anyone can tell me the career path of IT 1

[beeleegie]

i am a programmer, i don't know how to promote to a higher level and earn much money. Compared to nursing, although this career needn't much cognitive resources, it still pay higher than IT job.
Can anyone tell me how to walk thru my IT path? Coz I am really struggling why I study so hard and enter university but still get pay lesser than my friend who worked as a nurse. Thank you.

 

[CajunCenturion]

Money is not based on the cognitive requirements of the job - oh, if it were only that simple.

In the case of nursing, its based on the economics of supply and demand and the perceived value of the services. There is a shortage of nurses, so salaries have gone up in order to attract more people into the field.

The only reasonable metric upon which to judge your salary is against your peers - that being people in the same industry, the same market area, doing approximately the same job.

To compare anything else is comparing apples to oranges.

I have several suggestions,

You stated that I study so hard and enter university -- continue to study hard and complete your university curriculum. Get exposed to as many aspects of the IT industry as you can. Build a broad foundation and remember what you learned. Practice applying the concepts to real world problems.

People network in your local area. Get to know the other programmers in the area.

Keep an eye on the Industry and market areas. Know where the hot areas are, both in terms of application and location. If you desire, be prepared to move. Good Luck
--------------
As a circle of light increases so does the circumference of darkness around it. - Albert Einstein

 

[pipk]

alas, the it market has fallen on its knees and has been like that for a while. People who could once command high salaries have had to eat humble pie and take lower paid jobs or face some time out of work.

Don't expect to be in IT and get rich - sometimes it is a couple of years hard slog in the junior positions before the opportunities start to open up. Alot of it depends on skillset and so someone who is a C++ programmer is still more likely to earn more than say Cobol (although that is by no means a fast and sturdy rule).

I started off as a trainee 6 years ago on £13500 (which is less than a nurse earns in the UK) and am currently contacting for over £1000 per week but it took a while before my skills and experience were up to the level where I could ask for that type of money.

It also depends on the company, some companies pay alot more for similar roles than other companies. You should just be patient and the good stuff will come rolling along.

One day you will learn that money isn't the prime motivator all the time. I was in QA once and was paid very well for it but found it very boring and tedious and not very challenging (sorry all you QA people) and left to go back into development.

In terms of industries, the financial and investment sectors tend to pay the most - for example Investment banks will pay very well, but also expect you to forget about a social life - it is a question of balance.

To be honest the money in It isn't to be found at the techy level, but rather higher up where you find techies with good broad business skills who can relate one to the other - a good business analyst will always have a background in systems (although that also doesn't have to be so) and are the sort of people who can take their skills to many organizations (that is marketability my friend and will always ensure a well paid job).

At the end of the day, you may be paid less than your nurse friend but at least you don't have to wipe anyones backside for a living...

 

[TekkieDave]

Pipk, you made a good point. There are a lot of programmers who come to this site and argue over certifications, and experience yada yada yada. It's rare that someone says that management is the way to go, but it is a fact that that is where the money is. I mean, if you look at a construction site, who do you think is getting paid more? The guy who's pouring the cement, or the site Foreman orchestrating the entire project?

The people who write at this site seem to neglect the importance of people skills. The ability to work well with people, or to get people to work well together is extremely valuable. Not everyone can lead people in this way, and if you can build on that skill, you'll do OK.

 

[AIXSPadmin]

I started out doing everything (RPG programming, unix admin, pc repair, networking, you name it) for 4.5 year for a small company and didn't earn much at all (about $15K first year), and I have a master's degree in education, but wanted to work in computers since I stopped my PhD run at 6 hours.

Now I work for a Fortune 500 company and make more than I ever thought possible as and AIX/6000 SP admin. There are many challenges and you give up nights and weekends and carry a pager (7 years now on a rotating basis).

Not everyone should desire to become a manager because that is where the money is. Not everyone is a manager or not everyone is a technician. Do what you are best at. Don't do it for the money, or you will not like what you are doing for the long haul.

Someday, I would like to teach again, because that I believe is what I truly love and believe that is where my heart is. That should be what drives you! Not money, not fame, not glory, but what you have a passion for. When you leave this world nobody is going to say, remember John Doe, he made $150,000/year and drove a new BMW every two years and had a half-million dollar house; what will be remembered is John Doe, high-school engilsh teacher by students and parents, something like "you know my child was having a hard time in school, not just english but in general and his/her teacher helped him/her make an adjustment"; or the student "my science teacher was the best, he/she made learning fun, it sparked my interest and is the reason I am a veternarian today".

Do what you love, whatever it is.

 

[pipk]

Actually to be truthful, I never once mentioned management - teckiedave you are putting words into my mouth, but I see where you are coming from.

Alot of people in IT believe that the only way up is into management - but not so. I would not say that a business analyst is a manager, but they earn a lot of money by combining technical awareness (not necessarily gained from a systems background, but it helps) with solid business skills that can be taken anywhere. Technical skills are great but with business skills as well as technical - you are very highly marketable.

The reason is this - most senior management will have no low level techy awareness at all - they make business/manangement decisions and that is the way it is. So to have someone in-between who can relate to managers and techies at the same time is a good thing.

I certainly have no wish to become a project manager etc, I am just not the type but that doesn't mean my career will begin and end with programming.

getting back to the point though, this issue with money is something that people starting in a new career have - I know because I was the same. The point is that eventually you will realise that money really does come secondary to your enjoyment of the job - not to say that you would do it for free, obviously money comes into it at some point - but as you get older you realise that the money side of things really takes a secondary role. This really only becomes obvious when like me you have been paid very good money to do a crap job. Trust me I have been there already, copious amounts of money compared to being intellectually stimulated and challenged, between the two I will always choose the latter.

If you want to earn big money then you should have become a stock broker or investment banker (or maybe a nurse!!!!??). I guarantee that your friend didn't become a nurse because of the money.

If you got into IT then I know that you did it because you like the technical challenge.

 

[Grenage]

Indeed, I have been working as a trainee for almost 2 years now. In todays market computers skills are very common in varying degrees, not as they were a few years ago.

I think you just have to be the cream of the crop nowadas to earn the kind of salaries you'd like, which is fair enough.

 

[PhiloVance]

Speaking of salaries and all that, I found a couple of charts that might be helpful:

http://www.esj.com/salary_surveys/article.asp?EditorialsID=1

http://home.techies.com/Common/Content/2002/05/10mc_skillsdemand.html

The first is about salary levels in IT and the second is about which skills are in demand. I don't know where I read it, but someone said perhaps Java is moving up. In the second list it's 3rd.

PhiloVance
Other hobbies, interests: Travel, Model RR (HO Gauge), Genealogy.

 

[beeleegie]

thank you ver much for the link, PhiloVance. The links really give me a light of my career path.

 

[johnny99]

Just a short comment.
I am in management now, and I get payed less then I got as a specialist a few years ago.
The job I have now is the best job I have ever had since I started in IT in 1980.

The job I had before I was in a specialist team of 5-6 people and we all got more then our own manager, and on top of that we also got payed for overtime (our manager didn't)

Our CIO didn't care. He wanted the team of specialists and he basicly "hunted us all down" to get us to that company.

I think that paying managers more just because they are managers is dumb and bad for the company.

Most high payed specialists are great specialists but they would in, 98% of the cases, be poor managers.

/johnny