Lately I've been thinking about the direction I want to take in my professional career. Basically I see that I have two options - I either continue as a "techie" developer or move into the business side of things.
Being someone who is more interested in making money than becoming an excellent IT programmer, I've decided that I should focus more on the business of a corporation than the nitty gritty techie work. My next career position is going to be a "Business Analyst", at a major bank. Business Analysts generally make easier money than techies, and often more money. The way I see it, BAs rely more on natural talents like communication, writing skills and diplomacy; so in a major way, work is easier. Techies on the other hand rely on learnt knowledge more than natural talent. There is so much happening in the IT world all the time and techies HAVE to keep up to speed and have answers for their superiors when they're asked.
It's not just the money. Having worked as an analyst programmer for a good five years, I've come to notice that I don't think like the typical IT programmer. I am always more interested in how my designed software can help an enterprise rather than being interested in the software itself. Other programmers I've worked with would get excited about the software itself - the code, the design, the lack of bugs, the cleverness of the algorithms. To me, software is a means to an end - it's there to help a business make money, to put it simply. It's not there for the sake of giving clever programmers a job. To give another example, recently I asked a programmer colleague of mine of what he wants from his next career move. Without hesitation he replied "Man, I just want to make money". I suggested to him that he should look into getting into business analysis or project management. Instead, he told me he was learning "Unix administration" and C# .NET after work in order to get a higher paying job. See what I mean? Instead of focusing on the "money making" side of the company, he is preoccupied in learning new technologies to increase his wage. I think in the short time he might get a small pay rise but longer term who will make more money generally? I think the BAs and the PMs.
Being involved in the business attracts more money, just like a property developer (generally) makes more money than the brick layers he employs. BAs are to developers what builders are to bricklayers. They tell developers what to do after discussing the really important matters with management, and that's where money is made. The ideas and plans have already been discussed once the developers are instructed to start work - being in the thick of the planning, the meetings and the budgeting is what is really valuable to a company.
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