Question

Explore jobs related to your area of study in relationship to the Information Technology field. Pick an architecture category from computer, information, network, software, technology, and security architecture. Select three positions which would indicate a career path.

Complete a 2-3-page paper with an abstract and conclusion (plus cover sheet and reference page) that discusses the job duties and skills necessary for the position in the current job market. You should include the requirements such as experience, education, certifications, along with salary ranges. This can be illustrated in a table of the positions with criteria for an easy visual comparison.

Discuss related professional organizations, career development resources and other methods to stay current in the position with changes to technology and progress through the career path.

Specific questions or items to address:

You need to discuss the job duties and skills necessary for the position in the current job market. You should include the requirements such as experience, education, certifications, along with salary ranges. This can be illustrated in a table of the positions with criteria for an easy visual comparison.

Discuss related professional organizations, career development resources and other methods to stay current in the position with changes to technology and progress through the career path.

Answer 1

Role to be discussed:

Software Architect

Premise:

In the current industry of software development and implementation, Software architect is a well versed and a vital position within an organization, an architect fits right in the middle of business decision and implementational complexity. In some of the organizations senior project or program manager with enough technical experience can act as an architect.

Career Path: Position, Roles and Responsibilities, Salary structure and academic perquisites:

The beginning:

1. Academic pre-requisites: Bachelor or Master’s degree (though preferably in Computer or Electrical major, but not limited). A good GPA is threshold but more importantly the analytical understanding and approach through the means of algorithms and computer basics are evaluated.
2. Position: Software/staff engineer.
3. Salary Structures: 70K – 170K.
4. Major Companies: FAANG- Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, Google. Other major players are Microsoft, Oracle and Airbnb. Many non-software organizations like Deloitte, PWC, E&Y, JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley gives bright prospects to the engineer.
5. Duration: 3-5 years.
6. Certifications: Software specialization.

Responsibilities:

Fresh graduates join organization with limited real-world experience and assisted by the senior engineers and peers, gradually they learn the technical complexity of any business implementation through different technical domain. Most of them are not specialized and with learns though trial and error methodologies, but eventually settle down with some set of technologies. Most common technology stack used in medium and large-scale organizations are Java, .Net, Python in conjunction with the database solution like oracle, SQL Server, Mongo DB etc. Along with the technical expertise engineers needs to learn the inter personal skills like networking, clear communication and basic behavioral hygiene.

The internal progression of a beginner happens differently across different organizations, but one common thread is to prepare an individual for the upcoming larger challenges, slowly transition from learner to mentor role.

The Flexing Individual:

  

1. Previous work experience: around 3-6 years of Experience in relevant technical domain.
2. Position: Senior Software Engineer/ Techlead/Project Manager.
3. Salary Structures: 200K – 500K.
4. Major Companies: FAANG- Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, Google. Other major players are Microsoft, Oracle and Airbnb. Many non-software organizations like Deloitte, PWC, E&Y, JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley gives bright prospects to the engineer.
5. Duration: 3-5 Years.
6. Certifications: Project Management and Agile Methodologies.

Responsibilities:

They are experienced professionals with enough technical expertise by which strong foundation of problem understanding is laid out. On top of this base an individual could tackle more complex problems like system designs, large scale product deployment etc. with the years of experience now he/she could flex into different more senior roles and mentor a group below them. Slowly the they will move onto more leadership-based roles while honing their technical and inter personal skills.

The established entity:

A.           Previous work experience: around 10-12 years of Experience in relevant technical domain.

B.           Position: Software Architect/ Senior Project Lead/Principal Architect.

C.           Salary Structures: 350K – 800K.

D.           Major Companies: Generally an older firms like Amazon, Apple, Netflix, Google. Other major players are Microsoft, Oracle. Many non-software organizations like Deloitte, PWC, E&Y, JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley.

E.            Duration: NA.

F.            Certifications: IT Management framework, Different cloud architect certifications.

Responsibilities:

They are the go-to person for the blueprinting of any medium to large scale technical implementation and management. For some organization the architect is more specialized role than others where they oversite only technical aspects whereas in others they have auxiliary role of project management and minor people management. They usually play an leader figure specific for the technical domain and participate in day to day decisions for the group of people below him. He/she regularly interacts with the business counterpart and helps presenting the realistic goal to both.