Developer/Programmer
Data Center Administrator
Business Analyst (with some market research, lots of travelling, and minor tool development)
Client Implementation (client hardware/software installs, create builds of projects, minor support etc.)

at a global software development company that currently hosts and supports dozens of clients (roughly 100+ servers)

without knowing much more about the company other than it is growing tremdendously fast... which job would you choose to help further build your career (long term) and why?


* - I have this in tech talk because the jobs are all technical in nature and I am hoping to get feedback from anyone already involved in one or more of the above fields.. or just any long term technical perspective for that matter.

2/10/2006 10:48:57 AM

Business Analyst

once you build the contacts, it's harder to let you go and you have a lot of opportunities to expand if this company blows or goes out of business or whatever

all the others seem like grunt work - necessary work but low on the food chain

i'm still in undergrad working $15/hr jobs so wtf do i know...
but that's what i'd do.

2/10/2006 11:19:08 AM

that is mostly how I have been looking at it - the others are very very focused and can be filled with anyone with the right technical skills.. they also don't seem to allow much room for actual career growth.. but I'm just looking for some more opinions here since I have a pretty strange.. but good opportunity coming up in a couple of weeks.

[Edited on February 10, 2006 at 11:31 AM. Reason : sdfj]

2/10/2006 11:31:32 AM

i currently do the developer/programmer position (both enterprise apps and local client projects).

- the developer position is alright, but lately i feel like i live in my cube in the endless loop of crank out code, get feedback from testers/managers, crank out code, etc. I would look at the client implementation job, it has the potential of being pretty dynamic, gets you in front of the customers (where you can make contacts), and you still get exposed to the technology used in your product

2/10/2006 12:03:04 PM

For the past 2 months I have actually been bouncing between data center admin and development work... I was never brought to this company to do work in the data center... but it became an immediate need and I took the reigns for the time being since I had the knowledge to do it. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't want to do this long term.. just can't see myself enjoying it or branching into other big things with it.

The development side of what I've been doing is a lot of how you just described it... sit in the office and pump out code all day. Just like data center work though... I may have enough knowledge to handle it but I'm not sure if I want it to be a career.

Quite honestly.. I thought I would be doing a lot of database development work when I graduated. The thing that I have learned more than more though is.. like with programming all day.. I kind of get sick of sitting in front of this computer staring at code all day. I could make decent money doing it.. but with this opportunity I'm trying to think a little more long term now.

Client implementations may actually be interesting but it still seems like a lot of grunt work in a way for some reason... setup a server... install software... create builds of projects for release management... rince and repeat. If you can't tell I'm leaning heavily to the Business Analysis role as far as expanding my career unless I can convince myself otherwise. If nothing else.. I can sort of do minor development as well to keep close to the technology side.

In any case - thanks for the input.. I guess I have some nerves and I am trying to justify everything

2/10/2006 12:38:52 PM