Software Developers - your career paths?

[shouldbworking]

Just giving some thought to my longer term career plans and I think PH is a 50 50 split of Fortune 500 CEOs and the rest are IT types of some form or other, so hopefully I'll get some good answers.

For those of you who are / have been devs at some time or another, how long did you / will you aim to spend as a dev and what job would you hope to move in to?

Background - Graduated 2003, worked as a dev at 1 place, 'technical lead' at another but it wasnt going anywhere, now a 'solutions developer'. I've worked with most of the popular technologies at some point or other and can turn my hand to pretty much anything. I am competent as a developer but believe that I could do a lot better job than most of the BAs or project managers I have worked with. So far as I can tell though the key requirements for that sort of role is being over 40 and struggling to operate a calculator.

How did / would you approach such a role transition? just start applying for jobs and focus upon the more relevant skills and hope they give you a chance? get some of the buzzwords (prince 2) yourself and then go for it? internal promotion?

[CzechItOut]

Have you asked your boss if you can have some more project management or analysis responsibility? It's a common request from senior developers to get more involved in the business requirements and technical solutions side of things, rather than just coding.

A lot of BA/PM roles also seem to ask for some kind of professional qualification, so maybe try to get PRINCE2 practitioner or ISEB.

[sharpfocus]

I graduated in 2005 and am moving into contracting, having acquired security clearances. Rates seem to be from £450/day for Java.

I struggled to get any sort of career progression within companies, those further up never moved up or out and I didn't have the patience to hang around doing the same old. No matter how impressed seniors were there never seemed to be as much opportunity in house as looking elsewhere.

Edited by sharpfocus on Sunday 31st July 19:53

[russ_a]

£450 a day? Must be London I guess?

[essayer]

Sometimes retraining on the job is worth doing

I'm working as a front end (Javascript) developer with a strong background in PHP - but in my current role, I've been asked to do some Java development. It's not so bad to pick up, so in my next role I might throw it into my CV historically too

[otolith]

I was originally taken on at my last employer as a junior developer. By the time I left (seven years or so ago) I was the development consultant responsible for software architecture (a consultancy role sitting across all our projects and ownership of our framework libraries). I left that to be chief cook and bottle washer at a startup, where I remain to this day. Most of my mates from my old job are contractors now.

[shouldbworking]

So to the contractors, what do you contract as? a development role again or a different one?

I'm currently trying to pick up some more skills seen as desirable in higher up positions through another part time job that I'm applying for.

[otolith]

shouldbworking said:

So to the contractors, what do you contract as? a development role again or a different one?

My former colleagues are mostly still writing software, though one of them has also had some very lucrative project management work and I believe one of them is currently working in a build role.

[Ynox]

Graduated in 2006 (2.2 Warwick CS).

First role was in 2006, working as a dev doing VB / Java EE stuff for a health and safety consultancy. Stayed there for 18 months or so before moving jobs (got a whopping £3k payrise to do so). Was an OK place to work, benefits were crap and pay wasn't great.

Worked in the next company for 8 months (Java dev again but this time doing mobile phone video stuff). They stopped paying me on time.

Now doing Java / Javascript / Perl / jack of all stuff for an IPTV / DVB stuff company. Been here 3 years (in that time I've seen my basic pay go up by 44%). It's a reasonably good place to work, had a chance to do a fair bit of travel/customer facing stuff (which I enjoy). Now looking for the next role though - thinking senior developer / team lead / moving towards solutions architecture or business analysis. Ideally in same area (had a senior dev position offered to me working in the finance sector but I think I'd prefer sticking with the sector I'm in). Doubtful that it'll happen here so I've not got much option than to look around.

Edit - wrt permie v contractor - I've heard it said many a time that if you want to stick as a developer, contractor is the way to go. Anything else then permie. Then again, I've seen Java contractor rates as high as £550/day so maybe being a dev isn't all bad!