What options are available for software developer?

Replies

• 

  Kaustubh Katdare

  Welcome to CE, #-Link-Snipped-# . We hope you will enjoy CE and become an active contributor here.
  
  

  vritee

  but 1 year down the line I do not want to continue working as a developer

  You have not stated the reasons for not wanting to continue the role of software developer.
  
  

  vritee

  I even searched for PMP programmes but i guess for that 1 should have Project management experience right??

  There are several options available; but there's not enough information available to offer any useful response. You could switch to software QA profile, IT or go for PMP certification as well. Totally depends on your reasons for shift, your existing skills-set and opportunities available to you.
• 

  vritee

  hi kaustubh, Thanks alot for ur warm welcome..
  The reason for not wanting to continue as a developer is just that i do not have dat mch intrest in coding side.
  if u say i can go for QA or for PMP , still the employer wil ask for experience in that domain which i dnt have..
  I even searched about pre sales, sales domain, business intelligence, data entry etc..
  But Thats where I am confused, 1) what are all the options available in which i can switch after development experience anf then i can continue in that for long time 2) how to switch in that domain without having an experience of that.
  looking forward for ur rply
• 

  Kaustubh Katdare

  vritee

  if u say i can go for QA or for PMP , still the employer wil ask for experience in that domain which i dnt have..

  Look for opportunities within your own organisation. I will take a while but worth the wait. I'd strongly recommend you to explore as many possible areas you want to enter before making your final choice. You certainly don't want to end up in a role that gets boring or uninteresting in 3-4 years after you pick it.
  
  Your choice of domains looks very wide. Your first priority should be to reduce it to top 2-3 so that you can actively investigate the kind of jobs they offer and role you will be awarded.
  
  The best way to prepare yourself for a new role is to gain some hands on experience so that you build a case for your current or new employer. I guess no employer would restrict you if they see your efforts in willing to join that domain.
• 

  vritee

  Hi Kaustubh,
  Actually my organisation do not encourage change of domain so that not possible ( as seen from past incidents).
  Ya you are true , I don't want to end up in a role that gets boring thats why I want to know like what all options u suggest (considering my development experience), in which i can switch and grow in career.
  Yes I also want to reduce my choices to 2-3 but thats where I am confued , bcoz I am not able to find what other options available and can i switch to those options from development as employers wil ask for experience in those domains.
  Can you suggest some domains?? and the way to switch in those.
  Thanks,
• 

  Kaustubh Katdare

  There are several roles available in any IT company. Some of the career paths you may choose:-
  

  • QA (May need coding knowledge if you work in automation testing)
  • BA (Business Analyst)
  • Sales
  • Marketing
  • Networking
  • SEO
  • IT (Infrastructure)
  • System Administration
  • Technical Writer etc.

  It looks like you will have to start your new profile with a new employer. You may choose to start as a fresher (may have to take a cut in the salary) or build up profile or relevant experience or skills-set. Typically, opting for an MBA or enrolling yourself in a relevant certification course would be a good start. Of all the choices above, I think switching to QA would be easiest; while building up on your past experience as a developer.
  
  If that's the path you want to take, you should build up your knowledge in QA domain and get yourself a certification in QA. That should build your case with a new employer. You will then have to prepare a pitch to convince the new employer that QA is the domain you want to work on and you can bring in the best of your development experience to QA.
  
  Hope this gives you a way to think and explore. Feel free to ask your questions. I'm sure our fellow engineers would add their opinions.
  
  I'll tag #-Link-Snipped-# , #-Link-Snipped-# , #-Link-Snipped-# to take this discussion forward.
• 

  Anoop Kumar

  I would suggest to go management side. but you have to spend few more years for it.
  Get certified with PMP kind of things or Scrum master even if your current job doesn't require this. It will help you in any future opportunities.
  If current company is not supporting you to change the lane, better drive on highway.
• 

  Anil Jain

  Doing PMP before 7-8 years of experience (Though preferable is 10 + years with atleast 3-4 years of management experience) would be very tough and will not make any sense.
  
  Having almost 4 years of experience at your back will definitely help you and you may not have to start as a fresher. Learn few processes or testing skills and you will be all set to join as a SQA, BA or Testing team member. All you need to do is show your interest to your superiors and they should honor your career aspirations.
  
  I have seen many companies that have the option to change your profile / stream after clearing some in-house certifications or tests. Alternate option is to nurture you skills in the area of your interest and look for a job outside your company; In any case, you need to explain the fact that 4 years of experience doesn't waste and I am sure it will be considered.
• 

  vritee

  Hi Anoop,
  Thanks for your reply.
  Actually I am also more biased towards doing PMP certification. But when i searched about it , its written almost everywhere that " person should have minimum 5 years of experience and some months of project management experience". In my case 5 years experience point will be satisfied when i"l go and search a new job , but i do not have any project mgmt experience, so the employer wont hire me.
  In such case what should I do??
• 

  Anoop Kumar

  Anil Jain

  I have seen many companies that have the option to change your profile / stream after clearing some in-house certifications or tests. Alternate option is to nurture you skills in the area of your interest and look for a job outside your company; In any case, you need to explain the fact that 4 years of experience doesn't waste and I am sure it will be considered.

  #-Link-Snipped-# - I think Anil's advice is best way. I have working with one our BA who did the same. He was developer and then changed to BA.
  You got right, at least 5 year experience is required to go into management side.
  I think you have the time to do certifications and probably a good distance MBA.
• 

  vritee

  #-Link-Snipped-# - ok I am getting your point.. So in your way you are saying that if i clear lets say PMP certification in lets say 1 year down the line, so that till that time i wud have 5years of experience + PMP certification, so there are chances that employer in market may consider my profile even though i wud not have any PM experience??
• 

  Anil Jain

  PMP certification is organized by PMI, that expects the relative experience in project management for some time. They do a random check for that as well.
  
  If they find you not suitable (under experience) for this, your application may get rejected as well. Also, PMP certification help us getting job / knowledge of project management. With 4 years of experience and without any MBA it wont help you much...
  
  Again, these are just my 2 cents.
• 

  Saandeep Sreerambatla

  Doing PMP without any management experience doesnt add any value. and you will end up becoming a BAD manager. I have seen several people going in that direction and getting tensed irritated and frustrated everyday.
  
  Now lets come back to what you are saying, so if you dont want to do coding? what you want to do? management if I understand all your above replies.
  
  So, what i would do is- there is something called Scrum Master role, its not a management role but there you dont have to do so much of coding. So Agile Certified Scrum Master is another certification which you can try, and again that requires experience too. So if your current organization is following Agile, try and grab a Scrum Master position , then do certification and then you can become a full time scrum Master which also accounts your experience as a developer and can go forward.
• 

  Vikram S Bargah

  Got this PMP Certification Requirements and Eligibility which describes PMP Certification Process.
• 

  vritee

  Hi,
  I was trying to search some options since many days and was trying to understand what exactly i want to do.
  
  I have given my thoughts for the below few roles -
  Development- As I have mentioned in my previous posts, I am not good in coding and do not understand at which place I need to make what code changes, or what can be the code changes for a particular problem. So I do not want to continue as a developer.
  
  Support - If I talk about support role then, 1st thing is I do not have any experience of support and have heard that support people's job is very hectic and have to work 24*7 if required. So I am not comfortable with that. So I guess I can't turn up towards support profile.
  
  Business analyst -If I talk about my analysis skills then I have realised that those are not too good, I mean for me its difficult to understand functionality wise and think solution for it. Also sometimes I focus just on my issue(task) without considering the big picture of the solution due to which I think that I cant be able to understand the requirements from client and provide solution for it.
  
  PreSales/Sales - I do not have any experience sales and dont know how to get an opportunity in the same in outside market (As currently I am a developer)
  
  Technical Writer - I do not know much about it. Please provide me datils for the same and also how can i switch from a developer to technical writer.
  
  Particular Tools - 1 more option what I searched was of working on some particluar tools like peoplesoft etc. But again I do not have any eperience of working on amy tools so how can i show it in market.
  
  Manual Testing- After exploring all these, i am feeling that the only option left is of Manual testing role, As there is no coding involved in it and I believe it does not require any analysis kind of thing, whatever issue is we just have to test it. Also there is no need to understand big picture or whole product(for a product company) in it. Still I am not clear ,like the kind of person I am for me whether testing will be suitable or not.
  
  Please provide your response and suggest if any more options are availabe in IT field considering my skills and capabilites, or if any NON-TECHINCAL options available in IT field (apart form HR) as currently I can not do an MBA.
  
  Please correct me if I am wrong anywhere.
  
  Thanks
• 

  Kaustubh Katdare

  #-Link-Snipped-# - Did you actually talk to people who are in the various roles you considered? I guess you did not. From what you've written we can rule out 'development' and any other job that involves 'coding'.
  
  1. Support role: No company will ask you to work 24x7. The project may run 24x7, but you might get to work in a day shift. So rejecting this only on an 'assumption' is wrong. Consider it again. Talk to people who're in this role.
  
  2. BA : You don't necessarily need 'analysis skills' (I'm not sure what you meant). Try talking to people working in the BA role and see what kind of job they do.
  
  3. Sales/Marketing: Again, depending upon the kind of product/services your organisation deals with; this role could be very simple to do; but requires persistence. It's not something everyone can handle; so rule out this as well.
  
  4. Manual Testing: You will have to be really lucky to stay in manual testing and yet make a good progress in your organisation. Manual testing may get boring; unless you've natural flair for it. It's most likely that organisations will need people who know manual as well as automation testing - which involves coding/scripting.
  
  I still think you should opt for a QA profile; but at the same time; start learning coding and work on the parts you currently find difficult. That will help you deal with automation testing later in your career.
  
  I'd strongly recommend that you should talk to your colleagues working on software testing projects and see what they think about it. Talk to at least 4-5 different persons to avoid getting biased opinions. Find out if that role suits you. You certainly don't want to end up in the same situation you are currently in; after 2-3 years into QA.
  
  All the best!
• 

  ram_149955

  As KK said, you should talk to people with manual testing experience. As I have worked as manual tester for close to three years, here is my two cents:
  
  If you want to be in IT field but don't want to code, then manual testing is the correct option. The one advantage with manual testing compared to other tracks like Business Analyst, Sales, Marketing is that you can do coding and use your developer skills. You will be treated like hero among manual testers as you come from development background and you can automate simple time taking manual steps.
• 

  vritee

  Hi ram,
  Yes you are correct here. "I want to be in IT field forever but do not want to code"
  That's why thought manual testing would be a better option.
  
  #-Link-Snipped-#- Please find my below comments for different roles -
  
  Support role - Yes I have talked to people and have seen working them in night shifts or on weekend shifts sometimes, with which I am not comfortable.
  
  Business Analyst - I have some of my friends who are BA, so they say that in BA role, we have to understand whole solution, gather the requirements and sometimes need to analyse risks and propose solutions to the team. With the kind of skills i have I am not sure I wud be suitable for this role or not(since I have mentioned earlier ,I am not good at understanding big picture and understand and provide solutions to the problem)
  
  #-Link-Snipped-# , #-Link-Snipped-# - Please correct me If I am wrong anywhere.
  Please provide me anymore options if available considering my point "I want to be in IT field forever but do not want to code and analyse". May be you can suggest some non technical roles also.
  
  Thanks
• 

  ram_149955

  My understanding of B.A. role is to act as a bridge between technical team and the business team. Business analysts are the people who prepare requirement documents and testers and developers approach them if any of the requirements are not clear. I have never seen any business analyst offering solutions for the technical problems and that is done by technical architects.
  
  Business analysts should have more business knowledge and very little technical knowledge.
  
  This is my understanding of business analyst or atleast the people I am seeing here in U.S.
  
  But one last thing is the number of onsite opportunities for B.A role are very few compared to manual tester role as these roles are mostly done by americans.
• 

  Kaustubh Katdare

  Please be careful while tagging members. You must select the appropriate username while tagging so that the correct member gets notified 😀
  
  

  ram_149955

  Business analysts are the people who prepare requirement documents and testers and developers approach them if any of the requirements are not clear. I have never seen any business analyst offering solutions for the technical problems and that is done by technical architects.

  This!
  
  Most of my friends who are into the BA profile do a simple execution of tasks allotted to them; and I don't think they require any 'analytical skills' to do their job.
  
  It looks like you're inclined towards testing [the comfort of IT, Salary 😀 and lesser job pressure ]. But that could be an illusion! I've had few of my colleagues spend extended time for weeks together just to certify the product before it went life.
  
  Frankly speaking - in IT services companies; it's the project, your managers and the clients define how much work you end up doing and it's independent of your profile or role. It's a part and parcel of being into IT.
  
  Select the role you will enjoy. That's the only thing you can focus on as of now. I think manual testing is the way forward for you.