Career Management in IT

Own career can and should be managed.

1. Where to start?

And I would start by asking myself: “Work in IT is what I want, do I really want to build my career in IT?” There are many different industries where you can achieve success or material prosperity, retirement (who likes what) . There is an opinion that the work (or rather the industry in which you work) should be changed every 5 years, perhaps it is time to go to sale or landscape design.

There is an interesting method: imagine yourself in old age and look at the past life, at the achieved results. Are you satisfied, did you strive for this, what did you want to get as a result? Return to today's self and think, “what is worth changing today?”

2. Planning is the key to success!

We decided that it was in IT you decided to pursue a career, since there are many ways to do this. Further, I will not go into the intricacies of IT and quiet professions, but try to look at the whole picture.

Development Options:

Horizontal development when you grow as a specialist (growth deep into professions).
You start by simply picking your subject. Gradually, you study more and more in your specific narrow direction, without delving too deeply into related industries, and refine your routine operations to perfection. You have a narrow circle of communication of the same professionals in which you are highly appreciated and respected. It is for you that HR specialists will subsequently hunt. It is your language that no one will understand except your IT director.

Vertical development when you move up the hierarchy (growth up)
You work in IT, you like to communicate with people, you understand what business processes are and how they are built, you are ready to take responsibility and be responsible for the result. You understand that you don’t want to code \ admin \ optimize your whole life, but still want to be in IT. Perhaps the vertical development option is suitable for you - development as a manager (project manager, department, company, or even your own business, CIO). In this role, you have to put IT at the service of the business of the company in which you work. You will be the link between the IT department and top management.

To say that some of these development options is better not correct, although it is firmly rooted in our minds - since the boss means he gets more and does nothing. In modern IT companies, a highly specialized specialist may be more in demand than a manager. If you look at the material side of the issue, then the salaries of good specialists are comparable and even higher than the salaries of managers (although of course it all depends on the specific position and company). Today, not all people strive to earn millions, someone is interested in the project itself, the ability to experiment or leave free time for other things. Hierarchical structures are a thing of the past, in their place come flexible and close-knit teams that can quickly respond to external changes. In such conditions, specialists are given significant power (distributed leadership ).

3. Deming cycle

Now you have planned your career - it's time to implement your plan. How? this is the topic of a separate article, maybe some thoughts can be gleaned in the post , here I want to focus on the fact that the process of planning, verification and implementation should be continuous. For myself, I developed the following strategy: career planning for the future 1 year, 5 years, 20 years or more. Accordingly, after a year is over, review and updating of plans is required, it is also recommended that updates be made when changing jobs, or occupations. You should consider what resources I will need for this (internal and external), what obstacles I may encounter. The whole process fits well into the Deming cycle .

Conclusion:

A job change is an important stage in a career and of course stress. However, this kind of stress is sometimes necessary, it is like a vaccine against laziness, routine and jagged. Everyone decides to change or not change for himself. “Why change if everything suits me?” Any HR will tell you that changing jobs often is bad (more than once a year). IMHO, work in one company leads one way or another to stagnation (the same circle of communication, duties, familiar patterns of behavior), for myself I set such a framework from 1 to 3 years in one position, from 1 to 5 years in one company. This means that if you cannot, do not want to change the company, try changing the responsibilities. For example, you are engaged in system administration, why not try yourself in SEO, and transfer administration to a less experienced colleague. If you decide to develop strictly in one direction, one day the time will come to think about another company. Experience in another company will significantly enrich not only your professional skills, but also personal skills.

Summary:

Manage your career!
1. Define what you want in life
2. Plan how you will achieve the desired
3. Achieve the desired