Many people get into IT because they like solving
problems and, let us be honest, tinkering with technology. But as
their career progresses, they can find themselves shifted into
project or operations management, where they seem to spend most of
their time in meetings or supervising other people who are doing
the things they got into IT to do. If your first love is
technology, how can you ensure you continue to spend most of your
time hands-on, while still reaping the rewards of greater
seniority?
Sean Johnstone, a consultant with IT recruiters GCS, points out
that the typical career path for developers is to spend three to
five years in hands-on programming roles before they get funnelled
into devoting an increasing proportion of their time to
project management. "To stay in a more technical role and still
progress their career and salary, most people have to move into
contracting," he says.
On the permanent side, the next step on the technical track for
developers can be as a technical team leader, followed by a role as
a lead technical architect or chief technical officer. However,
these opportunities are relatively rare, although John Whiting,
managing director of the UK IT arm of
recruiters Harvey Nash, says their number has been increasing
in recent years.
You are more likely to stay involved with hands-on tasks in more
senior positions if you have niche skills in areas other than
development.
Steve Baxter, who heads up the Midlands and Leeds operations of
IT recruiter Best Recruitment, part of the Spring Group, suggests
networking and telephony as good routes for advancing in technical
roles. Here, as well as developing more general skills, you can
become an expert in a specific environment through
supplier-specific qualifications such as those offered by Cisco or
Nortel.
Matt Gascoigne, national manager of the IT business at recruiter
Badenoch & Clark, recommends areas such as enterprise resource
planning and service-oriented architectures. "Those technologies
are continuously developing, and users are always looking to be
able to take their systems to the next level technically," he
says.
That means there are opportunities to become the senior
technical voice on the project team. Finally, Whiting suggests
specialising in areas such as security, architecture design and
testing. These are all skills companies are unlikely to offshore,
meaning you are not trying to compete as a contractor against
similarly qualified people willing to work for much lower
rates.
As a
senior technical specialist, you are unlikely to ever achieve
the dizzying heights of the six figure salaries of the very top
project and program managers. However, you are likely to do as well
as most of your peers who have opted for more generalist project or
operational management roles. Whiting says a technical architect
can earn £80,000-£120,000, although a senior technologist can more
typically expect £70,000-£80,000.
In fact, Gascoigne says, you may well be on a higher basic
salary, especially if you have niche skills, although overall pay
for generalist managers tends to be boosted by higher levels of
performance-related pay to reflect specific responsibility for
hitting delivery targets.
Set against the lower salaries for technical roles is the fact
that these positions are generally less stressful than project or
operational management roles in the same organisation, and offer a
better work-life balance.
However, the more senior you become, the more colleagues will
rely on you to deliver systems quickly, while you are increasingly
likely to find yourself being called on by multiple project
managers who each need your specialist input.
Baxter says you need to be able to balance these competing
demands and prioritise your own workload effectively.
Whatever specialism you choose, it is vital you keep developing
your skills. "You should always be on the lookout for upcoming
technology changes, especially ones that will add tangible value to
the business and make a difference to the bottom line," Whiting
says.
Baxter agrees. "The people who do best in progressing their
careers technically are the one who can spot trends early and who
push themselves independently to learn those skills," he says. This
is particularly true if you are contracting, he says.
If you want to move up the career ladder in a permanent hands-on
technical role you should probably also steer clear of smaller
employers, Gascoigne says.
"Although you may be able to keep a hand in on the technical
side, you are likely to be exposed to more management tasks the
more senior you become in a small organisation," he says.
Baxter says that the best opportunities to stay on the technical
side are in large organisations in sectors such as financial
services, retail or logistics where technology is central to the
business. "They value people with technical knowledge, and you are
less likely to hit a glass ceiling than in a smaller organisation
with a small development team," he says.
He adds that "consultancies can also offer a good technical
career path, because they are not constrained by a particular
internal technical infrastructure, and the opportunities will
reflect the customer base they are working."
For programmers, Baxter advises gaining demonstrable experience
of the latest methodologies and how to apply them, as well as
general programming expertise in particular languages. "For
example, at the moment Java developers are more likely to be able
to secure senior roles if they have 6 to 12 months experience of
Java in an Agile environment," he says.
However, staying on the technical track does not mean you can
ignore entirely the softer skills required by project and
operational managers.
"The more senior you get, the more you have to represent that
discipline to business managers or the board. You are the expert,
and non-technical people will increasingly come to you for advice,
so you need to be able to integrate your technical knowledge into
the business," says Gascoigne.