What to catch in the career of an IT architect: expectations VS reality

    Hi, Habr.

    My name is Anna Lisovskaya, I am an IT architect at the Corporate Sales Development Department. The idea of ​​this post was suggested to me by a former classmate, who suddenly became bored in the development. One fine day, he decided that he no longer wanted to write code, started looking for development opportunities in related IT fields and attacked me with questions about the features of the work of IT architects. From the conversation it became clear that even IT colleagues have little idea of ​​the complexity and features of the IT architect profession. It is possible that the misconceptions in which my former fellow student stayed are quite divergent.

    I gathered my experience and the experience of colleagues in a post in the "expectation / reality" format. I see this format as the most useful in terms of working with expectations regarding the profession of an IT architect — often among IT specialists, these expectations are either not entirely true or overstated. Many subtle points become apparent only when fully immersed in the profession. It’s better to find out about them “on the shore” and think about whether you can put up with them. I would like to think that my notes will be useful for other IT professionals who intend to retrain as IT architects.




    Expectation : to become a successful IT architect, you need to know the hardware and software well.
    Reality : The work of an IT architect is basically people management.

    For some reason, IT architects in the heads of representatives of other IT professions have gained the image of introverts who easily quote documentation, thoroughly know how this or that software and hardware work, and spend days drawing IT system configurations. This is only partially true. The IT architect really has the broadest horizons, knows well how software and equipment work, but the main skill in his profession is people management. An IT architect must have the skills, or at least the makings of team management, because it is he who collects specialists from a wide range of areas for the project. Keeping in mind the architecture of the project, he sets the tasks for specific specialists, monitors the quality and timing of the execution of certain works and ultimately is responsible for ensuring that the whole team completes the task, delivered by a business customer. At the same time, an IT architect must be very good at speaking his language with a business. And when presenting his vision of a particular IT system, he should pay attention not only to the technological beauty and grace of the solution as a whole, but also emphasize its economic feasibility.

    Expectation : any technical education is enough to work as an IT architect.
    Reality : basic education is usually lacking; you need to learn constantly.

    It is foolish to deny that technical education is the basis for almost every IT profession. But it is also not too far-sighted to claim that a diploma of any technical university is enough to master the profession of an IT architect. Not a single Russian university graduates specialists in this field. For example, I studied at the St. Petersburg Polytechnic at the Radiophysical Faculty. It helped a lot at the dawn of my career when I worked as a technical assistant for the sale of Cisco equipment. The background of the physical engineer helped to understand the processes on the basis of which the modern communication hardware works. Thanks to this handicap in the form of domain knowledge, it was easier for me than for my novice colleagues. At the same time, I quickly realized that even the fundamental education of radio physics is not enough for me, and decided to get the second highest in its then profile - in networks. I was promoted to system engineer, allowed to the equipment and began to attract to meetings with vendors and customers. Actually, from that moment the most interesting began. I worked a lot directly with the hardware, set up network and server equipment, got used to talking with customers, gradually understood how the IT business is organized, how interaction with vendors and distributors is built.

    I can’t pretend to say that my version of climbing the “ladder of knowledge” is the only true one. Among colleagues from among IT architects there are specialists who started yesterday with university graduates, and then plunged deeper into the subject area. Vendor courses and certification, courses of training centers, seminars and other educational events helped them learn more. But no matter what development method is chosen, the IT architect learns almost constantly. You need to be prepared to invest at least your time in this training, and at the very least both time and money. For example, among my acquaintances there is a man who in the past was a scorched humanist - he is a graduate of the Faculty of Philosophy of St. Petersburg State University. At one time, he set himself the goal of becoming an IT architect.

    Expectation : you can get the necessary knowledge yourself - everything is on the Internet.
    Reality : you need to know what knowledge to acquire; the most valuable knowledge in the public domain is not.

    The self-education factor in the profession of an IT architect begins to work when you are faced with a specific problem within a specific project. Even within the framework of a single information system, a specific problem can be solved in different ways. Therefore, even if someone has already solved a similar problem, it is not at all a fact that this solution will be suitable for the project that you are involved in. Based on this principle, communication is built on thematic sites on the Internet. Specialists first encounter problems, write about them on the forum. And their colleagues are already recommending possible solutions based on specific conditions: look at this, twist it, read it here, etc. There are simply no “magic pills” suitable for each system.

    Also, it is impossible for some vendors to obtain technical information through channels other than official training. There is no such information on the Internet. It cannot be bought anywhere.

    Expectation : being an architect in a vendor company is better than working with customers.
    Reality : development is faster if you work on diverse projects.

    Of course, working as an IT architect in a vendor is prestigious. A powerful social package, a measured work schedule and the absence of a constant “race” contribute to immersion in the particular solution. This requires very specific qualities - healthy meticulousness, perseverance, the ability to properly present the best qualities of a solution to a specific client in the format of a presentation or public speech. Yes, these qualities will make you a professional, but, in my opinion, working as an IT architect in a provider or integrator will significantly increase your expertise and professional level in general. Work on different projects broadens the technical horizons, teaches you to communicate with a wide variety of people and teaches you to look for solutions that are optimal for all parties involved in the process.

    If we are talking about the architect in the customer, then he is required to a large extent to be able to convince the need for transformations of the IT infrastructure of such "complex" people as the CEO and CFO. In their picture of the world, IT is a service that spends money. Often, to explain the need for project financing, IT architects on the part of the customer, vendor and integrator join forces and think through arguments up to specific language. From my own experience, I can say that a pair of such joint brainstorming sessions helped to better understand the basic patterns by which decision-making mechanisms work in Russian companies.

    Expectation : a programmer can easily retrain as an IT architect.
    Reality: A system engineer is more likely to start a new career.

    In my opinion, more favorable initial conditions are to build a career as an IT architect with system engineers. They better understand how the equipment works, they set everything up themselves, they have experience in eliminating all kinds of failures. Engineers may not always have enough theoretical base, but thanks to experience, they will quickly catch up with this base. In second place are the developers. An intelligent programmer can indeed become a software architect - especially if such a programmer took part in creating large information systems and understands their logic. And then he just takes the skills to build a LAN, computing infrastructure, data storage systems, etc. It is even more difficult to retrain as an IT architects from presales. Presale more or less knows the theory, but he knows the equipment upstairs,

    Expectation : The work of an IT architect is a constant creativity.
    Reality : enough routine, especially paper work.

    Often, future architects think that their work consists solely of working out solutions and building systems, but this is not so. The routine is more than enough, and it is connected not least with the preparation of project documentation. However, the main part of such work can be entrusted to the team, and you can control its quality of documents yourself and bring them together. As you can see, people management pops up here too.

    Expectation : An IT architect can only develop as an expert in technology.
    Reality : it all depends on you. You can grow in absolutely any quality.

    An IT architect is a versatile specialist who knows IT equipment and software well, and along with these, has the competencies of a manager. This gives, perhaps, the widest career opportunities among all IT specialties. You can grow as a technical expert, gain specialization and ultimately become one of the best specialists in your subject field. Or you can develop as a manager - at least become a project manager, and as a maximum - an IT director at the customer. Especially if the customer is currently looking for an IT director for the strategic task of infrastructure modernization. In a word, even if one day you realize that you don’t want to be an IT architect, your multifaceted experience with the same success will allow you to become a cool technology expert,

    Expectation : IT architect is a profession where work and time for life are successfully balanced.
    Reality : a working day from 9 to 18 - not about a system architect; work is stressful enough.

    An IT architect is a central character in creating information systems. It depends on the architect whether the project will take place, whether the company will work on this project. In this sense, the burden of responsibility often presses - especially when the customer sets a tight deadline, and you simply do not have the right to let the project team down. Life example: at 10 a.m., the working day has just begun. A customer representative calls and asks for a quotation by noon. Or a similar appeal arrives at 21:00, and by morning the client asks to estimate how much the equipment will cost to deploy an IT system. I get out - I call my people in distributors and vendors, I ask you to quickly give me the cost of the solution. Much, if not all, helps to solve a normal relationship. Colleagues do not fail, but the rigid framework that customers often put in,

    Conclusion The

    interest in the profession of IT architect from developers and representatives of other IT professions is supported by a good salary. But this work is not suitable for everyone. It is not for you if:
    1. You do not really like to be responsible not only for yourself, but also for that guy.
    2. You believe that your availability by phone or email should be limited to business hours.
    3. You do not like people too much and do not want to look for an approach to them in order to achieve your goals.
    4. The prospect of preparing or checking design documentation makes you yawn.
    5. You can hardly get along with Power Point and are not too enthusiastic about the fact that you need to speak to clients.
    6. You consider yourself the most competent specialist and do not consider it necessary to explain something to someone who does not agree with you.

    If you do not have the above features of character, but at the same time have a desire to develop, become better and master new subject areas, then welcome to the ranks of IT architects. Perhaps some details were left out of the post. Write questions in the comments, I will try to answer.

    Anna Lisovskaya , IT Architect, Corporate Sales Development Department, Softline Group.

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