A bit of background:

I’m 10 years out of uni with a computing degree. My first 6 years were as a .Net developer in a small company where I stayed probably 4 years too long, not learning much but happy to tick along waiting for a share option to drop (it didn’t).

I’ve spent the last 4 in a corporate, where I do SCRUM, use a bunch of different bits of the Microsoft stack and have become much better at what I do. I became a scrum master reasonably quickly, and then two years ago took an opportunity to come to Australia on assignment (just as a dev). That’s since become permanent and I’d like to stay here long term.

Now, it looks like our team might be offshored – not immediately but maybe in the next 1-2 years, so I’m thinking about next steps.

The immediate thought is to contract – if I spend the next year polishing my skills, I’m good to go and can see the $$$. However coding has never come naturally to me like it does with some people – I’ve sometimes had to work hard to understand what appears to come naturally to others. Also, I don’t see that there is any progression after this point – you’re a contract dev and that’s what you’ll do for the next 30 years.

So, alternatives… Obviously I could move to another dev role but I feel it’s time to move up a step so… project management? This does come naturally to me I think, and I aced the unit in this at uni (I realise that doesn;t necessarily qualify me). Lead developer? Is it feasible to go from dev at one company to lead dev elsewhere? What about more architecture type roles? Is it more the done thing to move companies to a higher role, than to try and progress where you are? The onshore team here is small, so opportunities within the company while still staying in Australia are few.

Has anyone else left development behind, where did you go/what did you go to and how did you do it?

Depends on what you want to do – you’ve got another 30 years of this to go, so where do you want to end up?

I went Dev-Dev Lead – Contract Dev – Contract Dev Lead – Perm Dev Lead – BA

I’m 40, so have another 20 years and a similar crossroads.

I don’t want to be a PM, so at the moment I’m working towards boosting my business knowledge

When you say business knowledge, it that knowledge of your business or of ‘business’? I do wonder if it’s worth looking at part time MBAs or suchlike to boost the management side of things.

I think probably the honest answer to your question is ‘not dev’. I’ve got people skills, and I can for sure understand the tech.. so what sits in the middle? BA? PM? And of course I want it to be well rewarded… houses are expensive over here.

I work in financial software (payments mostly) so it’s reading around the subject, making sure I know what the product team are talking about when they bring broad requirements to our team to refine into specifications for the development team.

Sounds like you need to be looking at Technical BA roles. It’s also harder to offshore a BA role, so that could be good for you too.

As to money, when I started on the BA team I was on the same money as a lead dev. In 18 months I have had a promotion in grade and an additional merit pay rise – I doubt I would have got either in development.

Thanks Jim, I appreciate the advice.

What’s your residence status? How long as permanent? If you get citizenship there are some good government contracts about. Big part is where you are.

Yes, that’s another thing – my PR application has recently gone in. It’s being sponsored by work, so I need to stay with them for a year from now anyway, from my side. I’m in Sydney

Well stay put, go for the good projects and get what you can from them. If your enjoying Sydney then stick with it but look for office swaps if you can there is certainly better biking to be had

As has been said architecture or BA role seem the obvious choice but probably almost impossible to move company into one of those roles with no experience. Might be best looking for a lead dev role in a decent sized company and try and progress to architect/BA once you’ve got your foot in the door.

Another alternative is to look for security cleared roles as they don’t get off-shored, not sure if that’s feasible if you’re not a native Australian though. In the UK at least getting DV cleared is a licence to print money as an IT contractor…

Security cleared will mostly be citizenship and beyond (4 years of pr fitst)
Mines are probably the money spinner here. But if you want to stay then getting the pr is step one. Career probably needs to take the back seat until that is sorted.

However coding has never come naturally to me like it does with some people

Don’t do coding then because you will always be average at it. Likewise IMO an architect needs to be a natural developer. YMMV.

Good at pulling the team together to get stuff done? Good at sorting things out and organizing? Get on with people? Then its scrum master for you. Lots of jobs as people can’t hack it for long.

Good at talking to people to draw out requirements? Good at seeing the bigger picture? Good at negotiating? Like wearing a suit (only joking), then it’s BA for you my son.

Career probably needs to take the back seat until that is sorted.

Agreed, and I think I have a year where I am with which to polish iup the relevant skills for the next step. Just need to decide what that is.

Good at negotiating?

No, terrible, and that’s why I’d shy away from sales type roles. Although I don’t mind wearing a suit actually 😀

Good at pulling the team together to get stuff done? Good at sorting things out and organizing? Get on with people?

Tick, tick, tick. I did enjoy scrummastering when I did it for a year. It was only part of a dev role though, I’m not sure how you spin it in to a full time job, unless you’re managing the whole scrum process across all teams?

Agreed, and I think I have a year where I am with which to polish iup the relevant skills for the next step. Just need to decide what that is.

Who are you working for? (Be cryptic if you want)

I’m doing the small business thing at the moment, bit of coding, bit of management, sales, consulting and all the rest. For me variety stands out. For a step up being able to show you can step up and deal with problems/challenges.
If I was looking for project management I’d be looking for proven experience or at least good potential. If they off shore then there will still be those left on shore. Aim to be one of them leading the off shore efforts (if you like the flights to SE Asia)

This lot were doing a lot of interesting stuff http://www.uxc.com.au/ but then they merged with CSC which isn’t very promising really.

From those I know there are good jobs around for lead/management/project but they are competitive.

I was looking at heading up to ACT but no point until I’m a citizen (this year I hope) lots around the other cities but the fields are decent for decent jobs. There is always demand out in WA, but it is WA.

We’re a UK based company with a NSW government client. There are good opportunities there I would have thought, although I’d have to go elsewhere for 6 months to get around a non-compete clause.

It looks like I’ll go over for a couple of months to help set up the offshore team. In name it’s training the new guys but I could spin it in to scrummastering/managing them if I’m given the freedom. And yeah they are SE asia

If you have some time on the plane… if your looking to expand your knowledge/buzz words then the BABOK book (you can find a PDF of a version that is a couple of versions old) is worth a look. It will either reassure you that you know what they are on about, give you buzzwords for what you are doing or be dull as. It covers some of the different project styles (Lean/Agile etc) and can probably fill some gaps (or allow you to apply what you know/do into things that others are asking – if you can handle one style you can do the others)
Also if they are investing in you look at some of the PM qualifications if they will pay – some companies have online training providers that give access to all the material then fee’s for the exams.

Don’t think non-compete’s are that enforceable here and unless you go contract aiming for the work you are currently doing not much of an issue (IANAL) we do have some T&C’s that say clients can’t poach us in our contracts with them though not us.

There will be a lot of out sourcing coming up in Federal government but the path in is a bit harder as I said above with being not Aussie. State is more relaxed.

Thanks Mike, I’ll try and find a copy of that, it looks interesting.

It wouldn’t be directly competing – my co still own the rights on the software so I couldn’t write anything, but the client would love people with product knowledge I think

How about Information Security ?

I moved into information security 5 years ago from a communications background, it a rapidly expanding sector with ISO 27001 becoming the fastest growing standard. my role is very much managerial primarily supporting IT, Facilities and HR (security of Data, Physical and People)

it sounds like you have the technical skills and would just need brush up on your operational knowledge and gain a couple of IS quals

We practice ISO27001 now – lock your machine when you get up, turn papers over and challenge anyone without a pass.

I assume there’s more to it than that 😀

Probably a growing area as Malcolm has insisted all of Federal Government hit the cloud forgetting there are no set up in country cloud providers for any classified or sensitive information….

We practice ISO27001 now – lock your machine when you get up, turn papers over and challenge anyone without a pass.

Ohhhh you make it sound so simple 🙂

This is a great resource for 27001: http://www.iso27001security.com/

And this for qualifications: (CISM is the most recognised) http://www.isaca.org/CERTIFICATION/Pages/default.aspx

Cheers Womp, I’ll look in to that