst. Literally, over 20 unfilled posts where I work. Contract / Permanent. I fell into a Business Analyst role a few years ago (before I got pregnant) and I have never looked back. I have been able to do the job as a permant staff member and contracter 3 days a week. Very easy to move into project management from there if you want to.

Many thanks, all - i'm so glad I decided to post on here about this now. I wasn't sure about doing it.

I've been googling information around business analyst roles - can I ask on a more informal level about things like:

• What sort of criteria is considered "must-have" vs. "desirable" for roles as a business analyst?

• What sort of background is most beneficial, and is there anything I could do whilst employed in my current job to make me stand out in this area?

• What kind of career progression is there, and is there a ceiling where business analyst can go no further? Looking back to my first job in tech support, i know that the barrier was basically, if you don't want to go into management, you'd be on Level 1 > Level 2 > Level 3 tech support for the rest of your career. A very solid ceiling there.

• What is the day to day job, what's a typical day? And does the role vary from employer to employer or sector to sector much?

I have a fair idea of the answers to all the above questions from reading around this online, but I'm very very eager to get some insider opinions.

I think the problem with the previous jobs that I've had is that I've seen how they look on paper and never really delved into the reality - only to find the reality didn't match my expectations on what the day to day job entailed / what I'd be expected to do, etc.

Also, amysaidno - why are the posts unfilled?

Is it lack of applicants (if so, what's putting them off - the salaries vary hugely in the BA roles I'm looking at online...), lack of quality candidates, etc?

Also, how easy would it be for someone of my background to get their first BA job? Would I even be in with a chance due to my background?

Clearly, I have a lot of technical knowledge, and with my web development job at my current employer, I've worked on a huge number of projects and even led some of the requirements gathering/analysis/ stage signoff work myself.

Reading around, this is exactly the sort of day to day experience that would count in my favour for BA roles. But is an interviewer likely to give much credit to this experience (since it hasn't been in a strictly BA role) - will it count for nowt, I suppose is what I'm saying? Should I be aiming to look for more junior BA roles which assume no experience of technical professional/ project experience .. the sort of jobs aimed at graduates just fresh out of university?

constance, I think if I were looking to hire business analysts at the moment, I'd be wanting people with a good analytical background, who understood the requirements process and the need for unambiguous requirements preferably expressed in a rigorous way (we use UML for some of our stuff). Other places will actively want something less techy - I actually got knocked back for a job doing requirements for a mobile company's website because I wasn't 'fluffy enough' (I think the interviewer may actually have used this term!) - perhaps creativity during the process is encouraged at that end of the market but we work on projects worth millions of quid so generally 'making it up' during the build phase is not encouraged :)

I went in to a BA role (rather than a senior) and I think undersold myself, assuming that without experience of the particular sector (although I had worked as a BA before) I wouldn't have a chance as a senior. So in your place I wouldn't be punting yourself as a junior but looking at ways to make sure your CV reflects the work you have done in requirements - in such a small organisation it'd be surprising if you hadn't been a business analyst / developer / project manager / all-rounder.

I think progression beyond business analyst can be difficult, depending on what kind of firm you are in - less of an issue for you in a tech corridor than it has been for me in less populous markets, I suspect. But a few solid years will set you up well to be leading requirements teams, although I would urge you to look for ways to keep your technical skills current if you want to keep a broader range of options open. I think business analysis is something that can fit quite well around family life - although less so if done in a consultancy, where the expectation is for a great deal of travel.

Hello - sorry, I should have answered sooner I just don't MN that often and I forgot to check this thread. In answer to your questions:

• What sort of criteria is considered "must-have" vs. "desirable" for roles as a business analyst?

* Must have ? be able to communicate. Essentially your job is to capture user / customer requirements for a new system, process change , new bit of functionality and you need to make sure that the requirements when carried thorough a project, deliver what the customer wants.

• What sort of background is most beneficial, and is there anything I could do whilst employed in my current job to make me stand out in this area?

* I see that you are working in web design, one of the more recent jobs I worked on was looking to design a series of web pages to allow customers to manage their device online (register device, add users, bar device, etc). I had to work with the customer to understand what they wanted their customers to do and put together some usecases around how the process would work. I then pro-typed the webpage (can?t remember the tool but powerpoint would work, remember this is just a visual tool) to walk the customer through the pages and get them to sign off the use cases. These use cases were then sent to the developers. Basically as a?ex-developer? you would be in a great position to be able to provide clear requirements to current developers

• What kind of career progression is there, and is there a ceiling where business analyst can go no further?

* I have now moved onto project management (which I only do under duress because I don?t like it), I am also a test manager, I put together functional design spec, manage changes into production, etc. I am quite an all-rounder and though I am generally hired as a business analyst, the fact that I am willing and able to help out where needed is seen as a real positive

• What is the day to day job, what's a typical day? And does the role vary from employer to employer or sector to sector much?

* As a business analyst you would be generally given a remit (help us choose an amazing system to do X, or document the customer?s requirements for a Finance system, etc). You would then go round to the customer / users and discuss their requirements and write them down. Put them all together in a document / prototype and run back through it with them to ensure you have understood, not missed anything etc. Early on I had to run a bunch of requirements capture workshops which might sound scary to some but I never worked alone.

• Is it lack of applicants (if so, what's putting them off - the salaries vary hugely in the BA roles I'm looking at online...), lack of quality candidates, etc?

* Lack of quality, apparently the quality of applicants has been completely dire and top performers are all moving to Australia / New Zealand ? your background would be viewed positively.

-Clearly, I have a lot of technical knowledge, and with my web development job at my current employer, I've worked on a huge number of projects and even led some of the requirements gathering/analysis/ stage signoff work myself.

• Excellent! Put that on your CV and say something along the lines that you are getting more and more exposure in this kind of role and it is exactly the kind work that interests you and you have discovered you are good at. I had process improvement experience when I got my first job so not half as qualified as you!

-Reading around, this is exactly the sort of day to day experience that would count in my favour for BA roles. But is an interviewer likely to give much credit to this experience (since it hasn't been in a strictly BA role) - will it count for nowt, I suppose is what I'm saying? Should I be aiming to look for more junior BA roles which assume no experience of technical professional/ project experience .. the sort of jobs aimed at graduates just fresh out of university?

• I would aim quite high, don?t go for a junior role. Perhaps not go for a Senior Role but with your experience a standard BA job would be easy. You basically need to say that you have done this role in your current job and you want to move somewhere with more opportunity to expand your experience, you just need be confident in your CV and an interview.